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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
On Our Cover: During a routine work detail on the devastated Earth, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) makes some surprising discoveries in the sci-fi thriller Oblivion, shot by Claudio Miranda, ASC. (Photo by David James, SMPSP, courtesy of Universal Pictures.)
FEATURES
34 Surviving the Future Claudio Miranda, ASC envisions the year 2073 for Oblivion Tale 48 ADonTrailblazer’s Burgess, ASC captures the struggle of baseball icon
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Jackie Robinson in 42
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Conjuring Hope Giles Nuttgens, BSC helps mount a screen version of the epic novel Midnight’s Children
66 The ABCs of DMX A primer on Digital Multiplex lighting-control systems 72 The Star Tech Academy honors cinema’s innovators at
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the Sci-Tech Awards
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Hot Shots ASC Awards weekend in pictures 77
DEPARTMENTS 10 12 14 20 90 94 95 96 98 100
Editor’s Note President’s Desk Short Takes: “Suit & Tie” Production Slate: Trance • The Reluctant Fundamentalist New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Paul Maibaum
— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM —
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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
SEE AND HEAR MORE CINEMATOGRAPHY COVERAGE AT WWW.THEASC.COM Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko star in Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder , shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC (shown on the set of Malick’s The Tree of Life).
In an exclusive online Q&A, Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC discusses his contributions to the dramatic feature To the Wonder , his latest collaboration with director Terrence Malick. Supplementing Jim Hemphill’s article will be clips from the movie that showcase Lubezki’s lyrical cinematography. Time critic Richard Corliss calls the project “the most formally radical post-narrative American film ever to be released,” adding that Malick’s poetic visual approach “pushes cinematic experiment to a degree not previously attempted by this restless, mysterious auteur — or, really, by anyone else working in narrative film.” THIS MONTH’S ONLINE QUESTION: Which cinematographer-director pairing would you most like to see? Clint Fitzgerald: “Christopher Nolan and Danny Hidalgo: “Jon Favreau and Wally Pfister Doug Nichol: “Ed Wood Jr. and Freddie Young.” Matthew Libatique.” would be fun.” Matthew A. MacDonald: “Vittorio Storaro and Allen E. Ho: “David Fincher and Roger Deakins. Clark Mayer: “I would love to see Benoît Debie’s Clint Eastwood. Really.” Fincher’s dark style paired with Deakins’ mastery masterful control of experimental color and comof composition and color. Yes, please!” position meet the edgy films of Nicolas Winding Gavin Cantrell: “Sofia Coppola and Robby Refn.” Müller.” Sebastián Fernández Palumbo: “Darius Mariah Shap: “Steven Soderbergh and Lance Jair Tapia: “Werner Herzog and Emmanuel Khondji and Claudia Llosa.” Acord, or Woody Allen and Robert Yeoman.” Lubezki. Terry Gilliam and Bruno Delbonnel.” Arthur Cooper, CSC: “Paul Thomas Anderson and Arthur Cooper, CSC. He is an amazing, Javier Ignacio Munoz: “Martin Scorsese and Aditya Vashisht: “Terrence Malick and Santosh visionary director and I would love to work with Janusz Kaminski.” Sivan. [Sivan] is one of the best cinematographers him.” India has ever produced. He recently became a Bubba Matt Schmieding: “The Wachowskis member of the ASC.” Katherine Castro: “Nicolas Winding Refn and and Guillermo Navarro.” Mike Hall: “J.J. Abrams and Bob Richardson.” Alwin Küchler.” Craig Duffy: “Just read that Haskell Wexler was Hernán J. Snow: “Nicolas Winding Refn and supposed to shoot Kurosawa’s never-filmed James Morgan Wells: “David Lynch and Caleb Christopher Doyle.” American debut The Runaway Train. That would Deschanel.” have been AWESOME.” Tom Findlay Sykes: “Michael Haneke and Jane F. Kennedy: “Ron Fricke and Terrence Brian Rose: “Living: Roger Deakins and P.T. Malick!!!!!” Emmanuel Lubezki.” Anderson. Fantasy: Jack Cardiff and Wes AnderJas Maciek Miszewski: “P.T. Anderson and Gor- son, or Gregg Toland and the Coens.” Jackson Kimmel: “I would like to see either don Willis.” Peter Jackson or James Cameron work with Mihai Candice Vancauwelaert: “Lol Crawley and Malaimare Jr.” Blake Larson: “I think a Stephen Daldry and Mike Figgis on a story about love and erotics Brendan Rankin: “David Fincher and Matthew Ellen Kuras collaboration would yield an intimate nowadays!” film filled with both naturalism and emotion.” Libatique.” [Brendan: See Short Takes, page 14.] Lol Crawley: “Nic Roeg and Christopher Doyle!” AC ’s online questions and reader responses can be found on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AmericanCinematographer
. x o F y r u t n e C h t e i t n e w T d n a t h g i l h c r a e S x o F f o y s e t r u o c , P S P M S , e c a l l a W e i r e M y b t h g i r t a o t o h P . s e r u t c i P a i l o n g a M f o y s e t r u o c , i k s l u b y C y r a M y b t f e l t a o t o h P
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———————————————————————————————————— American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 93rd year of publication, is published monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A., (800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344. Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $). Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints (or electronic reprints) should be made to Sheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail
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Editor’s Note Fresh off his Oscar win for Life of Pi , ASC member Claudio Miranda recently completed another effects-intensive project, the sci-fi thriller Oblivion, which made him one of the first cinematographers to test out Sony’s 4K F65 camera on a major production. Miranda notes that he and director Joseph Kosinski felt the new camera would give them a “cooler” look that suited the movie’s futuristic settings, adding, “Joe liked what the [Sony] F35 gave us on Tron, and he was really a fan of the F65 in our tests for Oblivion.” An abundance of technical insights, including the modern spin Miranda brought to frontscreen projection for backgrounds on a key set, can be found in Jay Holben’s excellent article on the production (“Surviving the Future,” page 34). Visual effects also helped Giles Nuttgens, BSC craft period looks for Midnight’s Children, director Deepa Mehta’s ambitious adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s sprawling novel. Spanning the years 1917-1977, the plot weaves the lives of two boys into the grand tapestry of India’s history. While shooting in Sri Lanka, Nuttgens, who also served as the show’s onset visual-effects supervisor, sought to blend 300 effects plates into the saga without losing sight of the narrative. As he tells Pat Thomson (“Conjuring Hope,” page 56), the filmmakers set out to ensure “that this wouldn’t turn into a visual-effects shoot, that it maintain its focus on the family, which has always been the focus of Deepa’s films. The strength of our filmmaking has been dealing with intimate relationships between groups of people and effectively making the camera invisible in the process.” On the baseball drama 42, Don Burgess, ASC also turned back the clock to emulate past eras, crafting a visual arc that slowly evolves from a warm period look to a cooler, more modern feel. To accomplish this subtle progression while shooting digitally, he carefully combined old-school image control with deft DI work. In his interview with Michael Goldman (“A Trailblazer’s Tale,” page 48), Burgess explains, “Having shot on film for so long, I still filter when I’m shooting, so I broke down the movie’s three-year time frame and determined how to use filters, diffusion and lighting gels to progress the imagery.” DMX technology is the foundation of many lighting-control systems used on soundstages today, and anyone who plans to use it should read European correspondent Benjamin B’s in-depth primer (“The ABCs of DMX,” page 66). To provide a complete overview, he contacted some of the industry’s most knowledgeable professionals, including gaffer John “Biggles” Higgins and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC, to explain how they creatively employ DMX in their work. “The potential with DMX seems limitless,” says Higgins. “Some cinematographers are really well versed in it, and others are not that aware of its potential. I let them know what’s available to them, and they can use what they want.” This issue also takes a glance back at Hollywood’s recent awards-season festivities. AC was on the scene as AMPAS saluted the industry’s finest technical minds at the Sci-Tech Awards (“Star Tech,” page 72) and the ASC hosted another highly successful ASC Awards weekend, which we’ve spotlighted in our annual pictorial recap (“Hot Shots,” page 77).
Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor
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President’s Desk After last month’s column about language and set procedure, we are still thinking about language. It seems to us that language can lead you astray or lead you to knowledge. We are struck by the current use of the word “technology” as a stand-in for anything related to electronic devices. According to Wikipedia, “Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale.” So, “technology” refers to almost any machine or technical solution to a problem, from the printing press to the Internet. The original printing press was not an electronic solution, but still a technology. What is “high technology,” we wonder, and what is it higher than? We have also tired of the terms “transformative technology” and “disruptive technology.” All technologies are potentially transformative in one way or another. Take the invention by Bell Labs of the touch-tone keypad in the 1960s. The father of human-factors engineering, industrial psychologist John E. Karlin, figured out how to position the keys 1-2-3 across the top — a design alive and well on your iPhone. This also facilitated all-digit dialing. As a result, the wonderful phone numbers that combined letters and digits disappeared: MAin-1-2345 became 621-2345. Soon, area codes were added, creating 10 numbers per phone. At a party Karlin attended, a guest reportedly said to him, “How does it feel to be the most hated man in America?” That’s “transformative technology,” big time, if everyone hates you. Precision with language makes us better communicators, and on set, that makes us more efficient and sometimes safer. Recently, we heard of a cinematographer who became frightened by a helicopter pilot’s aggressive maneuvers while riding next to him and operating a nose-mounted camera. As they came around for another take, the cinematographer said, “Cool it on this take!” Of course, he got another hair-raising take, because “cool it” meant one thing to the pilot and another to the cinematographer. The cinematographer should have been more specific, or, as he noted in his post on the Cinematography Mailing List, “I needed to not do another take and diplomatically suggest we land for a time out.” That way, more precise words could have been used without the roar of flight noise, and the shot could have been redesigned to be safe. As we mention this, we are sad to note that we’ve heard of five pilots and cinematographers who have died in aerial-filming accidents in the last month. We have many ways to send words around the world quickly, including e-mail, texting and, yes, even print. Because words are often traveling so fast, perhaps we should think longer and be more precise with them before we press “send.”
Stephen Lighthill ASC President . d n a l k r i K s a l g u o D y b o t o h P
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American Cinematographer
Short Takes
Director David Fincher and cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC teamed up to create the Rat Pack-inspired music video for Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s “Suit & Tie.”
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Retro Style By Iain Stasukevich
During a break in the 2011 Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s awards ceremony, cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC felt a tap on his shoulder. It was director David Fincher, who complimented him for his work on Black Swan (AC Dec. ’10). A little over a year later, Fincher got in touch again, this time with a project in mind. “His reps were being very secretive, so they wouldn’t tell me if it was a music video or a commercial,” recalls Libatique. “It wasn’t till I signed on and met David at his office a couple of weeks before the shoot that he played the song for me.” The song was Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s “Suit & Tie,” and Fincher’s vision for the video was a classy Rat Pack atmosphere. “He wanted to emulate the lifestyle of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis Jr. in Vegas,” says Libatique. The camera follows Timberlake and Jay-Z as they get ready for a big show, perform and then wind down at the after party. “At our meeting, David was very clear about what he wanted to do, and when we got to the set, he remembered every one of those details,” says Libatique. Fincher offered opinions on which lights to use, the number of camera carts required and the specific configuration of the camera for a given shot. Meanwhile, Libatique hustled to keep 1st AC Matt Stenerson in the loop. The camera package and workflow were of particular interest to the director. “David wants the most streamlined, mobile camera system possible — he wants it free of cables and free of the DIT,” says Libatique. Fincher wanted to shoot the video with the Red Epic-M 14
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Monochrome, a black-and-white version of the Epic’s 5K Mysterium-X sensor. (The Monochrome’s sensor lacks the RGBG Bayer color-filter array.) Fincher and camera assistant Steve Meizler had developed the Meizler Module, a wireless module that was still in the prototype phase when “Suit & Tie” was shot. When attached to the back of the Epic, it provides a wireless 1080p feed for monitoring and wireless focus control. (The remote-focus motor is still cabled.) With the camera in studio mode, Libatique operated using Red’s 9" LCD touchscreen monitor and judged exposure with 24" Sony OLED monitors. He used the OLED monitors and histograms at video village to compare exposures between multiple cameras. “Another feature [of the module] allows the director to play back while the cinematographer uses the camera to frame up,” says Libatique, who adds that this was not implemented on “Suit & Tie.” To achieve this, the unit records a proxy image that can be accessed via touchscreen monitor at video village, where the director or script supervisor can play back takes and make notes, “similar to Pix,” says Libatique. Libatique conducted latitude and exposure tests with the Epic-M Monochrome in an effort to familiarize himself with some of the camera’s unique sensor properties. “I would have done the same thing if we’d shot with black-and-white film,” he remarks. Fincher’s editor, Tyler Nelson, and assistant editor, Nate Gross, logged and organized the footage in Pix, which Libatique used to screen and make notes on his shots. “I wanted to be able to have a sense of the camera’s dynamic range,” he says. “After that, I wanted to try different lenses to see how wide I could go before the sensor
American Cinematographer
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Backlit by a wall of Skypans, Timberlake dances in silhouette on the "water set."
started to vignette. What’s the best resolution I can get? What’s the highest frame rate?” He shot most of “Suit & Tie” at 4K, using 5:1 compression at 24 fps and 8:1 compression at 60 fps. Higher frame rates were achieved with a compromise between resolution and compression. “For the dancers on the performance stages, we shot 160 fps at 3K to maintain 8:1 compression,” says Libatique. In post at Light Iron in Hollywood, the image was downconverted to 2185x1150 with a 1920x800 center extraction. Conform, visual effects and 16
May 2013
grading were done on a Quantel Pablo. The filmmakers considered shooting with Cooke lenses, but ultimately chose Zeiss Ultra Primes for their wide variety of focal lengths. “[The sharpness of] the Ultra Primes didn’t bother me with the black-andwhite image, though it does with a color digital image,” notes Libatique. He favored the wider focal lengths. “We used 32mm and 40mm, and occasionally 50mm, for close-ups. David always wanted to see more in the frame, to see Justin’s physicality.” Libatique used ND filters to keep his T-stop at the lenses’ sweet spot, a T4/5.6. American Cinematographer
“We had to ND down almost everywhere to stay in that range,” he reveals. Deeper stops favored the more improvised aspects of Timberlake’s performance. “On the stage with the mirrored floor and moving lights, we were at a T8/11, which kept the lights crisp in the background. If Justin came close to the lens that wasn’t racking so far forward, we’d throw everything in the background out of focus, even on a 24mm or 28mm lens.” Without a Bayer color-filter array, the Monochrome’s sensor utilizes 100 percent of its photosites for capturing luminance information, effectively yielding a 1:1 relationship between the number of samples and deliverable resolution. And with the sensor’s suggested native ISO 2,000 rating, the filmmakers could push it to ISO 3,200 without a perceptible loss in image quality. “Having that much sensitivity was phenomenal,” says Libatique. “When we shot at the Capitol Records building, we didn’t even have to light. When I put a light up, it looked false, like it didn’t belong there. I think we put a 4-by4 Kino Flo over the mixing board, and then there were a couple of bounces into the space to get more light into the corners, but I’m not sure I even needed that. If I’d shot with nothing extra and turned some lights off for mood, I still would have been at a T4 or T5.6.” Shooting in black-and-white also facilitated the use of hard light, which Libatique and gaffer Jeff Ferrero enjoyed deploying. Lighting was more a matter of controlling the contrast ratio with negative fill while softening or sharpening artificial light sources. Libatique describes a scene shot on an empty stage where Timberlake plays chess with a showgirl: “We set up two cameras wide and tight. Direct sunlight was coming through the stage door, so we put Justin and the woman right on the edge of the light, in the shadows. I laid some Duvetyn on the ground to the left side of frame, and we were ready to go. That’s all that shot is: sunlight bouncing off the ground and the ambient light from the open stage door. There’s a practical in the background to add some interest.” In another shot, three dancers rehearse a step in the daylight coming through the same doorway. A 10K keylight
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Timberlake directs musicians in the recording studio at Capitol Records (right) and sings onstage with background dancers (below).
and topper 20' away augmented the natural daylight. “Suit & Tie” contains a clever conceit wherein the camera cuts between the stage and crowd perspectives of Timberlake and Jay-Z’s performance. All the shots from the performers’ perspective were shot at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, and all the shots looking toward the stage were shot at the Hollywood Bowl. When there are cuts between the two locations, the complementary screen directions create the impression of a unified space. At the El Rey, Libatique started by dimming down the theater’s candelabras and grand chandelier to about 20 percent. “If I’d shot 500 ASA, I would have left them on to create ambience with the smoke, but at 3,200 ASA, we had them at almost nothing,” he says. Three 1,200-watt Robert Juliat follow spots were placed on the rear balcony in positions relative to the left, right and center of stage. Libatique switched from one lamp to another to find the optimum light for the camera angle. “I used the same follow spots for the first scene in Black 18
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Swan,”
he notes. “They’re smaller than Source Fours, which makes them trickier to operate because you need to be more delicate.” By contrast, the 2K Xenon Super Troupers used at the Hollywood Bowl “were bears to move around. They’re 6 feet long and 2½ feet wide.” The Hollywood Bowl already owned two 2K Super Troupers, so the production brought in one to match the setup at the El Rey, raising it on a scissor lift from one of the venue’s middle promenades. “You need [Super Troupers] to cover a distance like that, but they’re punchy lights, even for 500 ASA,” says Libatique. “In this case, we rolled them with at least an ND.3 to get to T11, and we ended up shooting at a T8 so we could take in the whole space from front to back.” The Super Troupers’ beams were tight enough to cut Timberlake out of the background, rendering the band and backup dancers as silhouettes against the band shell’s architectural Color Kinetics LEDs and 750-watt Strand foot lights. A matching dance routine is intercut American Cinematographer
with the story elements, with the performers backed by a chorus line of moving lights. “David’s description of the dance space was ‘moving lights on the mirrored floor at 18inch centers.’ At 18-inch centers, we didn’t want the beams to overlap too much.” For moving lights, Libatique chose the 190-watt Clay Paky Sharpy. “We needed a light with a tight beam, and [the Sharpys] have a range of 0 to 3.8 degrees,” he says. Lighting-desk programmer Joshua Thatcher, who worked with Libatique on Iron Man (AC May ’08) and Iron Man 2 (AC May ’10), choreographed multiple passes for the filmmakers to consider. Jay-Z contributes a rap to the second half of the song, and this is interpreted with stylized shots of dancers against monochrome backgrounds. Libatique explains, “The trampoline setup was shot with two cameras, with one pointed at a white cyc and the other at a black curtain. There were three 10K Fresnels on each side of the frame at ¾-back positions, and we created toplight with four 6K coops.” The “water set” was lit with a wall of dimmed 5K Skypans and an overhead row of Par bars. All of these shots were captured at higher frame rates, and Libatique achieved exposure compensation by pulling NDs and widening the T-stop. By the time the video reached Light Iron colorist Ian Vertovec, the only work that remained was an application of blurs, keys and transfer modes in Pablo to achieve the “kinescope solarization look” Fincher requested. Apart from that, says Libatique, “what you see in the video is pretty much what we saw on the monitor.” ●
Production Slate Top: Simon (James McAvoy) collapses in a Tube station in a fractured frame from Trance. Bottom: Reference photos Anthony Dod Mantle, ASC, BSC, DFF shot during prep using his iPhone and the Artemis app.
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Rendering Altered States for Trance By Anthony Dod Mantle, ASC, BSC, DFF
My films with Danny Boyle are always very different. With each one, he changes planets, and I like that. When he gave me the script for Trance, he said, as usual, “Here you go, Anthony. It’s a little one.” He thinks he just does “small films,” and I suppose he does it with a clean conscience because our budgets are never very big! But “small” Trance was never going to be. It was initially posed to me as a heist film, and that didn’t interest me at all. But when I read John Hodge and Joe Ahearne’s script, I realized it starts as a heist film, but then shifts into a strange journey that I relate far more to Danny as a director: an exploration of all these weird aspects of our intelligence, and how we perceive and deal with reality. It’s a brain fuck, one that I knew would be guided by a very astute mind. It’s also a London film, and that was attractive to us both. After 28 Days Later … (AC July ’03), where we covered the city in toilet paper and intestines, Trance gave us a chance to come back and find other environments! It also gave us another chance to work with Mark Tildesley, a phenomenal production designer. So, I never really hesitated. Danny and I prefer to be on a real location, and a lot of intuitive work goes on as we explore locations with the production designer. I find this phase of a project really creative and inspiring.
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That’s where we really make the film. It took me a while to drill my way into Trance, and the best way we could do that together was by standing in the spaces, talking about the characters and looking at surfaces. As we did that, I’d run around with my iPhone, with the Artemis app set to the correct format and aspect ratio, and take thousands of stills. Many of these images survived from the first recce through to being almost perfectly replicated in the final film. These small experiments during prep sometimes summon new ideas that, in turn, create artistic themes and rules for the film at hand. As we walked around, I’d find weird, abstract shots that involved reflections, sometimes two or three layers of them; we felt this was right for scenes related to the disorientation experienced by Simon (James McAvoy) after his accident. Eventually, we also decided to use reflections to ease the audience into trance scenes, when Simon slips into a hypnotized state. I am fascinated by these very small cameras that I can play with in my own way, and Danny loves it if I can slip a second or third camera in, or capture a little textural detail with something small while we’re shooting. We started doing it on 28 Days Later…, and we really explored it with the multiple formats on Slumdog Millionaire (AC Dec. ’08). On Trance I knew we’d be working in some very small locations, and I also knew I would be working with abstract layers and could get away with a limited rendition of detail; I associate trance and altered states with something very different from high resolution and high definition. ➣
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. e l t n a M d o D y n o h t n A y b s o t o h p l a n o i t i d d A . t h g i l h c r a e S x o F f o y s e t r u o c ) t u n l l A e i s u S y b ( s o t o h p t i n u d n a s b a r g e m a r f e c n a r T
Top and middle: Dod Mantle used a mix of cameras during a preshoot with McAvoy in a Citroën 2CV in France. The top frame was shot with his Canon DSLR. The middle frame was shot with Indiecam’s IndiePOV camera. Bottom: The production’s Indiecam workflow.
Indiecam’s 1080p IndiePOV camera came into the mix because my initial idea for achieving the slipping-into-trance effect was to strap two Indiecams together and create a morph between the two parallel images. (I suspect this was an idea I had started developing for a 3-D film that never materialized. The idea lingered, waiting to rear its head at an appropriate moment.) But late in prep, Danny clarified that he did not want to overstate the slipping-intotrance moment, and he wanted to make graphically clear the slipping-out-of-trance 22
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moment. (We decided to use lens flares for the latter.) So the idea of using the dualIndiecam rig faded, but I was still keen to find a use for them. Danny always likes a “preshoot,” and I always endeavor (at big risk) to add to what is usually too short a prep time by extending my technical explorations into the preshoot. This has sometimes given us frightening moments, as we are so often on the edge of breaking camera technology (and happily so). On all our films, we’ve had to troubleshoot a little into the shooting American Cinematographer
period, and Danny embraces this as part of our process. Our preshoot on Trance was a car sequence we shot with James in a little 2CV in the French countryside. We had to travel light and keep the filming down low, so I had to find some kind of solution that I hoped could then develop as part of the palette of the film. I brought along the Indiecam, and we clamped it to the car window, adding double-layer reflective surfaces between James and the Indiecam in-camera. From that point on, throughout the shoot, the Indiecams were always near at hand for me to use to appropriate effect; this was often related to a degree of framing or particularly intense close work. I used three or four Indiecams as in situ placed cameras, always in situations where I knew exactly what the shot was and where the focus had to be. I could often very easily camouflage them in shot while working with other formats simultaneously, and to achieve this I worked incredibly tightly with my key grip, Rupert LloydParry; my digital-imaging technician, Dan Carling; and my ever-supportive gaffer, Thomas Nievelt. I used only Indiecam’s Cmount lenses with their cameras, mainly the 8mm, 12mm, 16mm and 25mm, because the joy for me was keeping it small. But with C-mounts, you really have to select the right focal lengths, fully comprehend their restricted capabilities and then work creatively within those limitations. (Ed. Note: Dod Mantle captured in Indiecam’s 12-bit raw format to SSDs via Blackmagic Design’s HyperDeck Shuttle. See diagram at left.) I shot the main body of Trance with the Arri Alexa Plus and Alexa M, capturing in ArriRaw to Codex recorders. In fact, Arri sent us the very first prototype of the M, and I would say that it and the Indiecam were equally important on this film. We used the M a bit in the 2CV car scene, but it truly came to the fore in the film’s final car sequence, where Simon, Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) and Franck (Vincent Cassel) drive to the waterfront at night in the rain. The scene involved 6-8 pages of dialogue, and we shot it all onstage at 3 Mills Studios. We elevated the car and removed its bottom half, surrounded it with colored LEDs programmed on a chase pattern, and, in
Top: Simon gradually opens up to his hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson). Middle: Simon threatens Franck (Vincent Cassel) in this frame grab from the climactic scene. Bottom: Dod Mantle’s lighting setup for the scene, which he shot onstage with an Arri Alexa M.
the background, projected abstract images I’d delegated to second unit. We also had rain effects and oil on the windows. We suspended the Alexa M in the middle of the car, attached three monitors on each side of the camera body so I could frame and oper24
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ate 270 degrees, and shot long takes as well as safety singles — and we got it all in one day. It was exhausting, and it was difficult for focus off the monitor with me correcting and pulling as well. I always have a handheld rig on American Cinematographer
standby so that I can pop in and do something different, and I find the Alexa Studio and Plus to be physically inhibiting outside the conventional on-the-shoulder handheld technique, so I was keen to get the M. That said, however, Trance has a great deal of dialogue, and Danny and I feel we’ve been a little more conventional with camera moves on this one. But it’s important that the cinematography supports the editing rather than restricting it by inconsistent movement or wrong movement. For me, the wrong camera move is equivalent to an actor changing language in the middle of a take! We found that linear moves and a lot of lateral tracks suited Trance. We often used the Alexa on a jib arm in what we called a “dragging” manner, kind of tracking across and dragging the face slowly through the scene under the dialogue. These shots were supplemented by our excellent Steadicam/B-camera operator, Alastair Rae. We used Hawk V-Lite 1.3x anamorphic lenses with the Alexas to maximize the 16x9 sensor for a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The Hawks are beautiful, but close focus in the 32mm-50mm range can be a little frustrating for handheld and Steadicam work, so I supplemented with a few spherical lenses: 8mm, 14mm and 20mm Zeiss Ultra Primes; a 300-600mm Canon zoom; a 24mm Arri Macro; and a 45-250mm Fuji Alura zoom. I maintain a permanent creative dialogue with Canon regarding development of their new technology. I always have my [1D] Mark IV DSLR around, and I used it on Trance to shoot some “bursting” for the
Dod Mantle (left) and director Danny Boyle discuss a setup. “Danny and I prefer to be on a real location, and he usually has very clear ideas about the locations he wants when we start prep,” says the cinematographer. “The city in Trance could really be any city in Europe, but you sense it’s London if you know London.”
car scene in France. I also shot several scenes with Canon’s new 4K C500 on our pickup shoots. One scene shows Simon standing on the edge of the roof of Frank’s nightclub, threatening to jump off. James wore the C500 as a body rig as he climbed up. Another scene shows Simon leaving Elizabeth alone in a taxi. It had to be shot in very short time in a real taxi, and I used the C500 handheld from the front seat. I find postproduction to be the most creative part of filmmaking, and Trance gave me an opportunity to work once again with colorist Jean-Clement Soret, my collaborator on 28 Days Later …, Millions, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours [AC Dec. ’10]. It was a very busy three weeks at Technicolor London. Danny is a devil at changing the edit up to the last day of the grade, but if this makes the film better, then I am always happier. Danny is a director who comprehends the immense advantage of being on hand or close at hand with graded images and final mixed sound in the edit, when filmmakers can get those last-minute creative ideas that lift a film further. The grade is an incredibly creative space if the right people are sitting in with the right attitude. During the course of the grade and final edit, Danny always comes in with a few essential points that I keep in the back 26
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of my mind throughout the process. On Slumdog the key words were “speed,” “running” and “young child’s eyes and energy.” The goal with that grade was also about clarification in terms of color and energy, as we had three major territories (the slums, the middle story, and the contemporary plot involving the TV game show) and wanted to help the audience follow the plot in any way possible. Danny always bangs on about this, as he is aware that some of his films have challenged audiences in that respect. For Trance, Danny’s main concern was that we be able to read the actors’ faces as clearly as possible, because the narrative is complicated and runs at an incredible pace. Sometimes one simple sentence is cut across time into three or more different locations or spaces. Now, I generally light for mood. I love to see the actors’ eyes, but I often like to bring lights around to the side, sometimes higher; this also helps us shoot very fast. But in the grade, Danny was very emphatic that he wanted every possible bit of contact with the actors’ eyes, regardless of how short the scene was. So, Jean-Clement and I spent an enormous amount of time working on the windows for eyes, trying to enhance access to the thoughts or moods of the three main characters. Trance is fundamentally a American Cinematographer
humorous but intelligent, demanding exercise in a modern Hitchcock framework. There is a deliberate ambivalence to some actions. The audience has to pay attention in order to separate the lies from the truth, and the clues are all in the faces of the actors. It was an enormous task to protect and enhance this idea in the grade. Of course, there are some ambitious, inexplicable cuts from the Alexa straight to the Indiecam, and I get it in the face, really! But when you work as Danny and I do, the risks of marrying different image resolutions and definitions are always there, and afterwards, you can’t really complain to the editor that he didn’t stay within the format! TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Digital Capture Arri Alexa Plus, Alexa M; Indiecam IndiePOV; Canon EOS C500, EOS-1D Mark IV; Phantom Gold Hawk V-Lite 1.3x, Zeiss Ultra Prime, Canon, Arri Macro, Fuji Alura, Indiecam ➣
Changez (Riz Ahmed) grapples with conflicted feelings about America in The Reluctant Fundamentalist ,
directed by Mira Nair and shot by Declan Quinn, ASC.
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Torn Loyalties By Jean Oppenheimer
Based on the 2007 bestseller by Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist concerns a Pakistani-born, Princetoneducated, Wall Street financial analyst, Changez (Riz Ahmed), who moves back to Pakistan after his hard-won American dream crumbles in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Overnight, the color of his skin and his Muslim faith transform him into a perceived threat. Back in Lahore, he comes under the influence of militant Islamists and finds himself torn between love and hate for America. The film is the latest collaboration between director Mira Nair and cinematographer Declan Quinn, ASC, whose earlier projects include Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (AC Feb. ’97), Monsoon Wedding and Vanity Fair (AC Sept. ’04). Because filming in Pakistan was out of the question, they shot Reluctant Fundamentalist in the Union Territory of Delhi, India, which “isn’t far from the Pakistani border, so the weather and the feel of the place are the same,” says Quinn. “Even the architecture is similar to what you would find in Pakistan.” 28
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The story opens in Lahore and travels two related paths. At its core, the movie is a thriller that revolves around an extended conversation between Changez and a journalist/covert CIA operative, Bobby (Liev Schreiber), who suspects Changez was involved in the recent kidnapping of an American professor. The flashbacks to Changez’s life in America constitute the second story track. Quinn, who does his own operating, shot most of the picture on an Arri Alexa Studio (with a 4x3 sensor), using a lens package that included Cooke S4 primes, a set of Zeiss Superspeed primes, an Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm T2.8 zoom, and his own vintage Cooke 20-60mm T3.1 zoom. He notes that he has used his Cooke zoom on nearly all of his features. “I like its quality and range, as well as its coatings. There’s a different color coating on each element, and it [produces] a kind of prismatic flare, especially when crossing a point-light source, like a bare bulb or the sun.” (Arri CSC provided the rented camera equipment.) The digital format was chosen mainly for budget reasons, according to Quinn, but the production shot film for a few Pakistan exteriors that couldn’t be repliAmerican Cinematographer
cated elsewhere, and for scenes shot in Istanbul, where Changez meets a publisher who challenges his worldview. A local cameraman, Saqib Malik, shot the Pakistan footage on Kodak Vision2 250D 5205, and Nair, Quinn and producer Lydia Pilcher hired a small crew in Turkey for the Istanbul scenes, which Quinn shot on 5205 using an Arricam Lite. “We didn’t do any lighting in Turkey,” he notes. “We just found places that looked good in the existing light.” The filmmakers built the interior of the rundown teahouse where Changez and Bobby converse in a 1920s-era hostel in the old section of New Delhi. “It was renting rooms at hourly rates when we got there,” Quinn notes in a descriptive aside. He used HMIs to augment the natural light coming through the location’s two doors, and he also wanted to create a sense of light leaking in from the roof overhead. “The hostel was an open room, three stories high, with balconies on each level and a peaked roof at the top. We just removed much of the corrugated-metal roof, erected a simple truss grid and hung a 60-by-20-foot frame of bleached muslin.” 6K HMIs were bounced into the large muslin to create an ambient-daylight feel. “When we wanted the ambient light darker, we stretched Half
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or Quarter Grid Cloth or a Half Soft Frost rag over the whole opening, effectively double diffusing the source.” To suggest a beam of direct sunlight, a 12K Par with a narrow lens was aimed into a custom-built 5'x5' mirror on a stand atop a concrete catwalk that encircled the roof. Gels varied the color of the sunlight. For the actors’ keylight, says Quinn, “we used a 12-by-8-foot piece of clay-coat [UltraBounce] or muslin in a frame and bounced small HMIs or even Kino Flos into it. I wanted the light around the actors to be really soft and natural, so we often would diffuse it again with a loose rag of Half Soft Frost really close to the actors, smearing the light just a bit more. Highlights in the eyes become much punchier on digital than they do on film. It can look almost vampire-like, and the layer of Half Soft Frost helps to create a much softer, more natural-looking glow in the eyes.” Quinn was especially pleased with the Alexa Studio’s internal 1.5ND filter. “It doesn’t get in the way of the viewing system, and when you look through the optical viewfinder, you still get all the light that’s coming through the lens,” he says. “Occasionally we had to also add NDs. We always tried to shoot close to wide open, somewhere between an f2.8 and an f4.5.” In prep, Quinn shot tests comparing ProRes 4:2:2 to ArriRaw. “We couldn’t really afford to shoot ArriRaw, but I wanted to see if I could get away with shooting 4:2:2 for a 2.40:1 aspect ratio without losing too much image quality. ArriRaw looked slightly better, but it wasn’t a huge difference. I knew we would feel it on a few wide landscape shots, though, so we brought three ArriRaw Codex mags and used them for those shots.” Quinn shot most of the picture handheld or on a bungee rig he created. “I like the camera to float and move around and react, and for years I have been using this simple rig that’s basically a long bungee. I use long lengths of latex surgical tubing and hang it from the highest point possible, using webbing and carabiners to attach the camera and fine-tune its hang point. If the camera hovers about 3 feet off the ground, I can move it 5 or 6 feet in any direction with almost no effort. If your arms aren’t used to it, though, the camera can
Top and middle: Changez speaks with Bobby (Liev Shreiber), a journalist/covert CIA operative, in a teahouse. Bottom: Musicians play at a backyard party in Pakistan.
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On location in India, Quinn prepares to use the Arri Alexa Studio with his own vintage Cooke zoom and his homemade bungee rig. Next to him is key grip Sanjay Sami, and at far left (wearing hat) is gaffer Mulchand Dedhia.
wobble a bit! It just takes practice.” The rig was perfect for filming Changez and Bobby talking at the table. Bending over a long eyepiece, Quinn could do an over-the-shoulder, push into a single or just improvise as the actors played the scene. Quinn used dollies for the long opening sequence, which takes place at night and cuts back-and-forth among various characters and locations, generating a sense of foreboding. The montage starts at a backyard party in Lahore, where guests are seated on the ground listening to music, and it ends with kidnappers grabbing the American professor off the street, throwing him into a car and speeding off. “Mira wanted to capture the musicians’ performance live,” says Quinn. “Our main take was [facing] the singers for the entire length of their 20-minute song. We spent the rest of the evening doing coverage, using two cameras and shooting wide open.” The A camera, rigged with the vintage Cooke zoom and operated by Quinn, was on a bungee rig hanging off a dolly. The B camera, an Alexa Studio equipped with the Optimo, was operated by Indian cinematographer Shanker Raman, who improvised from a dolly and 40' of track. “We shot everything from one direction the first night, and from the opposite direction the second,” says Quinn. “Shoot32
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ing wide open on longer lenses gave us very shallow depth-of-field. Your eye falls on one spot in the frame, and the rest is kind of smeared, so the image has a slightly mysterious quality.” The sequence was shot on location in an upscale neighborhood of New Delhi. Quinn kept the key characters wrapped in soft sidelight by bouncing into clay-coats placed as far back as possible, or using direct Arri T12s double diffused through muslin and/or Grid Cloth. To illuminate the large yard, his crew placed small Fay bulbs or nook lights to uplight trees and foliage to create depth. The minimal fill was created by small fixtures, candles and torches scattered around the space. New York exteriors were shot in Manhattan, while interiors were filmed in Atlanta, Ga. For these scenes, “Mira wanted crisp daylight, blue skies and cool light,” Quinn recalls. “It’s a noticeable contrast to the Pakistan scenes, where the light has a kind of dusty warmth.” A key set in America is Erica’s Brooklyn apartment, and most of the scenes there take place at night. In one scene, Quinn had to do a tracking shot down the length of the loft as Erica and Changez enter the apartment and move through patches of light and shadow. He recalls, “There were two long walls of windows at a right angle to one another, and we positioned Arri T12s on Condors about 250 feet away, out in the American Cinematographer
street. It gave a sense of streetlight coming in and projected the window frames onto the walls. We used Lee 013 [Straw Tint] gels in front of the lights as our streetlight color.” In the bedroom, Erica moves between shadows and crisp light — what Quinn calls “that old-Hollywood, hard beauty light” — whereas Changez has no direct light on him. He is lit solely by the bounce off Erica’s face and body. “He is in that kind of murky place, just as their relationship is,” says Quinn. The cinematographer has high praise for 1st AC Stanley Fernandez Jr., 2nd AC Braden Belmonte, Indian gaffer Mulchand Dedhia, Indian key grip Sanjay Sami, digital-imaging technician Bjorn G. Jackson, and all of his Atlanta and New York crewmembers. Quinn credits colorist Joe Gawler at Harbor Pictures with “pulling the very best out of the ProRes and ArriRaw data in the DI. I find that with digital cameras, the color information from middle gray to black is weak; the amount of chroma data seems to correlate directly with luminance data, so in the darker areas of the image, there is very little color information to work with. Joe and I worked to build color contrast in the shadows to give the image more film-like depth.” For Quinn, one of the most unexpected joys of working with Nair has been learning yoga. “Starting with Monsoon Wedding, Mira brought serious yoga teachers aboard each production. Every morning for an hour or so, they lead the crew in yoga. The benefit is energy, health and flexibility. Filmmaking is hard on people — the long hours can beat you down. Yoga bolsters your spirit and gives you extra strength when that 12th or 13th hour comes along. Thanks to Mira, yoga has become an important part of my life.” TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Digital Capture and 35mm Arri Alexa Studio; Arricam Lite Cooke, Angenieux, Zeiss Kodak Vision2 250D 5205 Digital Intermediate ●
Surviving the
Future Claudio Miranda, ASC puts Sony’s 4K F65 camera through its paces on the sci-fi thriller Oblivion. By Jay Holben •|• 34
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Opposite: Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) runs for cover in a scene from Oblivion, directed by Joseph Kosinski and shot by Claudio Miranda, ASC. This page, top: Harper maneuvers through unknown territory. Middle: Julia (Olga Kurylenko) joins Harper after she is found in a downed spacecraft. Bottom: Kosinski (left) and Miranda line up a shot.
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n Oblivion, which is set in the year 2073, the Earth lies in ruins from an alien invasion that happened several decades earlier. The surviving humans have long since been evacuated, and robot drones patrol the planet, searching for any remaining resources that can help the human race. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) has been tasked with repairing the drones, and as his assignment draws to its close, he is shocked to stumble upon another human, a woman (Olga Kurylenko), in a downed spacecraft. Suddenly, he is attacked by a group of humans, the Scavs, and taken captive. Upon meeting the Scavs’ leader, Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman), Harper discovers there is an entire city of people inhabiting a secret underworld on the planet. Written and directed by Joseph Kosinski, Oblivion is based on the graphic novel Kosinski co-wrote with Arvid Nelson. It is the director’s second feature with cinematographer Claudio Miranda, ASC, a collaborator on Tron: Legacy ( AC Jan. ’11). Production began in March 2012, three months after Sony began shipping its F65 digital-cinema camera, and Oblivion became one of the first features to use it. “Every time I do a new project, I do tests with many cameras to find the one that’s best for that project, www.theasc.com
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Top: Harper and Julia look out from Harper’s residence 2,000' above the ground. Middle: The camera is positioned inside the set, which was surrounded by a 494'-wideby-42'-tall projection screen that enabled interactive sky effects. Bottom: Projection programmer Jack Alexander controls the sky onstage.
and we tested just about every camera out there for Oblivion,” says Miranda. “Sony cameras definitely have a particular look, one that’s a little cooler than, say, the Arri Alexa, and Joe really loves that look. He liked what the [Sony] F35 gave us on Tron, and he was really a fan of the F65 in our tests for Oblivion. “So, we ended up being some of the first guinea pigs for the F65 in a production scenario,” he continues. “It gives you a fantastic image, but it’s a large camera, and the ergonomics aren’t necessarily the most user friendly. When we wanted to put body mounts on Tom Cruise or do quick Steadicam moves, we used Red Epics instead. But about 98 percent of the movie was shot with the F65.” Miranda captured in 4K with the F65 and in 5K (at 3:1 compression) with the Epic-M and Epic-X, using Arri Master Primes and Fujinon Premiere PL zoom lenses. (The picture 36
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was finished in 2K and was cropped to 2.40:1 for standard theatrical exhibition and 1.90:1 for Imax.) “We considered shooting anamorphic, but I wanted to use faster lenses,” he explains. “We used the Master Primes for most of our work, but the Fujinon [Premier] zooms were very impressive, and we used them for crane work and helicopter work, just to make sure we had a good variety of focal lengths. When I did side-by-side lens tests in prep, I found the Fujinons are actually sharper than the Master Primes, which was hard to believe! We had all four of them: 14.5-45mm [T2], 18-85mm [T2], 24-180mm [T2.6] and 75-400 [T2.8]. A couple of shots called for a telescope point-of-view, and we put a doubler on the 75-400mm, giving me an 800mm. I couldn’t believe how sharp it was.” Exteriors were shot in volcanicrock terrain in Iceland, but the filmmakers built all their sets on stages in Baton Rouge, La. One of the main sets is Harper’s residence, a glass structure 2,000' above ground on a tower. It offers expansive views of the sky, which is colored by constantly moving clouds, the sun’s movement and atmospheric conditions. Miranda recalls that he and
Top: This frame grab shows the exterior of Harper’s home in the clouds. Middle: Harper’s partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), studies an instrument panel. Bottom: The camera crew works in front of the projected background.
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Top: Harper surveys the landscape from the vantage of his helicopter/spaceship hybrid. Bottom: Harper accidentally discovers the remnants of the New York Public Library.
Kosinski began discussing the sky tower school” in a very modern way. Using the long before their official prep started. concept of frontscreen projection, he “We wanted to stay away from blue- proposed surrounding the set with screen and do as much in-camera as projection screen and utilizing high-end possible,” says the cinematographer. video projectors to create the sky all “Neither of us likes the limitations blue- around the set. Production Resources screen composites put on a set. Harper’s Group, a company that specializes in place is supposed to look futuristic and concert tours and other specialized polished, and we didn’t want to make all events, brought in 21 Barco FLMthe surfaces dull to avoid blue [light] HD20 20,000-lumen 1080 HD projecpollution. We didn’t want to end up in a tors, along with 11 custom Mbox situation where most of the set was Extreme v3 media servers, to create a made of CGI.” 270-degree projection around the entire Miranda suggested going “old set. It was 494' wide by 42' tall; more 38
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than 60 layers of video were combined to create a final blended image resolution of 18,288 x 1080 pixels. “We sent a crew out to Hawaii to shoot sky and cloud plates with three Red Epics, and those were stitched together to create 15K motion plates for the projectors,” explains Miranda. “We had lots of different looks, including blue skies, fog and sunsets. All of the footage played back at about triple normal speed, so the clouds had a little extra dynamic energy to them. We loaded all the footage into the media servers, and then we could just press ‘Play.’ “With all the sequences loaded on the server, we had the ability to fully control the sky. If we wanted to change the sun direction, we simply called up a different clip, or borrowed one part of the scene from the other side of the projection. We could flip and flop cloud formations around [to achieve] the most dynamic looks, and we could get it all in-camera in real time. “This meant our production designer, Darren Gilford, didn’t have to compromise in his design for the set — we could have all the glass and shiny surfaces we wanted!” continues
Left: Harper is interrogated by Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman), the leader of an insurgency group on Earth. Below: For Beech’s introduction, Freeman lit himself with a single match.
Miranda. “And, if we had to have a bluescreen, we could just switch one or more projectors to blue, and that gave us an instant bluescreen anywhere we needed it. It was also liberating for Tom and the other actors because they weren’t acting in a blue void; they were experiencing the environment in a very real way. “With this method, I always knew what the background would be and how to compose for it. I actually used the light from the projections for much of the lighting in the sky tower. It gave us a huge source that was very beautiful natural light. In some cases, for each of the images to make the tran- Miranda. “This meant that the projector we’d use some additional bounce to sitions as seamless as possible. We could was sometimes horizontal and somebring that light closer [to an actor], but deal with some distortion from time to times vertical. I also figured I would that was it.” time because we were projecting clouds, lose about 1⁄3 of a stop from all the glass, By testing the projection rig which are very forgiving, but if there so I planned to shoot everything at a extensively in prep, Miranda deter- were any visible seams, we were dead.” T1.41⁄3. That was right on the hairy mined that each projector could only Even a production as large as edge of where I was getting exposure, cover a 42'-wide area and still give him Oblivion has a finite budget, and the but if I wanted to increase that, we the brightness he needed for exposure. projection rig was a considerable would have needed twice as many “I was calculating 1⁄3 under a T2 — that expense. “I had to find the most projectors, and that was out of the quesbecame my base mark,” he says. “Then, economical yet effective way to cover tion.” I knew we’d need a 4-to-6-foot overlap the area we needed to cover,” says Miranda considered asking the www.theasc.com
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Custom housings were created for each projector that allowed cool air to be pumped in and featured a small aperture for the lens to poke out. Individual mirrors were mounted at each projection port so the beam could be adjusted — panned and tilted — without requiring an adjustment to the position of the projector or the housing. These housings were mounted under the sky tower’s helipad and in various places both above and below the set to fill the projection wall. Miranda recalls that it took 10 technicians nearly three weeks to install the projectors and get them all synced and custom-warped to the shape of the projection wall to create a seamless image. Another bonus to avoiding bluescreen composite was that Miranda was Top: Harper approaches Julia’s downed spaceship. Bottom: Miranda operates the wheels free to incorporate atmosphere in the on a remote camera control. set. “I like to use smoke quite a bit, and art department to paint the projection that wouldn’t work in this situation we were able to put some in the sky wall gray, but he went with bright white because the wall was curved and would tower,” he says. “In one scene, the charinstead to maximize the reflection off be seen from many different angles. acters are literally fogged in, and we the wall. In a typical front-projection The next task was determining were able to run the projectors in the scenario, a gain or retro-reflective screen where to place the projectors, and the background and put real fog all around might be used where the projection filmmakers found that mounting them the set. The light interacted with it in a surface has a very high reflectivity, but directly under the set worked best. very real, beautiful way. ➣ 40
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Surviving the Future
Top: The crew employs a crane to get a shot of Cruise on location in Iceland. Bottom: Kosinski (front) consults with Miranda (second from right) and other crewmembers.
“How to work with the projections occupied my mind for a long time, and I studied previsualizations and 3-D models and did a lot of other research to figure out how this would come together,” he adds. “If we did a dolly move, would the projection look false? Would it look good if the clouds were always moving? In the end, the result is really amazing. It doesn’t draw your attention; it just feels very real. When I first walked out onto the set with the projection going, I thought, ‘Wow, this works way better than I thought it would!’ It’s definitely a technique Joe and I will take with us to other productions.” 42
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imagined that even if it were a sunny day, [the shaft] would feel more like ambient light than direct light.” The space above the set was so limited that Miranda knew he wouldn’t be able to rig large fixtures and diffuse them, so instead, he had his crew rig a 12'x20' soft silver reflector to the stage ceiling and then bounce three 18K HMIs into it. “Each of the 18Ks was about 30 feet from the hole, shooting up into the silver to bounce down,” says the cinematographer. “The distance between the hole and the stage ceiling was about 10 feet, but this solution created the feeling that the sky was Harper spends much of his time miles above the hole.” on Earth exploring, and in one scene, he Once Harper drops into the discovers the remnants of the New York library, the lighting becomes even Public Library. It lies underground, simpler. “We basically lit that with the buried by rubble and debris from the flashlight Tom was carrying,” says war, so Harper descends into it through Miranda. “We had a couple of small a hole in the ceiling. A shaft of daylight ‘cheater’ lights in the library, but they coming through the hole lights the only did about 5 percent of the lighting. scene. We hid white cards around the set and “I didn’t want that shaft of light asked Tom to hit them, and we also had to be really hard and defined,” says grips moving around with muslin sheets Miranda. “I wanted it to feel softer, to reflect light. We were mostly wide more ambient. Interestingly, we had to open on the Master Primes, rating the shoot this before we went to Iceland to F65 at 800 ISO.” shoot the exteriors, so I had to guess When the Scavs capture Harper, what the light quality would be like. I they tie him to a chair in the bright American Cinematographer
spotlight of an interrogation chamber. Michael Coo, build three moveable desired. He recalls, “We could move the The spotlight was a household LED walls of light that were each 40'x60' and walls around as needed, and all the R40 Par, which “had a cold, synthetic lined with 50 Philips iW Blast TR fixtures were connected to a dimmer feel that I really liked,” says Miranda. intelligent LED fixtures. One wall went board, so we could program chases and “Joe wanted the rest of the room to be on each side of the ship’s cockpit, and light changes. I wanted them moveable pitch black, so that light was all we used. one was positioned above it. The iW so we could adjust them around to the Then, when we see Beech for the first fixtures have a combination of LED right angle on the action.” Direct time, he lights himself with a single lamps so that they can color shift from sunlight was created with PRG’s Bad match. That reflection of Tom in 2,700°K to 6,500°K on command. This Boy automated lights. Morgan’s glasses was actually done in- gave Miranda the ability to create whatMiranda’s team used previz camera. We just moved Tom a little ever hue of interactive lighting he sequences of the CG canyons that the closer, kept him lit with the LED lamp and got that beautiful reflection. I joked with Tom that he was the world’s most expensive bounce card!” INSPIRE When the lights in the room YOUR suddenly come on, Beech’s army of survivors is revealed. Hundreds of IMAGINATION people stand in the rafters around the room. Some architectural lights were THE NEW MANFROTTO 500 FLUID VIDEO HEAD COMPLETES THE BRIDGING TECHNOLOGYTM FAMILY worked into the set for this moment, Manfrotto’s 4 Bridging Technology™ Pro Video Heads are designed for use with the latest HDSLRs, but keying the crowd was a large soft interchangeable lens video cameras, standard video cameras and for use on sliders and jibs. The professional fluid cartridges and inner ball-bearings ensure that all Bridging Technology™ heads provide the smooth box overhead holding six Kino Flo and precise movement required for today’s pro video cameras. The longer sliding plate and wider platform make each head more adaptable to different balance requirements and different camera configurations. The 4 Bridging Technology™ Image 80s. “Even that was too much Pro Video Heads each have a different maximum payload and are also available in combination with Manfrotto aluminum and carbon fiber tripods and bags. light, so I turned off all but one bulb on each of the Image 80s,” Miranda recalls. “That’s one of the wonderful things about shooting digitally: you can work in very low-light situations and get some beautiful images. I love film, but I know I couldn’t have shot Oblivion on film.” Smooth movement and Longer sliding plate with Available in flat-based External accessories can precise control thanks to quick release offers extra or half-ball versions. be supported using the 3/8” The filmmakers worked with two real fluid cartridges and balancing control. Easy Link connector. a counterbalance system. F65s throughout the shoot. Miranda says he prefers to incorporate the B camera as additional coverage after the 509 Series Head A camera is set. “If we can get B cam in 504 Series Head there for a second shot, that’s great. 502 Series Head 500 Series Head Sometimes, if the scene is emotional, we’ll do dueling coverage, but I prefer to avoid that. We did it for a couple of scenes between Tom and Olga so we could capture both performances in the same shot. It’s nice for the director to be able to optimize that connection between the actors. It’s not always the best for lighting, but it is sometimes more important for the performances and the film as a whole.” Harper uses a helicopter/spaceRebates up to ship hybrid to get around Earth, and in on select one sequence, he ends up in an aerial Manfrotto models. Valid April 1, 2013 dogfight in a canyon. Miranda had his May 31, 2013 gaffer, Chris Strong, and key grip,
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Surviving the Future
Miranda checks the crane-mounted Sony F65.
ships would be flying through to program the lighting patterns. “It took a couple of weeks to program all the different looks we wanted,” says the cinematographer. “If the ships came out of clouds into the sun, we could mimic
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that with the iW fixtures. If they dived into the canyon, then we’d go with just the toplight. If they were spinning in the canyon, we could easily shift to sidelight.” Harper’s ship has a pair of
plasma cannons, and the crew rigged the trigger of Harper’s firing control directly to a bank of iW fixtures in front of the ship. When Harper fired, the lights would erupt with interactive plasma bursts. “We made the gunfire a little warm, mixing in more tungsten LED than daylight,” Miranda adds. Asked about the image workflow on set, Miranda states, “I don’t believe in on-set color correction. I will switch back and forth between raw and a look-up table that has light contrast and color [modifications] so that it doesn’t look horrible. I might dial in my monitor a bit to the look I want, but I don’t sit in a trailer or a tent and spend time coloring the image on set — and I don’t want someone doing it for me, either. I think the set is a confusing place to do that type of work, but maybe that’s just me. “If I can, I will spend time after work dialing in a look for the day’s footage, and on this project, I spent
time in editorial doing basic correction on the Avid for our early friends-andfamily screenings so they would have a good image to look at, but I stay away from doing it on set. I can understand doing that if you know you’re not going to be involved in the final color work, but when I know I’m going to spend several weeks with a colorist on the final grade, I don’t see the benefit of taking the time to do that on set.” Oblivion was posted at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif. Technicolor colorist Mike Sowa brought a Discreet Lustre to the site so Miranda could work side-by-side with Kosinski as the director moved backand-forth between sound mixing and color sessions. “It’s very convenient when the director has everything in one place like that, and it was great to be able to get to the grading without driving all over L.A.,” says Miranda. “I spent two weeks with Mike on the final grade. They set us up in housing, and I had my
The crew captures a sunset vista in Iceland.
family up there with me, so it was a very comfortable and relaxing way of working. It was a wonderful way to finish off the great experience I had on this film.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1 and 1.90:1 Imax Digital Capture Sony F65; Red Epic-M, Epic-X Arri Master Prime, Fujinon Premier
The smallest camera makes the biggest images.
This still frame was pulled from 5k RED EPIC® motion footage from “42” © Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. & Legendary Pictures Productions LLC.
www.red.com © 2013 Red.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
“
I’ve been shooting film all my life. Now I shoot RED.
”
– Don Burgess, ASC
A Trailblazer’s Tale Don Burgess, ASC helps Brian Helgeland visualize Jackie Robinson’s dash past Major League Baseball’s color line. By Michael Goldman
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t a crucial moment in 42, a drama about the period in which baseball executive Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) teamed with the legendary Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) to racially integrate Major League Baseball, Robinson has simply had enough. Subjected to racist taunts by Cleveland Indians manager Ben Chapman (Alan Tudyk), Robinson storms into the tunnel leading from the dugout to the locker room and vents his rage with a baseball bat on a concrete wall. In the extensively annotated bible that the film’s cinematographer, Don Burgess, ASC, maintained on the production, Burgess wrote that director/writer Brian Helgeland described Robinson in the tunnel as “the bull in the slaughter chute, rebelling against what lies ahead.” The sequence, he added, “should feel primal and bleak.” Helgeland says he intended that the scene “not be pretty — no keylight on faces, just blast light in there.”
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“We wanted to simulate bright sun coming in through the tunnel opening to represent the harsh white world that, at that moment, has brought Robinson to a breaking point,” Burgess explains. “Then, Branch Rickey steps out of the shadows to help him make the right decision. The lighting was inspired by the way Brian wrote the scene. I worked with [production designer] Richard Hoover on the design of the tunnel because it was important that Chadwick stand in the sweet spot so the lighting effect would work. Richard built one solid piece of wall, so that was the only place in the tunnel where Chadwick could swing his bat and break it. This was a good example of how a cinematographer works with the production designer in prep.” Gaffer Jim Tynes recalls, “We slammed an 18K Arrimax into the tunnel from outside and made it as hot as we could. There were some practicals in the tunnel, but it was the 18K coming through, with bounce cards, that did the trick. The white light came straight off the floor as a shaft of sunshine would. It’s a pretty iconic shot.” Indeed, one of 42’s challenges was that it presents a recognizable historical figure in a period piece loaded with sports action that also had to be iconic, given how unique Robinson’s moves were on the field. At the same time, Helgeland wanted the look of the movie to be relatable for modern audiences. He explains, “We wanted to acknowledge that it was a period piece, but at the same time, we didn’t want the images to feel old-fashioned. Jackie Robinson is still
American Cinematographer
. s r e k a m m l i f e h t d n a n o r I t h g i L , s o i d u t S . s o r B r e n r a W f o y s e t r u o c s o t o h p l a n o i t i d d a d n a s b a r g e m a r f , ) s n e v e t S D y b ( y h p a r g o t o h p t i n U
Opposite: 42 tells the story of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the first African American to play in Major League Baseball. Top: Robinson looks out at Dodger Stadium with teammate Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black). Middle: Robinson joins his teammates in the locker room. Bottom: General manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) speaks with Robinson after his batsmashing moment of rage.
germane today, so we didn’t want it to seem like a ‘once upon a time’-type thing. Don suggested evolving the look into a more modern one as the story progresses [from 1945 to 1947]. It’s a slightly warm period look at the beginning — not quite sepia, but warmer — and then, as the story moves along, it becomes a cooler, more modern look.” Burgess explains that this idea was sparked by the moment Robinson becomes a Brooklyn Dodger and dons the team’s white uniform. “I wanted a true contrast between a black man and his white uniform — that was the starting point. Having shot on film for so long, I still filter when I’m shooting, so I broke down the movie’s three-year time frame and determined how to use filters, diffusion and lighting gels to progress the imagery.” The story starts with Robinson in the Negro Leagues, follows him through the minors, and then ends with him being called up with the Dodgers. For the 1945 scenes, Burgess favored light Tiffen Warm Pro-Mist filtration (1⁄8 or ¼) on the lens, unbleached muslin for lighting diffusion, and ¼ or ½ CTO gels on lights. For 1946 scenes, he switched to 1⁄8 or ¼ Tiffen Warm Soft/FX filters on the lens, bleached muslin, and varying strengths of CTS (1⁄8, ¼ and ½) on lights. Finally, for 1947, he used Tiffen Bronze www.theasc.com
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◗ A Trailblazer’s Tale
Top: Robinson keeps his eyes on the ball. Below: This series of frame grabs illustrates the layers that cinematographer Don Burgess, ASC and colorist Corinne Bogdanowicz applied to the image during the final grade at Light Iron.
Glimmerglass lens filtration; a mix of bleached muslin, 1000H and white diffusion; and 1⁄8 or ¼ CTS on lights. “There are a few scenes we wanted to play cooler, like the scene in the tunnel, and for those I used [Schneider] Hollywood Black Magic on the lens and kept the lights neutral,” he adds. Burgess has used Red Digital Cinema cameras on several recent projects, and he decided almost immediately to shoot 42 with the Red Epics and Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses. “We have baseball action and slow motion, and the Epic is well suited for that kind of work,” he observes. “In prep, we shot tests that we took into the DI bay at Light Iron, and I was able to work with [colorist] Corinne Bogdanowicz to get the palette, feel and texture right, so that made me comfortable.” Burgess adds that his extensive testing had the added benefit of involving Bogdanowicz at the start of the project, a paradigm shift he heartily endorses. “It helped us get the DI done a lot faster,” he says. “Our preproduction tests gave dailies colorist Carissa Tudor a template that was quite close to the final look. It was sort of like the old days, when you started with the work print and sat with the timer to go over it. That gave us a guide. Involving the DI colorist early on means he or she isn’t 50
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coming into the grade cold and starting from scratch.” Burgess captured 42 in 5K 2:1 mode for a final aspect ratio of 2.40:1, recording R3D files onto Red SSD cards. (He used a compression rate of 5:1.) Filmmakers viewed images on set on OLED monitors, and waveform monitors were used to judge exposure. Footage was downloaded at an HD Mobile Labs GoCart manned by Tudor, who then applied preset look-up tables to the imagery. She explains, “I performed a check sum on the media and then applied the looks using Red Cine X Pro and an Avid Artist Color panel. Most of the picture was shot outside in the South, where cloud coverage can vary by the minute, so each take had to be graded separately to create an even look.” Tudor then transferred her files to digital-imaging technician Mark Gilmer, who worked in a dailies trailer, Top: The crew and he processed the media and utilized circular track for a shot produced dailies using a specially of Boseman at configured Light Iron Outpost cart. the plate. Typically, each day at lunch, the filmBottom: Daylight is makers watched dailies on a 4'x6' screen reflected off in the trailer. bounce boards Helgeland and Burgess decided and the camera is positioned on to maintain a mobile camera using a the "golf rocket" mix of handheld, Steadicam and dolly — an electric work in order to achieve multiple goals. golf cart — for a shot along They wanted to bring viewers into the baseline. Robinson’s world; offer wide, layered views of the people and activities that characterize a baseball diamond; and create what A-camera/Steadicam operator Matthew Moriarty calls “a high and we tried to have an ensemble The majority of the handheld level of visual energy.” around Jackie Robinson.” work is what Burgess describes as “quiet There was also a loose goal to “We often have big masters that handheld.” Moriarty suggests a definievoke the look of certain late-1960s and involve eight or 10 different speaking tion: “There is a human being holding 1970s feature films, though not particu- actors, so you get a sense of layers the camera, with a sense of quiet breathlarly baseball movies. “Jackie Robinson — foreground, mid-ground and back- ing, perhaps, but subtle enough that the was a man of action and few words, sort ground,” says Moriarty. “I loved that effect is mostly unconscious. The audiof like a 1970s-movie character,” notes discipline. We were shooting wide ence should get a sense of rawness or Helgeland. “We liked the grit and feel of enough to see the sets, letting actors uncertainty without being hit over the those movies.” One major reference was perform with their whole bodies, and head. The look of the movie is othertrusting the audience to look where we wise so elegant that the handheld Cool Hand Luke (1967), shot by Conrad L. Hall, ASC. Helgeland raves about wanted them to look. We shot minimal moments were all carefully thought out Hall’s compositions, which “fill up the coverage. Brian put tremendous faith in so as not to stick out visually.” Burgess frame with bodies. There is an ensemble Don’s ability to make a shot work in one adds, “There are action sequences that around Paul Newman in that movie, [master].” involve pushing and shoving, and we www.theasc.com
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◗ A Trailblazer’s Tale
wanted the camera in the middle of that, so those moments have a more obviously handheld feel.” Moriarity notes there is also “plenty of Steadicam” in the picture. “Don and Brian had the camera with Jackie Robinson whenever possible. If he is moving, the camera is moving. If he is running the bases, the camera is right in his face, leading him around the bases.” Burgess says he used “a little bit of everything” to achieve camera moves. “A lot of the dramatic scenes, such as the ones in Rickey’s office, called for slow moves, so that took us to dollies or cranes,” he says. These included a small Felix crane with a Mo-Sys head, which “we could put on track and use to get literally every shot in a scene with complete freedom in every axis,” recalls Moriarity. “In Rickey’s office, it let us pass the camera over the desk and wrap it back around into a close-up of Rickey without the move ever really being noticeable. You could call that ‘a quiet crane!’” Burgess calls his approach to 42 “a mixture of typical and specialty filmmaking. I like to use a remote head on the camera a lot, to keep it moving, and there is also great Steadicam work. It was a matter of studying Brian’s script to
Top left: 2nd-unit cinematographer Michael Burgess captures a homeplate collision. Top right: 2nd-unit operator Bob Scott readies a cradle rig. Middle and bottom: A Red Epic was positioned beneath Plexiglas for shots of Boseman sliding into base.
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figure out which technique was best for a particular scene.” Though the main unit carried an Angenieux Optimo 15-40mm T2.6 zoom lens, a prime lens was usually on the camera. “I want the audience to feel the movie as the character would, so I tend to use primes,” says Burgess. “For 42, I used Ultra Primes ranging from 20mm to 40mm, but I tended to shoot with wider lenses. Some of the baseball action required longer focal lengths, but I stayed wider as much as I could.” Naturally, a large chunk of the movie consists of day exteriors to document the baseball aspect. But there also were important interior sets, particularly Rickey’s office. Brightening that dingy space with streams of light whenever Rickey opened the blinds was important thematically, says Helgeland. “Rickey’s office was his whole world,” he notes. “The first time we see that space, it’s fairly gloomy, and when he meets with Robinson, he opens the blinds and lets light flood in. Rickey loves baseball, but segregated baseball makes him feel there is something unfair about something he loves, so signing Robinson and addressing the issue is like shining a light of truth on the matter.” Tynes notes that the lighting effect in Rickey’s office, which was built onstage in Atlanta, “was a tungsten setup, mostly 20Ks through the windows and lights, usually Blondes, above muslin ceilings, along with practicals in the set. “Rickey’s office and the locker rooms had the same kind of feel: hot light through the windows and lit backings outside,” continues the gaffer. “The locker rooms mostly had white backings or blown-out windows. To backlight TransLites, I used 5K Skypans spaced 8 feet on center that lit up the backings nicely. And because it was a tungsten set, we had everything on dimmers.” The baseball sequences incorporate extensive footage shot by the second unit, which was led by director Allan Graf, cinematographer/camera operator Michael Burgess (Don’s son), and camera operator Bob Scott. The second
unit’s mission was “to stage a lot of on the shots. We used cranes, dollies, running the basepaths and stealing handheld, cradle rigs and electric carts. home, the pitcher-batter duels, and The Epic was ideal for all this work other classic baseball moments,” accord- because it’s small and lightweight. We ing to the senior Burgess. could handhold it while hanging off a Michael Burgess says the team golf rocket going 20 mph, all while used every means at its disposal to “keep maintaining a quality image.” up” with Boseman on the field. “We ran Indeed, the “golf rocket,” an electwo cameras at all times, using tric golf cart that facilitated camera Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm T2.8 setups from multiple angles, was a zooms and the Ultra Primes, depending crucial tool. On occasion, Moriarty
◗ A Trailblazer’s Tale
Don Burgess on set.
even attached his Steadicam to the vehicle with a Garfield mount to film Robinson rounding the bases. The goal was to illustrate Robinson’s speed and grace without requiring extensive cutting, and at angles that “emphasized fast-moving, low-to-theground running shots to sell the speed,” says Moriarty. “We wanted to sell the fact that we’re really watching Jackie Robinson,”
explains Michael Burgess. “We couldn’t use a crane or dolly for those kinds of shots because they wouldn’t be fast enough and would get in the way of the shot. So, it was a matter of hanging the camera off the front or back of the golf rocket, or holding a Kleven cradle rig [named for veteran stunt director Max Kleven], which gave us a lightweight handheld unit we could hang just above the ground. That gave the shot great
energy and allowed us to safely get the camera really close to the actor’s feet.” To give viewers an intimate view of Robinson beating a tag and sliding into base, the second unit would position an Epic in a 3'x3' hole covered with Plexiglas, and Boseman would slide over it. The production had to re-create ballparks from the era, including Brooklyn’s Ebbetts Field. All the baseball action was filmed at three Minor League stadiums: Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.; Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tenn. (which stood in as the foundation of Ebbetts Field); and Luther Williams Field in Macon, Ga., which was mainly used for spring-training and Minor League scenes. Of course, many backgrounds, walls, fences, poles, crowds and signage had to be created digitally by the visualeffects team, which was supervised by Jamie Dixon. At all of the parks, greenscreens of varying sizes were employed
extensively, including a giant one that ranged from foul pole to foul pole at Engel Stadium. Moriarty emphasizes that Dixon deserves “a special tip of the hat for keeping up with all our units and our ever-moving cameras.” Because extensive tracking precautions on the field weren’t feasible, Dixon mounted GoPro Hero2 HD cameras on the Red cameras with Israeli arms to do platecapture work. The GoPros recorded at 48 fps in 1980x960 to capture the maximum field-of-view. In the end, the GoPro frames were used to track about a dozen shots out of roughly 550, according to Dixon. Because Burgess created so much of the film’s palette in-camera, he considered the final grade “the icing on the cake.” He recalls, “Corinne and I worked on the colors of dirt and grass and the stadiums, as well as Chadwick’s skin tone and his uniforms. Though we got as much of it in-camera as we could,
we always knew we’d be going in to colors and gave more separation to the tweak things by painting over the top of image, and then used vignettes to help our painting, so to speak. We fine- focus attention on the main characters tuned color, saturation levels and in the frame,” she adds. “‘Dodger blue’ is contrast to elaborate on the ideas we important, so we made that very colorput in place during the shoot.” ful, while the skin tones are very natural. Bogdanowicz notes that the The result is a very unique blend of thickness of Burgess’ digital negative vintage and modern looks.” ● enabled her to build primary and secondary grades to advance elements and looks Burgess had emphasized. “There were eight to nine layers applied on top of each take, which means there were literally thousands of layers in this movie,” she says. “That meant the grade could be sculpted into a very precise and deliberate look that gives the image a TECHNICAL SPECS more polished, golden feel to better represent the period. I used unique 2.40:1 qualifiers [with Quantel Pablo] to sepaDigital Capture rate the skin tones and individual elements of the frame. Red Epic-M, Epic-X “The overall look has a warmth and desaturation that suggests a vintage Zeiss Ultra Prime, feel, but we selectively saturated certain Angenieux Optimo
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Giles Nuttgens, BSC and director Deepa Mehta bring Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children to the screen. By Patricia Thomson •|•
Conjuring
Hope
O
ne night over dinner, Canadian director Deepa Mehta As always, she reached out to cinematographer Giles impulsively asked Salman Rushdie about the rights to Nuttgens, BSC, her creative collaborator since 1993, when his first novel, Midnight’s Children. By evening’s end, she George Lucas paired them on an episode of The Young had optioned the work for $1 and embarked upon the Indiana Jones Chronicles that was set in India. Since then, largest project of her life, a production as epic as the 533-page Nuttgens has shot Mehta’s trilogy, Fire , Earth and Water , as novel itself. well as the feature Heaven on Earth. “I wouldn’t trust anybody
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Opposite: Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha) charms a snake in a scene from Midnight’s Children. Left: Saleem’s parents, Amina (Shahana Goswami) and Ahmed (Ronit Roy), speak with William Methwold (Charles Dance), the owner of the estate where they will live in Bombay. Below: 10-year-old Saleem (Darsheel Safary) hides under a bed with his sister, Jamila (Anshikaa Shrivastava).
. s m l i F n i d a l a P f o y s e t r u o c s o t o h P
else,” says Mehta. Spanning 1917-1977, a period that saw the creation of modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Midnight’s Children tells the story of Saleem and Shiva, who are born at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, just as India declares independence from Great Britain. A hospital nurse, inspired by her boyfriend’s revolutionary ideas, switches the two newborns, elevating Saleem to colonial wealth and sending Shiva into poverty. Their lives remain intertwined, however, because both are among the gifted Midnight’s Children, who possess supernatural powers, and whose development reflects India’s growing pains. Though much in the film is propelled by history, it taps into magic Nuttgens, who also served as the on-set says Mehta, who was born in Punjab. realism and metaphor as it navigates visual-effects supervisor. “The strength “In Mumbai, Delhi and elsewhere in four generations, 17 main characters, 64 of our filmmaking has been dealing India, there are signs of modern civilizalocations and 60 years of political with intimate relationships between tion everywhere, but Sri Lanka has been turmoil. Despite the story’s ambitious groups of people and effectively making caught in a time warp because of its civil scale, which eventually required 300 the camera invisible in the process.” war. There hasn’t been much industrialplates for visual-effects work, the goal Though set mainly in India, prin- ization.” She and Nuttgens had also was “that this wouldn’t turn into a cipal photography was in Sri Lanka, used Sri Lanka as a stand-in for India visual-effects shoot, that it maintain its primarily in Colombo, where colonial before, when Hindu fundamentalists in focus on the family, which has always architecture is still intact. “It’s difficult to India blocked production of Water , been the focus of Deepa’s films,” says find that older India in India today,” Mehta’s Oscar-nominated drama about www.theasc.com
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Conjuring Hope a child widow. The 15-week shoot involved 70 days of principal photography in Sri Lanka, which provided practical locations and a warehouse-cum-stage, and six days of second-unit photography in India that took place under the direction of Mehta’s brother, Dilip. The filmmakers shot 3-perf Super 35mm, and Nuttgens tapped Take 2 in London for his camera package: Arricam Studio and Lite cameras, Arri Master Primes and an Angenieux Optimo 28-76mm T2.6 zoom. At first, Mehta and Nuttgens thought the epic story called for choreographed camera moves and sophisticated dolly work, and the production brought in dollies and track from England. But at the last minute, they decided to go handheld. Mehta feared that they might get bogged down with the laying of track and relighting, and that it would adversely affect the actors’ energy. “This was an emotional move, not a technical move,” says the director. “I’ve never done a shot list in my life. For me, the actors dictate where the camera will be.” Thus, the Lite became the A camera, which was fine with Nuttgens, who had already shot four handheld films with it. “I think we ran the Studio just twice,” he says. “The decision to go handheld liberated all the actors, and Deepa has enough faith in me to allow me the liberty to gauge where the scene is going.” To move quickly, “we basically did blanket lighting, so once we started shooting, we’d shoot without stopping until the scene was finished,” he continues. “I work with a fairly simple package that I feel covers any domestic interior — 18K HMIs, 6Ks, 4Ks and 1.2Ks, plus small tungsten units. Most of my night work was lit with Chinese lanterns or Kino Flos, and we built a lot of that ourselves.” The movie’s visual scheme has four distinct parts. For the colonial era, which focuses on Saleem’s grandfather, Nuttgens shot Kodak Vision2 100T 5212. “If we’d had our original budget
Top: Saleem stands in his classroom. Middle: Wee Willie Winkie (Samrat Chakrabarti) plays accordion with his son, Shiva, at his side. Right: Parvati (Shinova Soni) gathers with other children.
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of $17 million, I would have asked Kodak to make up a batch of [Vision 500T] 5279,” notes the cinematographer, who explains that the budget shrank to less than $10 million shortly before the shoot. “Once independence comes in and the story jumps to the mid-1950s, we switch over to Kodak [Vision3 200T] 5213, which is much cleaner and less textured. That takes us through the period set in Pakistan and up to the Bangladesh war at the beginning of the 1970s. Night scenes were generally covered with [Vision3 500T] 5219, which allowed us to work with a limited amount of light but still get enough depth-of-field to give the first AC a chance to keep the image sharp, despite a handheld camera that varied its placement on every take.” Magical realism comes into play for the second look, the secret gatherings of Midnight’s Children in Saleem’s attic. Children of various ethnicities materialize out of thin air, and they seem lit from within — a metaphor for hope, says Mehta. “We wondered how to show that hope,” she says, “and it’s all about lighting. We knew it couldn’t come entirely from CGI, because that has a different feel. It was important that it feel organic.” Nuttgens shot extensive tests for Top: Saleem, now an adult in the Magician’s Ghetto, walks away from his friend Picture Singh (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). Middle: Gen. Aurora (Navtej Johar, center) leads a group of soldiers with Saleem’s uncle, Gen. Zulfikar (Rahul Bose, second from right). Bottom: Saleem holds his grandfather’s silver spittoon after an air raid robs him of his memory.
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Conjuring Hope these sequences in Canada, but they went out the window when the practical location for Saleem’s childhood home was finally found. “The mansion was almost like a museum, untouched for 60 years,” says the cinematographer. The tower where the children gather had four windows on each side, making it a much brighter space than Nuttgens had in mind. “Our original idea of shooting the children against greenscreen and partially re-creating the set as a 3-D CG space became impractical and costly, so these scenes became rotoscoping jobs shot in the real space, with the children individually materializing and vanishing.” Nuttgens aimed for a hot rim light. “I knew it would help simplify the process if the kids had a reasonably solid backlight to help separate them out, and I knew the intention to blow and diffuse the highlights in post would help to cover up any buzzing that might occur around the hairlines during rotoscoping,” he explains. The third look is Endless Night, which encompasses the period of political oppression from 1975-1977, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties and authorized mass arrests and torture. “That was a ghastly period in Indian history, when they cleared people off the streets and shoved them into camps on the outskirts of cities,” says Nuttgens. “There was also enforced sterilization.” These sequences are dominated by a dark, roiling, CGI sky, but “it was important that they didn’t feel like storm clouds that would pass,” he notes. “They needed to have a heaviness, a weight, an oppression the audience could feel.” Mehta muses, “What would hopelessness look like? Would it be black-and-white? Desaturated? Deep gray and white? It sounds simple, but it wasn’t. Giles did a number of tests, and we decided the look that felt right was an almost teal gray.” Nuttgens explains, “I shot 5219, push-processed it 1 stop at Technicolor and then flashed bluegreen into the blacks with a Varicon.
Top: The adult Shiva (Siddharth, left) joins a meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (Sarita Choudhury). Middle and bottom: Shiva captures and tortures Saleem to learn the names of all the Midnight’s Children.
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Top and middle: Saleem is imprisoned and interrogated until he gives up the Midnight’s Children. Bottom: Mary Pereira (Seema Biswas), Saleem’s nanny, mourns her dead boyfriend.
That combination put a certain amount of exposure into the blacks. That made the grain stronger, so you start to see the texture in the lower mid-tones. Instead of keeping the mid-tones clean, you muddy them up a bit.” Using the Varicon proved a bit cumbersome in tight locations, including the prison cell where Saleem is tortured. “The Varicon fits into a 6-inch matte box, and we were already on a zoom lens,” says Nuttgens, who does his own operating. “I had to use 1,000-foot mags to balance out the flashing unit. So, my handheld work became limited, as I kept banging up against the back wall. Occasionally I would try to jib up from a kneeling position, and the weight of the camera would drag me down again.” Endless Night also contains Nuttgens’ biggest lighting setup: the destruction of the Magicians’ Ghetto, a collection of buildings where the circus performers live, including Parvati, Saleem’s first love. Embodying the possibility of change, the Midnight’s Children are a threat to Gandhi, so they are hunted down, and their homes are razed and burned. “That was a fake ghetto attached to a real ghetto,” says Nuttgens. “We used the real one for as much exterior day as we could, and then the one built by the art department for Parvati’s shack and for the destruction www.theasc.com
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Parvati (Shriya Saran), pregnant with Shiva’s child and shamed by society, returns to the Magicians’ Ghetto, where Saleem agrees to marry her.
sequence. By building them side by side, we could link them visually, increasing the size of our shooting location significantly.” The production built and dressed 30 houses on a soccer field. “We had one night to knock it down and set it on fire. Once the bulldozers moved in, that was it. There were no retakes.” Story wise, the lighting needed to 62
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be blinding. “It’s slightly conceptual,” says Nuttgens. “The idea is that after everyone has become accustomed to the penumbra of the Endless Night, these lights just blind people.” Nuttgens’ crew positioned five Dinos on Condors encircling the ghetto; the lights were gelled with ¼ Green and ¼ Blue, continuing the teal palette of Endless American Cinematographer
Night. They were 2½-3 stops overexposed. “It was such a strong backlight that no matter where we were looking, there would be no need for another light,” says Nuttgens. “Anybody within that space was lit by the bounce off the buildings that were being destroyed. That was enough to fully expose them.” He got as close to the chaos as possible using either a 21mm or 27mm Master Prime. “The 27mm doesn’t distort when you get close up, but it gives a real sense of immediacy,” he observes. To capture another angle, a second camera (unmanned) was positioned next to one of the buildings that were destroyed. The film’s fourth distinct look is the Magicians’ Ghetto when Saleem first arrives, before the Endless Night. At that point in the story, he has endured family rejection, exile and amnesia from an air-raid injury. He spots Parvati among the entertainers at a military victory parade, and he moves to the ghetto to live with her. His burgeoning hope translates into bold, saturated color, which was achieved with art direction and costume design
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Conjuring Hope
1st AD Reid Dunlap (right) looks on as Giles Nuttgens, BSC gets the shot.
and later enhanced by Nuttgens in the DI. “There’s a certain lightness and promise in Saleem’s journey, and that needed to come across,” says Nuttgens. “Deepa referenced an Indian photographer who had done a bit of enhance-
ment of saturation and contrast on his stills. The trick to that was to make sure there was a good, solid negative within that space.” Boosting saturation in the DI also meant augmenting the color differences in his lighting. Though white
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light would have been easier to match, Nuttgens often made use of Straw, Yellow and Amber gels, especially in night interiors. “When you use different colors in the background and foreground and those colors fall on the actors, the possibility of discontinuity from setup to setup increases enormously when you start enhancing all of that coloration,” he says. “So, in the ghetto, I seldom changed the lighting from setup to setup because of the risk that something might not cut. And when I did turnarounds, I made sure that we didn’t hit one of the actors with a different balance from differentcolored sources. It’s tricky even within the scenes, because somebody’s skin tone might end up with a bit more magenta than somebody else’s.” Reflecting on the film’s various palettes, he adds, “I could not have achieved any of those looks without relying on a DI.” He spent eight days at Technicolor Toronto with colorist Jim
Fleming, working with a 2K scan of the negative. “I worked with Jim for a good part of the first week, and then Deepa would come in for a couple hours a day,” recalls Nuttgens. Mehta and Fleming completed the final pass because Nuttgens was already on his next project. Although the film’s varied visuals were essential to orienting viewers to a given time and place, nothing was as important as capturing the actors’ performances, says Nuttgens. “What sells the film is the audience making emotional contact with the characters.” Adds Mehta, “For me, the most important thing a cinematographer can do is follow the emotional core of the scene, and Giles has great instincts about that.” “Because I started in documentaries, my cinematography has always been linked to the operating process,” says Nuttgens. “I’ve always tried to give the actors as much freedom as I could
and prioritize getting those performances without putting too much hard ware in the way — sometimes to the detriment of my lighting. One of the great things on Midnight’s Children was having a small camera like the Arricam Lite, which is easy to manipulate and feels like an extension of your body. Once you start shooting, you can really go for it, and that gives the actors a huge sense of freedom. They know you’re going to keep up.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1 3-perf Super 35mm Arricam Lite, Studio Arri Master Prime, Angenieux Optimo Kodak Vision2 100T 5212; Vision3 200T 5213, 500T 5219 Digital Intermediate
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The ABCs of
DMX
Lighting professionals explain how DMX technology has transformed soundstage work. By Benjamin B
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his article offers an introduction to DMX technology, the foundation of many lighting-control systems used on soundstages today. It is divided into three parts: the basics, a few sample setups using low-cost tools, and a discussion of DMX applications on large film sets. To learn about DMX, I sought out many knowledgeable practitioners in London and Paris: Yanne Blitte, Marie-José Collet, Steve Howard, Chris Millard and Ian Sherborn at Panalux; gaffers John “Biggles” Higgins and Reuben Garrett; lighting-desk programmer Stephen Mathie; and director of photography Philippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC. DMX Basics
The DMX512 protocol, or DMX for short, was created in 1986 by lighting professionals who wanted to give manufacturers and users a simple, universal digital standard for lighting control. DMX was adopted throughout the industry, and became formalized in 1990. It became an ANSI standard in 2004 (officially referred to as DMX512-A). According to Millard, the rapid adoption of DMX was due in large part to the rock ’n’ roll stadium tours done in the 1980s by bands such as The Rolling Stones. He notes, “The lighting crews were working with equipment from different manufacturers from around the world, and they had to set up working systems in all these different venues. It was a nightmare before DMX.” DMX stands for Digital Multiplex. It is a digital signal protocol; it defines the syntax of a signal that is sent by lighting controllers to fixtures and peripherals such as dimmers. The DMX protocol defines a universe as 512 channels. A 66
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single DMX cable transmits only one universe, so sophisticated applications, including big film sets, often require multiple universes. The DMX signal is simple, consisting of a header followed by up to 512 channels of data. Each channel includes 8 bits of data, representing a value between 0 and 255. Each of the 512 channel values is refreshed 44 times a second. The bandwidth required for DMX is 180 kbits/sec. Typically, a channel is allocated to an individual light fixture, and the channel value represents its dimming level. For example, sending a value of 127 to channel 3 could mean that fixture 3 is dimmed to 50 percent, while sending a value of 255 would set fixture 3 at 100 percent. Many LED fixtures have three channels for individual control of red, green and blue. As we shall see, some complex units, like automated lights, actually use multiple channels, with values that can represent color and position as well as dimming level. Most DMX units have simple rotary or push buttons that allow users to set the channel (or the start channel, in the case of multiple channels) for the unit. The channel number is arbitrary, but is usually set according to a mnemonic numbering scheme. Howard notes that DMX can be used to control equipment other than lights, including fog machines and video servers. DMX requires two conductors for positive and negative signals, typically about 5 volts, plus ground shielding. The positive represents a digital 1, and the negative a 0. Although the norm specifies a 5-pin XLR cable (a.k.a. XLR-5), lowcost units sometimes use 3-pin XLRs, which are officially prohibited. (One danger is that an XLR-3 might be plugged into an audio board with 48 volts of phantom power by mistake, which could damage DMX circuitry.) The DMX spec recommends maximum lengths of about 500 meters, with no more than 32 devices attached; additional units can be added by using DMX switches or amplifiers. A simple DMX network is in the form of a daisy chain: a single cable routes the data signal from unit to unit. Sophisticated applications send multiple DMX universes down a single Ethernet cable. Sherwood notes, “In the 1980s, 512 channels was all you needed for a Rolling Stones concert, but today we’re seeing productions with 30,000 channels!”
American Cinematographer
. B n i m a j n e B y b m a r g a i d d n a s o t o h P
DMX requires a controller to define and send the values to each channel. A controller can be as simple as a laptop with software and an adapter. Professional lighting-control consoles, or desks, allow for complex programming of lighting setups and create intricate cue lists to define sequences of lighting effects and transitions. (Professional desks common in the industry include GrandMa from MA Lighting, Hog 4 from High End Systems, Insight from ETC, and Vista from Jands.) Dimming units are the most common DMX boxes. Professional dimmer racks control the light intensity of dozens of fixtures by changing the voltage to each unit. As illustrated, dimmer racks will have one channel allocated for each fixture output. Automated Autom ated lights, or moving heads, offer advanced functions, notably motorized control of movement, shuttering, color and gobos. Automated lights use HMI bulbs with high-quality optics to deliver sharp, powerful beams. Mechanical shutters allow for dimming without color-temp color-temperature erature change, while whi le intern internal al filter filterss enable enable a rich array array of hues. Custom gobos can also be added. Automated-light manufacturers
Top: This diagram shows the DMX stream and a sample DMX daisy-chain network. The DMX stream is a series of values for each of the 512 channels and repeats up to 44 times per second. Middle and bottom: A 30K dimmer with a 20K fixture.
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The ABCs of DMX 1. Laptop connected via USB to Vista’s M1 controller and to an inexpensive dimmer using Vista’s free Byron software. This is a professional system that allows a Vista lighting designer to sketch and refine scenarios at home or on the road. 2. Setup using Q Light Controller, which is free software for creating simple lighting scenarios, and a professional 4x dimming rack. 3. Laptop connected to Enttec’s USB DMX Pro adapter box, which is in turn connected to an inexpensive 4x dimmer using Enttec’s utility software to control the lights. This setup is useful for simple tests of DMX networks.
Above: A laptop hooked up to a Vista M1 controller. Right: A laptop running Q Light Controller software connected to a 4x dimmer.
include Clay Paky (Alphas and Sharpys), Martin (Macs), Philips (VariLites) and Robe (Robins and ColorSpots). Initially, cinematographers and gaffers used automated lights for special sets like nightclubs, or for fantasy sequences. These days, automated lights are appearing in many lighting packages as a general tool, especially when inaccessible lights need to be reoriented quickly. Howard observes, “On the set, 68
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the director or cinematographer can move the camera in a heartbeat, and with wit h a mov moving ing lig light, ht, you can qui quickly ckly spin the light with the console to get the shadow in the right place.” 3 Simple Setups Thiss pag Thi pagee and the nex nextt fea featur turee photos of three simple DMX setups with wit h whic which h I exp experim eriment ented. ed. I have have lis listed ted them in order from most to least expensive. American Cinematographer
DMX on the Film Set DMX networks have become de rigueur on contemporary soundstages, especially on big films, and I turned to Rousselot and Higgins to learn about some of these applications. Rousselot has been using dimmer consoles in his cinematography since 1984, and he started using DMX while working with Intervie erview w with the Vamp Vampire ire Higgins on Int AC Jan. ( AC Jan. ’95). The The duo expanded expanded their use of DMX on other collaborations, notably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory AC July ( AC July ’05), ’05), which feature featured d ext extens ensive ive use of automated lights and wireless DMX courtesy of Chris Gilbertson’s Light by Numbers system. Higgins recalls that at first, Rousselot operated the lighting consoles himself, but in time, they added a desk operator to the electrical crew crew.. Higgins believes a lighting console has become essential to soundstage work. “I feel very uncomfortable going to a stage or tungsten set without having a desk and a desk operator. The only time I would work without a desk is on a big day exterior. Even on a small set with practicals, the director may suddenly call for a light change — for instance, he might want the actor to walkk into wal into the room room and and turn turn on a light. light. Cinematographers should be allowed as much flexibility as we can give them, so I wouldn’t go to a set without a desk.” Rousselot cites the following
benefits to working with lighting consoles and with DMX: “You can control color temperature, which is especially useful for imitating candlelight or other colored sources; you can switch lights on and off from a single point; you can balance different lights from the console; you can change the lighting while the camera is moving, including switching off a light at a certain point during a shot to avoid a reflection or shadow; you can keep a record of lighting setups, facilitating reproduction of it in the future and providing helpful data to second units and visual-effects teams; you can dim lights between takes to minimize heat and save energy; you can make fast adjustments between takes without taking control of the set; you can adjust lights in accordance with a moving practical source in the scene; and you can perform visible light changes, such as clouds passing in front of the sun, very quickly and easily easily.” .” Higgins notes that on some of his recent productions, the DMX channel control was sometimes down to the individual bulbs in a patchwork of LEDs. Mathie, Higgins’ frequent desk operator, explains that big productions channels add up quickly. All it takes is on soundstages will use many DMX 30 LED lights of a certain fixture, with universes, with thousands of DMX dozens of individual bulbs, and you channels. “You need so many channels could need three or four extra lines of in the age of LEDs, moving lights and DMX. I recently had 15,000 channels media servers,” he says. on a set, which would have required 30 Mathie details his starting DMX cables, but one Ethernet cable network with a half-dozen DMX transmitted it all. That’s where the universes on a soundstage: Ethernet comes in handy: We spread it • 1 universe for dimmers around the stage so that we’re never • 1 for upstairs more than 30 feet away from it, and it • 1 or 2 on the working floor offers a limitless amount of universes.” • 1 for the practicals department Mathie cautions, however, that • 1 for wireless DMX (for exam- setting up an Ethernet network on set, ple, for lighting integrated into with with its nodes, nodes, swi switch tches es and software, software, costumes) adds another layer of complexity to the Mathie uses an Ethernet network DMX installation and troubleshooting. to transport many universes in a single Higgins stresses that today’s cable around the set. There are several complex DMX networks require addi ways to do do this, this, but he opt optss for for the the ArtArt- tional time to rig and sometimes to Net protocol with a 1 Gigabit Ethernet prelight. “Unlike theaters, soundstages network, which theoretically can hold don’t have DMX prewired, pre wired, because you more than 1,000 DMX universes. “It’s wou wouldn ldn’’t know know where where to rou route te it. DMX more than we would ever need, but does require planning and careful www.theasc.com
Left: A laptop connected to an inexpensive 4x dimmer via Enttec’s USB DMX Pro adapter box. Below: DMX 5-pin XLRs.
scheduling. You have to count back a couple of days. And you have to stay on top of it, because things do change — film sets can be quite organic. A lot of it is down to planning and agreeing with the director and production about your preparation days and your prelight days. Once you’ve rigged it and prelit, you’re ready to go, and any changes during shooting can be made very rapidly.” ➣ May 2013
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Near right: Yann Blitte with Robe’s Wash 575 XT moving light. Far right: Three 3x5K dimmer racks.
“In the planning and rigging more illumination than expected. He set. “If it’s an automated light, he can stage, we’ll always over-spec, so DMX cites as examples the tiny Sharpy from also change the position or the color,” is literally everywhere on the set,” notes Clay Paky, which outputs “a very adds Higgins. Mathie uses a Lumen Mathie. He adds that some cinematog- narrow, condensed beam” that belies its Radio Wi-Fi system, which utilizes two raphers will prelight every set, which 190-watt bulb, and the 1,600-watt Vari- channels for increased reliability. The makes for a very fast shooting day. Lite 3500 with the Beam Blast option, desk operator acknowledges that he and The desk operator has to keep which has “an amazing output.” his team are “constantly looking for track of thousands of channels, and to Higgins adds that the major drawback ways to improve Wi-Fi. I’m never be able to quickly identify and adjust a of automated lights is fan and motor worried about the data or the desk, but fixture that the cinematographer or noise, “so we keep them far from occasionally I worry about the Wi-Fi. gaffer indicates on the set. “When the camera.” Everyone’s got iPhones buzzing about, cinematographer or gaffer points at Automated lights can have 30- and if Wi-Fi fails, we’re in trouble!” He something, you have to know exactly odd channels, including vertical and sets up a wireless midi connection as a what it is. It has to do with the way you horizontal positions, color-filter inten- backup and runs several other apps on put it into the desk. It’s like the sities and shutter. Higgins adds that the iPad to connect to his desktop. He Photoshop concept of a layer: I have a custom gobos can be easily fitted inside also has a ping tool to check the layer of dimmers, layers of 10Ks, 5Ks the units, allowing for lighting effects Ethernet. “I have various tools to test and 2Ks; a layer of LEDs; and a layer of unique to the production. my system, because I can’t say, ‘Sorry, media. I use simple theater numbering Mathie comments that he has this app isn’t working today!’” to map it out. I always assign north on a used dozens of automated lights on “The more control you give a stage and then read left to right, top to recent films. “You wouldn’t key anyone cinematographer and gaffer, the more bottom. I cross patch to create a sensible with it, but it gives you endless possibil- they’re going to use it,” says Higgins. number. For example, I might assign ities for fill and backlighting.” He “There has been a fantastic progression DMX universe 5 channel 126 to input observes that cinematographers seem in the last 10 years, and the potential 11 on the lighting desk. You need the less strict about color variations among with DMX seems limitless. Some cineability to create number patterns.” sources since digital cameras were intro- matographers are really well versed in it, Higgins uses automated lights for duced. “We’re now seeing people mix and others are not that aware of its a variety of applications, including tungsten, LED, fluorescent and HMI potential. I let them know what’s availlighting effects (such as gun flashes) and moving lights a lot more freely.” able to them, and they can use what backlight. “We keep finding new uses Higgins and his team usually set they want.” for them,” he says. “The only instance up a wireless link between an iPad and Rousselot adds, “DMX has where I probably wouldn’t use them a the console via a Wi-Fi network on the certainly changed the way I light, but it lot is for a period film.” soundstage. This allows Mathie to doesn’t have to change your lighting if He notes that the optics of auto- modify a light in the rafters while stand- you don’t want it to. It’s just a tool.” ● mated lights enables them to deliver ing next to the cinematographer on the 70
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Star Tech
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards were held in February in Beverly Hills. Front row (left to right): Actor Chris Pine, Academy President Hawk Koch, actress Zoe Saldana and Science and Technology Council Chairman Richard Edlund, ASC. Second row: Richard Mall; Bill Taylor, ASC; Philip McLauchlan; Les Zellan; John-Paul Smith; Allan Jaenicke and Steve LaVietes. Third row: Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs, Richard Dorling, Markus Gross, Theodore Kim, Ross Shain, Daniel Wexler, Jeremy Selan and Joe Murtha. Back row: Nickson Fong, Matt Cordner, J.P. Lewis, Drew Olbrich, Lawrence Kesteloot, Doug James, Nils Thuerey, William Frederick, Jim Markland and Brian Hall.
Sci-Tech Award honorees are feted for their innovations at the Academy’s annual ceremony. By Jay Holben
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he Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 82nd annual Scientific and Technical Academy Awards ceremony celebrated a variety of accomplishments with a four-act ceremony this year. Actors Actors Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana, stars of the new Star Trek franchise, served as emcees. The Acad Academy’ emy’s Scie Scientif ntific ic and Techn echnical ical Aw Awards ards Committee, chaired by Richard Edlund, ASC, recognizes achievements in three ways: with Technical Achievement Award Aw ard certifica certificates tes,, with Scientif Scientific ic and Eng Engine ineeri ering ng Award plaques or tablets, and with Academy Award of Merit Oscar statuettes.
American Cinematographer
The even evening ing unfo unfolde lded d as fol follow lows: s:
. s e c n e i c S d n a s t r A e r u t c i P n o i t o M f o y m e d a c A e h t f o y s e t r u o c , a d a Y l e a h c i M d n a r e k c e D n e r r a D , h g u a b r a H d r a h c i R y b s o t o h P
Act One A Scientific and Engineering Plaque was presented to Simon Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and Richard Dorling for the development of the Tissue Physically-Based Character Simulation Framework, which whi ch “fai “faithf thfully ully and and robust robustly ly simula simulates tes the effects of anatomical structures underlying a character’s skin.” The resulting dynamic and secondary motions provide a new level of realism to computer-generated creatures. A T Technical echnical Achieveme Achievement nt presen sented ted to J.P. Lewi Certificate was pre Lewis, s, Matt Cordner and Nickson Fong for the invention and publication of the Pose Space Deformation technique, which whi ch int introdu roduced ced the use of nov novel el spa sparse rse data interpolation techniques to the task of shape interpolation. The technique has become a cornerstone of the creation of CG characters. A T Technical echnical Achieveme Achievement nt present ented ed to Theo Certificate was pres Theodor doree Kim, Nils Thuerey, Markus Gross and Doug James for the invention, publication and dissemination of Wavelet Turbu T urbulen lence ce software, software, which which “allow “allowss for the fast, art-directable creation of highly detailed gas simulation, making it easier for the artist to control the appearance of these effects in the final image.” A T Technical echnical Achieveme Achievement nt presen sented ted to Richard Certificate was pre for the design and development of Mall the Matthews Max Menace Arm, “a safe, adjustable device that allows rapid, precise positioning of lighting fixtures, cameras or accessories.” On set or on location, this compact and portable structure is often used when access is limited because of restrictions on attaching equipment to existing surfaces.
Above: Academy President Hawk Koch opens the ceremony. Left: Science and Technology Council Chairman Richard Edlund, ASC.
Act Two A T Technical echnical Achieveme Achievement nt presen sented ted to to Lawrence Certificate was pre Kesteloot, Drew Olbrich and Daniel Wexl W exler er for the creation of the Light system for CG lighting at PDI/DreamWorks. “Virtually unchanged from its original incarnation www.theasc.com
over 15 years ago, Light is still in continuous use due to its emphasis on interactive responsiveness, final-quality interactive render preview, scalable architecture and powerful user-configurable spreadsheet interface.” A T Technical echnical Achievemen Achievement t presented nted to Steve Certificate was prese LaVietes, Brian Hall and Jer Jeremy emy Sel Selan an May 2013
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Star Tech
Bill Taylor, ASC holds his John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation.
for the creation of the Katana computer-graphics scene-management and lighting software at Sony Pictures Imageworks. “Katana’s design, featuring a deferred evaluation procedural node graph, provides a highly efficient lighting and rendering workflow. It allows artists to non-destructively edit scenes too complex to fit into computer memory at scales ranging from a single object up to an entire city.” A Scientific and Engineering Plaque was presented to Philip McLauchlan, Allan Jaenicke, JohnPaul Smith and Ross Shain for the creation of the Mocha planar-tracking and rotoscoping software at Imagineer Systems Ltd. “Mocha provides robust planar tracking even when there are no clearly defined points in the image. Its effectiveness, ease of use, and ability to exchange rotoscoping data with other image-processing tools have resulted in widespread adoption of the software in the visual-effects industry.” A Scientific and Engineering Plaque was presented to Joe Murtha, William Frederick and Jim Markland of Anton/Bauer, Inc., for the design and creation of the Cine VCLX Portable 74
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Power System, which “provides extended run times and flexibility, allowing users to power cameras and other supplementary equipment required for production.”
field. “That was a great film school,” Taylor attests. “I worked there for 10 or 11 years. I started out doing optical lineup work and part-time delivery. I got into the Film Technicians Union and, eventually, as I moved into shooting opticals, into the camera local. Later, I got my first freelance visual-effects gig on a film shot in Brazil. I left Mercer with regrets. “During my years of freelancing, I got to work with so many wonderful people like Lin Dunn, great guys with ASC after their names,” he continues. “The first optical-composite work I did for Lin was the famous pea-soup vomiting scene in The Exorcist. We superimposed a stream of pea soup being shot out of a large syringe and tracked that over Linda Blair’s mouth.” Early in his career, Taylor had also cold-called ASC associate member Albert Whitlock after spotting his name in the credits of That Funny Feeling . “We had a great conversation and became social friends,” he recalls. When Whitlock’s cameraman, Ross Hoffman, ASC, retired in 1974, Whitlock invited Taylor to fill the vacancy. His first project with Whitlock was The Hindenburg , which won the Oscar for visual effects. Taylor and Syd Dutton cofounded Illusion Arts, a visual-effects company whose credits include Blood Diamond , Milk and Bruce Almighty . In 1981, Taylor was recognized with an AMPAS Technical Achievement Award “for the concept and specifications behind a two-format rotatinghead aerial-image optical printer.” Taylor joined AMPAS in 1972 and has served five terms on its Board of Governors, representing the VisualEffects Branch. He was a founding cochair of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. This year, he received a Visual Effects Society Fellowship.
Act Three The John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation was presented to visual-effects supervisor/cinematographer Bill Taylor, ASC, in appreciation for outstanding service and dedication in upholding the standards of AMPAS. Taylor got his start in entertainment through a love of stage magic, but it wasn’t until he saw Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts as a college student that he began to pursue a career in film magic. Taylor started studying specialeffects films, learned the names in the credits and then reached out to select individuals. His list included Linwood G. Dunn, ASC, whom he cold-called one day. The call sparked a friendship. Following Dunn’s advice, Taylor got “any job he could” and landed a position Act Four with the Ray Mercer Co., a Hollywood The final award of the evening, staple in the optical-printing and title the Academy Award of Merit statuette, American Cinematographer
Clockwise from top: Cooke Optics Ltd. was honored with the Academy Award of Merit statuette; ASC associate Les Zellan, chairman of Cooke, accepts the Oscar; Pine and Saldana congratulate the evening’s honorees.
was presented to Cooke Optics Ltd., “for its continuing innovation in the design, development and manufacture of advanced camera lenses that have helped define the look of motion pictures over the last century.” Cooke first introduced a series of motionpicture lenses in 1921, and since then, it has turned out optical innovations year after year. In 1930, the company introduced the first inverted telephoto lens, enabling wide-angle photography in full color. In the 1940s, Cooke introduced the 18mm Speed Panchro; in
1956, the Series 3; and in the 1960s, the acknowledge “a few of the great heroes 100mm F2.8 Panchro. In 1999, Cooke at Cooke Optics,” including brothers was honored with a Technical William and Thomas Taylor, who Achievement Certificate for its S4 founded the company in 1886; Dennis lenses. Taylor (no relation), who invented the The award was accepted by ASC Cooke Triplet in 1893; H.W. Lee, who associate Les Zellan, chairman of designed the Speed Panchros; Gordon Cooke, who noted, “I am indeed fortu- Cook, who was the company’s chief nate to be here at Cooke at a time when optical designer from the 1950s to the the Academy is recognizing the contri- 1980s; and Mark Gershwin, chief optibutions we have made over the years. cal designer from 1998 to 2010, who Our company has literally grown up was the principal designer of the S4, S4 with the motion-picture business. This Mini and S5i optics. ● award truly means a lot.” He went on to www.theasc.com
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Dean Semler, ASC, ACS accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Photography by Evan Cox; Christian Herrara; Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; Kim McBride; Danny Moloshok; and Matt Turve.
One-hour Episodic Television Series: Balazs Bolygo, HSC, Hunted , “Mort”; Chris Manley, ASC, Mad Men, “The Phantom”; Kramer Morgenthau, ASC, Game of Thrones, “The North Remembers”; David Moxness, CSC, Fringe , The best cinematography of 2012 was honored at the “Letters of Transit”; Mike Spragg, Strike Back, “Episode 11”; 26th annual ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in David Stockton, ASC, Alcatraz, “Pilot.” Cinematography, held on Feb. 10 at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom in Los Angeles. The ASC Television Movie/Miniseries: Michael Goi, ASC, American Clubhouse was the site of a lively afterparty that lasted until Horror Story: Asylum, “I am Anne Frank: Part 2”; Florian the wee hours. Earlier in the weekend, the ASC also hosted Hoffmeister, Great Expectations; Arthur Reinhart, Hatfields & an Open House, the Nominees Dinner and a sponsors break- McCoys ; Rogier Stoffers, ASC, Hemingway & Gellhorn. fast. Photos from all of these events are featured in the followHalf-Hour Television Episode Series/Pilot: Ken Glassing, ing pages. Special ASC Awards handed out during the ceremony Ben and Kate , “Guitar Face”; Michael Goi, ASC, The New included the Presidents Award, presented to Curtis Clark, Normal , “Pilot”; Peter Levy, ASC, House of Lies , “Gods of ASC; the Bud Stone Award of Distinction, presented to ASC Dangerous Financial Instruments”;Bradford Lipson, Wilfred , associate member Milton R. Shefter; the Career Achievement “Truth”; Michael Price, Happy Endings , “Four Weddings and in Television Award, presented to Rodney Charters, ASC, a Funeral (Minus Three Weddings and One Funeral)”. CSC; and the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to Dean Semler, ASC, ACS. Theatrical Release: Danny Cohen, BSC, Les Misérables ; Here are the nominees in all of the competitive cate- Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, Skyfall ; Janusz Kaminski, gories, presented in alphabetical order, with winners high- Lincoln; Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC, Anna Karenina ; lighted in boldfaced type: Claudio Miranda, ASC, Life of Pi . ➣ www.theasc.com
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1. Director Steve McQueen and actress Nastassja Kinski pay homage to their friend and collaborator Robby Müller, NSC, BVK, who received the International Award in absentia; 2. Kinski takes her turn at the microphone; 3. weeks later, during a separate ceremony arranged for him at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam, Holland, Müller accepts his ASC Award from his friend and longtime camera assistant, Pim Tjujerman; 4. actor John Slattery of Mad Men introduces the nominees in the Theatrical Release category; 5. James Deakins accepts the ASC feature award on behalf of her husband, Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, after his win for Skyfall ; 6. Macat and Figueras sign off by reading text messages supposedly sent from audience members offering humorous critiques of their onstage antics; 7. film editor Tim Silano, who cut most of the evening’s dynamic tribute reels, enjoys the festivities with Joanne Baker and her date, Awards Co-Chairman Richard Crudo, ASC; 8. Peterson finally takes a break from his many co-chair duties to enjoy the dinner with his wife, Carol; 9. Lighthill and Tom Walsh, a past president of the Art Director’s Guild, smile for the camera; 10. Arri exec Glenn Kennel (left) huddles with ASC members Victor J. Kemper and Sam Nicholson.
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1. Figueras and her husband, American Cinematographer executive editor Stephen Pizzello, pose for a photo with her visiting sister, Ligaya; 2. Haskell Wexler, ASC catches up with Arri’s Bill Russell; 3. Woody Omens, ASC “makes the scene” with his wife, Florence; 4. Rodney Taylor, ASC enjoys cocktails with Kodak’s Aaron Saffa and Vanessa Melo; 5. Judith Doherty of Kodak (left) mingles with Jim Snyder, Robert Elswit, ASC and Kim Snyder of Panavision; 6. Azita Baffa snuggles her husband, ASC member Christopher Baffa; 7. Jacqueline Frost poses with ASC member Robert Primes and his wife, Theo; 8. Victor J. Kemper, ASC with associate member Douglas Kirkland; Kirkland’s wife, Françoise; and their son, Mark, supervising director of the television series The Simpsons; 9. Peter Moss, ASC, ACS and his wife, Kathleen, are all smiles; 10. ASC member Vilmos Zsigmond squires his wife, Susan; 11. George Mooradian, ASC is flanked by his wife, Visi, and fellow ASC member Steven Silver; 12. Jennine Dwyer (far left) and her husband, veteran AC writer Jay Holben (second from left) share a toast with the magazine’s associate editor, Jon Witmer; his wife, Corinne; and senior editor Rachael Bosley.
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1. Band Pro CEO Amnon Band is flanked by cinematographer Cira Felina Bolla and Robert Kulesh of Matthews Studio Equipment; 2. Sony’s Mike Kovacevich and his wife, Candise (left) catch up with J.L. Fisher’s Frank Kay and his wife, Charlene; 3. Technicolor’s Dana Ross visits with Marek Zebrowski of Poland’s Plus Camerimage Festival; 4. David Frederick, SOC and Howard Preston circle with cameraman Dan Kneece, SOC; 5. Tiffen’s Mark Bender and his wife, Cynthia, pair up with ICG president Steven Poster, ASC and his wife, Susan; 6. ASC members and Lost alumni Larry Fong and Michael Bonvillain stroll in; 7. ASC honorary member Brian Spruill pals around with associate member Michael Zakula; 8. Alcatraz nominee David Stockton, ASC (far right) with his son, Gray, and Andrea Shawcross; 9. AFI student Andressa Cor was lucky enough to attend with ASC member Ralph Woolsey, always the life of the party; 10. Isidore Mankofsky, ASC snaps some high angles of the schmoozing; 11. nominee Claudio Miranda, ASC ( Life of Pi ) circulates with his wife, Kelli; 12. Vantage Film’s Wolfgang Bäumler and his wife, Sabine, Vantage exec Peter Märtin and associate member Denny Clairmont catch up with ASC members Bill Bennett and Curtis Clark.
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1 2 1. Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini has some fun with Miranda and Lukasz Bielan; 2. nominee Janusz Kaminski ( Lincoln) enjoys an animated discussion with Stephen H. Burum, ASC; 3. double nominee Michael Goi, ASC ( American Horror Story: Asylum , “I am Anne Frank: Pt. 2,” and The New Normal , “Pilot”) makes the rounds with his wife, Gina; 4. cinematographer Damian Horan, winner of the ASC Andrew Laszlo Student Heritage Award for his USC graduate short project Josephine and the Roach , is flanked by the project’s director, Jonathan Langager, and ASC member Gil Hubbs; 5. a God’s-eye view of the celebratory throng.
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1. Lighthill with nominee David Moxness, CSC (Fringe, “Letters of Transit”); 2. Hoffmeister thanks the ASC; 3. Rogier Stoffers, ASC accepts his honor; 4. Miranda makes a point; 5. nominee Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC ( Anna Karenina) offers some warm thoughts; 6. nominee Arthur Reinhart (Hatfields & McCoys) stands in the spotlight; 7. Kaminski beams with pride; 8. Deakins steps in for her husband, Roger, who was out of town shooting a new project; 9. Lipson lights up for the camera; 10. nominee Peter Levy, ASC, ACS (House of Lies, “Gods of Dangerous Financial Instruments”) enjoys the applause with Peterson; 11. Josh Haynie shares a laugh with his EFilm colleague Bev Wood; 12. the nominees pose for a group shot with Peterson and Lighthill on the Clubhouse steps.
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New Products & Services Radiant Images, View Factor Launch Novo Los Angeles-based rental house Radiant Images is now renting View Factor Studios’ Novo digital cinema camera. Radiant Images collaborated with View Factor Studios on the camera, which is designed to provide filmmakers with the power and versatility of a small form-factor camera, but with fewer cinematic limitations. Key features of the Novo include a C-mount lens system with back-focus adjustment to eliminate a fish-eye look or bubble effect, as well as exposure-control capabilities that enable a wide range of possibilities for camera operators and cinematographers. The camera is capable of recording at 2K and 4K resolution. Due to the cost of development and ongoing improvements that are still being added to the camera, the Novo is only being offered for rental, exclusively through Radiant Images. The Novo rental package includes the camera, custom-geared C-Mount lenses and all the required accessories. For additional information, visit www.radiantimages.com and www.viewfactor.net. Panasonic Unveils PX5000G Camcorder Panasonic has introduced the AJ-PX5000G, the company’s first P2 HD camcorder with native AVC-Ultra recording and built-in MicroP2 card slots. The 2 ⁄ 3" 3-MOS camera features 720p and 1080p/i recording, and is the first P2 camcorder that will record in full-resolution, 10-bit 1080/60p (in AVC-Intra100). AVC-LongG is standard, and the camcorder also offers optional AVC-Intra200 recording, which, at twice the bit rate per frame of AVC-Intra100, is virtually lossless and delivers a master-quality codec in an affordable, file-based shouldermount camera. High-resolution AVC-Proxy recording is also an option. The PX5000G’s three 2.2-megapixel MOS sensors deliver a horizontal resolution of 1,000 TV lines and sensitivity of f12 over 60i. The camcorder’s 2 ⁄ 3" format accommodates a variety of interchangeable lenses. Recording formats include AVC-LongG and AVC-Intra100/50, with optional recording in DVCPro HD, DVCPro50, DVCPro and DV. The camcorder is also switchable between 50 and 59.94 Hz for worldwide use. Panasonic’s AVC-Ultra offers master-quality and/or low-bit-rate 10-bit, 4:2:2 recording in Full HD to meet a variety of user needs from mastering to transmission. AVC-LongG offers up to 10-bit 4:2:2 recording in a much smaller file size, saving storage costs and transfer times while maintaining video quality comparable to MPEG-2. The PX5000G incorporates a selection of AVC-LongG quality levels, including AVC-LongG50 and AVC-LongG25. Additionally, AVC-Proxy 90
May 2013
• SUBMISSION INFORMATION •
Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to
[email protected] and include full contact information and product images. Photos must be TIFF or JPEG files of at least 300dpi.
encodes can be made in parallel with higher-bandwidth production formats to enable fast, efficient offline editing at bit rates from 3.5 megabits down to 800 kilobits per second. Weighing just over 8 pounds, the PX5000G is equipped with two MicroP2 slots, two standard P2 slots and an SD-card slot for proxy/metadata recording. The camera also boasts Chromatic Aberration Compensation to maximize lens performance, Dynamic Range Stretch to help compensate for wide variations in lighting, and a highly accurate flash-band detection and compensation algorithm. The camcorder also delivers seven-mode gamma selection and extensive image settings. The camera’s functions can be accessed through an LCD display on the side of the camera. The system also incorporates a 16:9, 3.5", 920,000-dot-resolution LCD color viewfinder that doubles as an LCD monitor when open; a simplified waveform and vectorscope; and a 10-pin remote terminal for remote operation. Other standard features include Scan Reverse for use with a cinema lens adaptor; Digital Zoom function for 2x and 4x close-ups; Variable Shutter Speed from 1 ⁄ 12 to 1 ⁄ 2000 plus Synchro Scan; and a four-position (Clear, ¼, 1 ⁄ 16 and 1 ⁄ 64) optical neutral-density filter wheel. Professional interfaces include MON out, HDMI out, HD/SDSDI in/out, 3G-SDI out, genlock, time-code in/out, USB 3.0 and a two-channel UniSlotcompatible wireless receiver. Additional features of the PX5000G include wireless and wired connection ability with Wi-Fi, USB and Gigabit Ethernet, including wireless control of key camera functions from a smart phone, and optional support of operational integration with live video uplink transmitter devices from Panasonic partners including LiveU, AVIWest, Streambox and TVU Networks. The PX5000G is scheduled for availability in the fall with a suggested retail price under $28,000. Panasonic is also now delivering its 64GB and 32GB MicroP2 memory cards. Boasting an SD-card form factor, the AJ-P2M064A 64GB and AJ-P2M032A 32GB cards are available for a suggested price of $380 and $250, respectively. The AJ-P2AD1 MicroP2 adapter, which enables use of MicroP2 cards in a standard P2 card slot, is also available for a suggested price of $199, and the AJ-MPD1 MicroP2 drive is available for $350. For additional information, visit www.panasonic.com/ broadcast.
American Cinematographer
JVC Announces GY-HM70 Shoulder-Mount Camcorder
JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., has introduced the GY-HM70 ProHD shouldersupported camcorder. The GY-HM70 delivers 60p full HD images and, with a 12-megapixel CMOS imager, records 1920x1080 footage in the AVCHD Progressive format at 28 Mbps to dual solid-state memory cards. Additional features of the GY-HM70 include manual focus, iris and shutter controls, as well as manual and automatic white balance. The GY-HM70 also provides an optical image stabilizer, auto focus and focus assist. JVC’s swappable dual-battery system allows hours of continuous, uninterrupted shooting. For shoulder-supported shooting, the GY-HM70 has a .24" LCOS color viewfinder, but also features a 3" LCD flipout touch-screen display for tripod shots and playback. Audio features include a built-in zoom microphone, 3.5mm microphone input and 3.5mm headphone jack. “With the introduction of the GYHM70, JVC immediately focuses on the entry-level professional video market with a very cost-effective shoulder-mount camera,” says Craig Yanagi, JVC’s national marketing and brand manager. “At this price, and packed with innovative features, the GYHM70 will appeal to various market segments where budget is limited but a fullsized camcorder is the preferred choice.” Suggested retail price for the GYHM70 is $1,995. For additional information, visit http://pro.jvc.com. Hitachi Kokusai Introduces Studio Camera
Hitachi Kokusai Electric America has introduced the Z-HD6000 CMOS HDTV studio camera, which features a new 2 ⁄ 3" CMOS camera processor. “We’ve designed the Z-HD6000
which can be rotated to suit left- or righteye shooting, and its mounting plate makes it easy to install and remove. This model of Flashpoint Swivi retails for $150. The Flashpoint ZeroGrav Camera Stabilizer is designed to allow shooters to control camera movement with precision, ease and comfort while mitigating shakes and bumps. DSLR cameras can be attached to the ZeroGrav platform directly or by way of a quick-release adapter. The ZeroGrav Camera Stabilizer retails for $300. camera with integrated features that enhance the studio production workflow, while saving our customers money,” says Sean Moran, vice president of Sales, Broadcast & Professional Division at Hitachi. “By incorporating useful operational features in the camera system, we’ve eliminated the need for external hardware and extra wiring, making our system simpler to use, integrate and deploy.” The Z-HD6000 camera head provides built-in access points, which decrease or eliminate the need for external power sources. The camera also provides two IFB channels for listen only, two auxiliary feeds that can send video to the operator, two video feeds that can go to talent and studio monitors, a second intercom channel for the floor manager or spotter, and a tally viewable in the talent prompter. Additional features include f12 standard sensitivity with more than 60dB of signal-to-noise ratio and an RLAC real-time lens-aberration-correction function. The camera also boasts no vertical smear. For additional information, visit www.hitachikokusai.com. Adorama Grows Flashpoint Accessory Line Adorama has expanded its line of Flashpoint accessories with the Flashpoint Swivi HD DSLR LCD Universal Foldable Viewfinder Version II and the Flashpoint ZeroGrav Camera Stabilizer. The Flashpoint Swivi is designed for use with DSLR cameras and provides a clear view of the camera LCD. The viewfinder’s 3x magnification mode assists shooters in ensuring a subject remains in focus, and its standard mode hoods the view of the LCD from sunlight. The Flashpoint Swivi also features a comfortable rubber eyecup, 92
Adorama has also introduced the Flashpoint All-Inclusive DSLR/DV Cinema Bundle, which ships with Flashpoint’s DSLR Shoulder Rig II with Rails and Quick-Release System, a Matte Box System II, and the Follow-Focus Pro II with clip-on system. This solidly constructed, customizable Bundle allows users to position and accessorize their DSLR or camcorder for their individual shooting requirements. All items in the Cinema Bundle are backed by a two-year warranty. For additional details, visit ● www.adorama.com.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Digital Art | CG Research | Animation | Technological Innovations | Post Production | Interactive Applications | Mobile Graphics | Industry Trends Present your creative achievements, innovations and stellar technical research. Review program guidelines, plan your schedule and submit your best work.
Technical Papers Courses Symposium on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications Art Gallery Emerging Technologies Computer Animation Festival Posters Technical Briefs
14 May 6 June 6 June 13 June 13 June 2 July 9 July 9 July
For complete details, visit sa2013.siggraph.org/submitters.
CONFERENCE 19 NOV - 22 NOV EXHIBITION 20 NOV - 22 NOV
HONG KONG CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE
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International Marketplace
OppCam Grip Systems
Watch out for ex-demo and used equipment!
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CLASSIFIED AD RATES All classifications are $4.50 per word. Words set in bold face or all capitals are $5.00 per word. First word of ad and advertiser’s name can be set in capitals without extra charge. No agency commission or discounts on classified advertising.PAYMENT MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER. VISA, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover card are accepted. Send ad to Classified Adver tising, American
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CLASSIFIEDS ON-LINE Ads may now also be placed in the on-line Classifieds at the ASC web site. Internet ads are seen around the world at the same great rate as in print, or for slightly more you can appear both online and in print. For more information please visit www.theasc.com/advertiser, or e-mail: classi-
[email protected].
Classifieds EQUIPMENT FOR SALE 4X5 85 Glass Filters, Diffusion, Polas etc. A Good Box Rental 818-763-8547 14,000+ USED EQUIPMENT ITEMS. PRO VIDEO & FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. 50 YEARS EXPERIENCE. New: iLLUMiFLEX LIGHTS & FluidFlex T R I P O D S . www.UsedEquipmentNewsletter.com AND w w w . P r o V i d e o F i l m . c o m EMAIL:
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EQUIPMENT FOR SALE Cooke S4/i Lenses 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, $85,000 OBO
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For Sale 50mm,75mm
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Advertiser’s Index 16x9, Inc. 91 AC 92, 95, 97 Adorama 7, 31 AJA Video Systems, Inc. 21 Anton/Bauer, Inc. 45 Arri 11 ASC 76 AZGrip 94 Backstage Equipment, Inc. 8 Barger-Lite 94 Birns & Sawyer 94 Blackmagic Design, Inc. 17
Canon USA Video 5 Carl Zeiss SBE, LLC 13 Cavision Enterprises 27 Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 29 Cinebags Inc. 95 Cine Gear Expo 99 Cinematographer Style 96 Cinematography Electronics 91 Cinekinetic 94 Codex Digital Ltd. 15 Cooke Optics 9
96
Duclos Lenses 8 DV Expo 33
Red Digital Cinema 46-47
Film Gear 91 Filmotechnic USA 44 Filmtools 92
Schneider Optics 2, Siggraph Asia 93 Siggraph 71 Sim Digital 23 Super16 Inc. 94
Glidecam Industries 19
Thales Angenieux C2-1
Hertz Corporation C3
VF Gadgets, Inc. 95 Vimeo 25
Eastman Kodak C4
Kino Flo 55 Lee Filters 64 Lights! Action! Co. 94 Los Angeles Film Festival 63 Maine Media 8 Manfrotto Distribution 43 Manios Optical 94 M.M. Mukhi & Sons 94 Movie Tech AG 94, 95 NBC Universal 53 Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 94 Panther Gmbh 54 PC&E 65 Pille Film Gmbh 94 Pro8mm 94 Production Resource Group 41
Willy’s Widgets 95 www.theasc.com 6, 95, 96
Clubhouse News Society Welcomes Sarossy New active member Paul Sarossy, ASC, BSC, CSC inherited his love of images from his father, who studied fine art and worked as a news cameraman. Growing up in Ontario, Sarossy had no television, but instead watched the 16mm films his father brought home from the TV station. He learned how to shoot, process and edit video by working at the same station as a teenager. Sarossy studied film at York University in Toronto, graduating in 1987. In 1989, he shot director Atom Egoyan’s second feature, Speaking Parts, and the two have since created 10 more films together, including Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat, Where the Truth Lies and Chloe. Sarossy has won five Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Awards.
From top: Paul Sarossy, ASC, BSC, CSC; Florence and Woody Omens, ASC; Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC.
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Cinematographers Enjoy Awards Season Several ASC members and their collaborators were feted during awards season. At BAFTA’s Orange British Academy Film Awards, the cinematography nominees were Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC (Anna Karenina); Claudio Miranda, ASC (Life of Pi ); Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (Skyfall ); Danny Cohen, BSC (Les Misérables); and Janusz Kaminski (Lincoln). Miranda won the award. At the Film Independent Spirit Awards, Ben Richardson took home the Best Cinematography honor for Beasts of the Southern Wild . Also nominated were Yoni Brook (Valley of Saints); Lol Crawley (Here); Robert Yeoman, ASC (Moonrise Kingdom); and Roman Vasyanov (End of Watch). At the Academy Awards, Miranda took home the Oscar for Life of Pi. Also nominated were McGarvey, Deakins, Kaminski and Robert Richardson, ASC (Django Unchained ). Wrapping up this year’s awards American Cinematographer
season, the Society of Camera Operators honored Andrew Voegeli, SOC for Breaking Bad (TV Camera Operator of the Year); Mitch Dubin, SOC for Lincoln (Feature Film Camera Operator of the Year); and Bruce MacCallum, SOC (Lifetime Achievement Award). Additionally, Seamus McGarvey presented Peter Robertson, ACO, SOC, with The Historical Shot Award for the Dunkirk Beach Steadicam shot in Atonement , a title they worked on together. The SOC also honored Woody Omens, ASC with the Distinguished Service Award and presented Canon with a Technical Achievement Award for its Cinema EOS C300 and C500 camera systems. Silverman, Smith, Poster Join HPA Tech Retreat ASC associates Leon Silverman and Garrett Smith and Steven Poster, ASC recently participated in the Hollywood Post Alliance’s 19th annual Tech Retreat, a gathering of technical and creative talent from across the industry. Silverman, the president of the HPA, was on hand throughout the retreat and participated in the session “More, Bigger but Better?” Smith and others joined Silverman as a panelist. Poster led the breakfast roundtable discussion “Talking Data with Camera” with Michael Chambliss and Mark Weingartner. ●
. C S A , n a g r o M . . M g n i d l a a g n m o I D w y e b h t g a n i t M f h g o i l y ; s t C e S r A u c , o y , k s f w e o h k t a n a M . M T e r i g o a d r i s C I y y b b s e s o u t o o h h b p s u d l C r f a w o A o t o C h O P S
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Paul Maibaum, ASC
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impression on you? At the age of 14, I accompanied my father to a screening of John Schlesinger’s Darling (1965). I don’t think my father realized the adult nature of the film when he invited me. It was risqué, to be sure, but I was able to process, understand and thoroughly enjoy it. Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire? Gregg Toland, ASC, for his exquisite black-and-white cinematography in films such as Citizen Kane and The Grapes of Wrath, and ASC members Conrad Hall, Gordon Willis and Vittorio Storaro for their use of cinematography in not only conveying mood and emotion but also actually telling the story. What sparked your interest in photography? After shooting my first roll of 16mm with a hand-cranked Bolex, I knew to my core that I wanted to be a cinematographer. Where did you train and/or study? The University of Southern California. Who were your early teachers or mentors? Woody Omens, ASC; Michael P. Joyce; and Dean Semler, ASC, ACS. What are some of your key artistic influences? The writings of Borges; the paintings of Caravaggio and Dali; the films of Buñuel, Kubrick, Bertolucci and Roeg; and the cinematographers mentioned in my answer to your second question. How did you get your first break in the business? My father, Richard Maibaum, was a screenwriter and producer, and I constantly pestered him to get me some kind of industry job. He was adamant that I go to college and get a degree first. True to his word, upon my graduating with a B.A. in cinema from USC, he recommended me to a colleague who knew of a director of photography, Michael P. Joyce, who owned a small production company, FilmArt. Mike was expanding his business into renting cameras (including the then-new Arri 35BL), lighting and grip equipment, and needed someone to fill an entry-level position. I did everything from making coffee and delivering equipment to taking his car to be washed. Over time, I began to help assistants prep cameras, and I was soon putting together the camera, grip and electric equipment for productions Mike shot. FilmArt was a signatory to the I.A., so I was able to get the necessary days to qualify for union membership as a loader, and I began to work with Mike and other cinematogra100
May 2013
phers on jobs that were payrolled through the company. I stayed with Mike for six years until I was able to start freelancing as a first assistant. I will be forever indebted to Mike for his generosity, patience and trust.
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? Shooting director Christopher Reeve’s final project, The Brooke Ellison Story , a MOW about a young girl with the same paralysis as his. Working alongside Chris gave me a new perspective about life’s priorities. Have you made any memorable blunders? Yes. As a camera operator, I gave a most unsatisfactory assessment of a shot to the lead actor. After being ‘let go’ upon the actor’s insistence, I became available to move up to director of photography. What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received? ‘All one really has in this business is one’s reputation as someone who can be trusted.’ What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? The Stanley Kubrick exhibition that’s currently up at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try? Westerns and hard-boiled detective noirs. If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing instead? I would be a puppeteer with Jim Henson’s Muppets. Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership? Julio Macat, Johnny Jensen and Daryn Okada. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? To be included on the ASC roster is the fulfillment of a career-long aspiration. The realization that I am considered a peer is humbling, and it inspires me on a daily basis to do work that the current members and the legendary cinematographers of the past would be proud of. ●
American Cinematographer
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