Coraline; the Spirit; He’S Just Not That Into You; Donald Mcalpine, Asc, Acs • Vol

Home , Bill Pope, Donald McAlpine, Ellen Dolan (comics), Frank Griebe, Marco Onorato, Pierre Lhomme

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The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques

On Our Cover: Coraline crawls through a portal to the Other World in the 3-D stop-motion feature Coraline, shot by Pete Kozachik, ASC. (Frame grab courtesy of Laika, Inc., and Focus Features.)

26 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions Features Pete Kozachik, ASC details his strategies for the 3-D stop-motion movie Coraline 40 Dead Reckoning Bill Pope, ASC blends old and new tricks to honor 40 the origins of The Spirit 52 Embracing Anamorphic John Bailey, ASC exploits the widescreen format on the ensemble comedy He’s Just Not That Into You 60 Citizen of the World Donald McAlpine, ASC, ACS receives the ASC International Award

8 Editor’s Note 52 Departments 10 Short Takes: Circus 14 Production Slate: The International Reverie 68 Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta 72 New Products & Services 82 International Marketplace 83 Classified Ads 84 Ad Index 86 Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky 88 60

Visit us online at www.theasc.com February 2009 Vol. 90, No. 2 The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques • Since 1920

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when it counts © 2009 Panasonic Broadcast Editor’s Note he recent trend toward 3-D production continues with Coraline, a digital stop-motion fantasy about a Tgirl who discovers a menacing parallel world behind the walls of her family’s new home. The project’s ambitious cinematography was supervised by Pete Kozachik, ASC, who brought considerable experience to the table(top) after serving as director of photography on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Adding a third dimension to stop-motion cinematography took Kozachik, director Henry Selick and their collaborators down some fascinating avenues. In a detailed, firsthand account (“2 Worlds in 3 Dimen- sions,” page 26), Kozachik outlines some of the trickiest aspects of 3-D production, as well as the filmmakers’ solutions. “My advice to anyone starting out fresh with 3-D is to seek counsel from a veteran of 3-D production and experiment when you have enough experience to be conversant,” he cautions. Bill Pope, ASC brought a similar willingness to push creative boundaries to The Spirit, based on Will Eisner’s comic-book character and directed by graphic-novel titan Frank Miller. Digging further into an approach previously used on Sin City and 300, two big-screen adaptations of Miller’s own work, Pope shot the picture largely against greenscreen, including eye-popping dry-for-wet sequences shot with a Phantom high-speed camera at frame rates of 200 to 400 fps. “You can do the dumbest stuff in the world, and when you’re filming at 400 fps, suddenly you’re a poet,” Pope quips in his chat with associate editor Jon D. Witmer (“Dead Reckoning,” page 40). Long a champion of the anamorphic format, John Bailey, ASC explains precisely why in a Q&A about his work on the romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You (“Embracing Anamorphic,” page 52). “This movie is an ensemble piece with intercut, parallel stories of five women and the men in their lives,” Bailey tells New York scribe Pat Thomson. “I felt the wider aspect ratio would allow us to be intimate with them yet keep them together in the same shot in a way that was more accommodating than 1.85:1.” This issue also showcases a hearty salute to Society stalwart Donald McAlpine, the recipient of this year’s ASC International Award. As contributing writer Jon Silberg observes in an enlightening profile (“Citizen of the World,” page 60), the Australian cameraman has made a truly global mark with his work on acclaimed exports from his homeland (My Brilliant Career, Breaker Morant), bold collaborations with coun- tryman Baz Luhrmann (Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge), and an impressive string of Holly- wood blockbusters (among them Patriot Games, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). He was also the man behind the camera on one of my personal favorites, the biting Bruce Beresford comedy Don’s Party, which I’ve watched and enjoyed with a few equally obsessive friends more times than I’m willing to admit. Good onya, Don.

Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor Photo by Douglas by Kirkland. Photo

Short Takes Britney Spears as Ringleader by Jim Hemphill

Aerosmith’s “Jaded” (for which Kloss it on the filter when we were using an was nominated for an MTV award for S4, of course,” continues the cine- Best Cinematography), and The Back- matographer. “We would look through street Boys’ “The Call” (AC July ’01). the lens, see the highlights, and then “I’ve worked with Francis since early in paint onto the filter with our fingers to his career, and the relationship hasn’t create certain abstractions and refrac- changed very much,” says Kloss. “From tions, or to stretch lines in the frame.” the beginning, he never overburdened He used a 1⁄4 Tiffen Black Pro-Mist for me with information or requests, but he diffusion. “I wanted to stay away from always had good visual references that a completely crisp image, and because were essential to the project.” post is digital, you can go a little While prepping “Circus,” Kloss stronger on that diffusion because you and Lawrence looked at old circus can always bring it back in the transfer; photographs but didn’t really find what you add a little bit of black, and the they were looking for. “We didn’t want image becomes sharper again.” the video to look like a period piece,” Kloss carried out the transfer explains Kloss. “We wanted to give it a with colorist David Hussey at Company contemporary look but also play with 3. “Our goal on the shoot was to well-known images that people under- [create most of the look] in-camera, stand.” Although Kloss didn’t use other creating flares and shafts and beams of films as references, he found inspira- light that looked good coming through tion by chance at the local cinema. “I the lens,” says Kloss. “In the last 10 went to see the restored Lola Montès years, we’ve seen so much electronic [1955], and it had exactly the kind of post work in films and music videos soft, organic look Francis and I wanted that I think it’s good if the pendulum for the video.” can swing back a little bit. It’s nice to To create that look for “Circus,” shoot something with classic beauty Kloss tapped Otto Nemenz for some lighting and compositions and let the Arri Swing & Tilt lenses — “but we story play.” used them without the swing-and-tilt This sensibility extended to actually in place,” he notes — and every aspect of the production. “Fran- Cooke Panchros. (He shot Super 35mm cis built a lot of practicals into the art with two Arri 435s.) “All modern lenses direction,” notes Kloss. “There were are so well-designed and sharp that hanging lights next to the circus Top: Spears n Britney Spears’ music video even with flares, there’s very little banners with Britney and the dancers shimmers in “Circus,” the singer performs in the distortion or refraction,” Kloss walking through, and lights on the the spotlight. Middle: The Ititular setting among burlesque observes. “Francis and I didn’t want to burlesque stage, along with other old big-top setting dancers, elephants and pyrotechnics, make the video pristine-looking; we theater lights. For wide shots, we used lends a surreal creating a kaleidoscope of visual and wanted a softer, silkier look.” The Nine-light Maxi-Brutes, but everything ambience. Bottom: A aural sensations. It’s a typically dynamic production’s package also included a else was done with old-fashioned shower of milieu for director Francis Lawrence and few Cooke S4 primes, which were used tungsten lamps as practicals. We sparks cinematographer Thomas Kloss, whose on the B camera. started with those and then just accen- silhouettes the singer. ongoing partnership has yielded bold “When we used filters, we tuated them. results on an array of music videos, applied grease or Vaseline in a very “I feel that Francis has always

including Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi,” specific way, and we put a little more of called on me for things that have a Micelotta. Frank by Photo grabsFrame of courtesy DNA.

10 February 2009

darker, more intense look, and I tend to tried to light in a way that we could paint out of the black, not the white,” constantly keep moving without stop- he adds. “I like to start with all the ping between each setup to relight, so lights off and start lighting a step at a we decided on a general 45-degree time, and this project lent itself to that backlight with soft fill light; that way, approach. We started with a dark stage we had most of the situations pre-lit and no light, then slowly illuminated with dimmers. We adjusted up or down what we wanted to see. a bit while Britney was getting ready or “We wanted the lighting to have changing wardrobe. Then, as soon as two distinct looks, one natural and one she showed up on set, we were ready theatrical. For the natural look, we used to get maximum coverage. On a music very simple paper China balls around video, it’s important to get enough the camera to give Britney the minimum angles to avoid repeating shots, amount of fill and put a bit of glow in because people always want to see her face. The other look was for the new angles and images.” reverse, which we lit to look like there’s “Circus” was shot on Kodak a strong light coming from a follow Vision3 500T 5219, which Kloss rated at spot, from the audience area or from ISO 320. “It was perfect for what we the other side of the stage. When Brit- wanted,” he says. “There’s so much ney’s dancing on the burlesque stage, latitude and contrast control with that one strong follow spot creates a pure negative if you really expose it well. A silhouette.” Lighting the reverse shots project like this lets you really use that with strong spotlights had an added latitude and maximize the palette from benefit: “On a big stage or in a big the absolute jet black on the edges of space, it helps you create a fake 3-D the frame all the way to the blown-out feel with a little bit of smoke and back- whites of the highlights.” light. It instantly creates the sensation “Circus” was not without chal- of a theatrical performance.” lenges — including working with For most of the shoot, both Arri elephants and a wall of fire that could 435s were handheld. “That helped only stay lit for 15-20 seconds at a time make everything feel a little more — but Kloss says his longtime partner- organic,” says Kloss. “Our idea was to ship with Lawrence kept things on give it a strong basic look with strong schedule. “We shot two 12-hour days contrast and then shoot for coverage. I and got everything we needed. That’s one of the advantages of working with Top: Spears and a director who has the experience to her background know what coverage he needs.” dancers stay in step. Middle: The Although Kloss has shot ringleader cracks features, including Fear and Showtime, her whip. Bottom: he notes that short-form projects have The star primps for her distinct advantages. “On a movie, you performance in usually establish a look and just the mirror of continue it for months. Videos and a makeup table. Right: commercials keep you fresh.” I Cinematographer Thomas Kloss (holding monitor) shows Spears some footage on set. China balls were used to cast a soft glow on the singer’s face for close-ups in the makeup-table sequence.

12 February 2009

Production Slate Financial Intrigue and a Flashy SLR Video

Globe-trotting Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) draws a bead on his quarry.

Banks as Bad Guys Tykwer. “But instead of the Secret fast-paced because it contains one by Mark Hope-Jones Service or CIA being the system within event happening after another is differ- the system, we wanted to suggest it’s ent from a movie that [feels] fast Director Tom Tykwer read Eric the institutions of world finance that because of the intensity of the camera- Singer’s screenplay for The International seem to be the new governments that work.” seven or eight years ago, but it wasn’t secretly rule our lives.” “The style of The International until late 2007 that he was sufficiently Tykwer collaborated on the film had to be very clear and precise happy with it to start filming. The long with cinematographer Frank Griebe, who because there are so many scenes and gestation period allowed careful fine- has shot all of his pictures, most recently so much important dialogue,” says tuning of the story, which follows Inter- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (AC Griebe. “You have to hear what the pol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) as Feb ’07). “The International almost characters are saying to follow the story, he attempts to uncover the corrupt prac- seemed like a period film to us because which is why we didn’t use too many tices of an international bank. It also when you see a film in the cinema now, visual gadgets. We only did handheld or meant, quite by chance, that production the characters simply don’t talk the same Steadicam shots for action scenes; a lot coincided with the current global finan- way they do in movies like All the Presi- of the time, we had the camera on a cial crisis, which makes the film’s dent’s Men [1976],” says Griebe. Other dolly or a tripod.” photos by Jay Maidment, SMPSP, and Roland Schultz, courtesy of courtesy Pictures. Columbia Schultz, and Roland SMPSP, Maidment, Jay by photos premise of banks as omnipotent villains differences involve pacing and camera- Tykwer was fascinated by the even more resonant. “We were thinking work. “I always felt that if you want to idea that images in the film should form of making a film reminiscent of the para- make a film feel fast, you should make part of the system Salinger is trying to noia thrillers that Alan Pakula and the story move fast rather than the fight. Rather than have the camera run

Sydney Pollack made in the 1970s,” says camera,” says Tykwer. “A movie that is with the character, he wanted Salinger The International

14 February 2009 Left: Along the way, Salinger teams with district attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts). Below: Cinematographer Frank Griebe (right) lines up the camera for director Tom Tykwer.

to run through compositions that were didn’t need sound for a scene, we’d Tom likes to use zooms because we can not dictated by his movements; the char- shoot with the 235 or 435 to give us that work quickly, and both zooms were T2.8, acter is often dwarfed by architecture, extra flexibility. We shot every setup so I was shooting almost everything at suggesting a tiny individual trapped with two cameras, and there was so that stop. I only shot wide open on the within an immovable system. “Tom was much dialogue we usually used the Arri- Master Primes once or twice. The concerned that these wide architectural cams.” Master Primes cut very well with the images wouldn’t look sharp enough in Repeating his choice of lenses Master Zoom, but the Optimo is a bit 35mm, so I suggested shooting some from Perfume, Griebe combined Arri softer, so I used it mainly if we needed scenes in 65mm with the Arri 765,” says Master Primes with the 16.5-110mm a close-up with a very long lens. For Griebe. Tykwer agreed and also decided Master Zoom and 24-290mm Ange- some setups, I’d tell the B-camera oper- to shoot a few key close-ups of Salinger nieux Optimo zoom. “We didn’t use a lot ator to look for faces or little details, and on 65mm to intensify the anxiety in his of longer lenses,” he says. “It’s more of the Optimo is perfect for that.” expression. “It provided a contrast and a classical style; we typically shot with As Salinger delves deeper into made a statement that his face is as a 27mm on the A and a 50mm on the B. the bank’s misdeeds, he comes to real- important for us to look at as the pristine architecture shots that represent the perfectly shaped system,” says the director. Most of The International was shot on 3-perf Super 35mm, and the production used an Arricam Studio and Lite, an Arri 235 and Arri 435s supplied by Arri in Munich, which also provided the 765, grip gear, lighting equipment and lab work. Griebe had the second unit shoot some material 4-perf to give Tykwer more flexibility in post. “The Studio was our A camera, and we used the Lite for Steadicam and handheld work,” says the cinematographer. “The 235 can fit into tight spaces, and if Tom

American Cinematographer 15 ize the illegal activities within the going to put the video screens and what system stretch into his own organiza- we were going to do.” tion, and before long, he becomes a “I think we had 50 or 60 separate target. Teaming up with a district attor- projections,” says Griebe. “The movie ney, Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), was produced by Sony, so we asked Salinger travels to New York, Berlin, them for projectors, and there were Istanbul and Milan on a life-and-death endless technical discussions about chase to topple the bank. A dramatic lens and projector sizes. The biggest showdown at the Guggenheim problem was the light power because Museum in New York sees Salinger we wanted the video images to have a and Whitman run into heavily armed lot of contrast, but I had to add some assassins. “We felt that if we had a other lights to shoot the scenes. We did slow buildup of tension through the a lot of tests, including one where I movie, it would grow toward this didn’t add any lights at all; it looked sequence, where it explodes and hits really spooky with the screens as the the audience full-on,” says Tykwer. only source, but it was too dark, so we “Many action movies open with a spec- gradually added lights until we found tacular sequence that sets a standard the right level. What made it difficult is the filmmakers have to keep running that the Guggenheim [interior] is more or after, but we chose not to set a hysteri- less white, so there are reflections and cal pace. When the action happens, it’s bounce light coming from every corner. all the more overwhelming.” Eventually, we used the projectors as Because the Guggenheim they came because if you want more sequence involves considerable power, you have to use something like a destruction, it was never going to be Barco, which was too big. All the video filmed entirely on location. The produc- projections were on hard disk, and we The production shot some scenes inside the Guggenheim tion’s soundstage work was based at could control them with time code to Museum in New York, but other parts of that sequence were Studio Babelsberg in Germany, but none make sure the right content was filmed on a replica set built in an old locomotive warehouse in Germany (above and below). of the available stages was large onscreen at the right time. It was very enough to accommodate even a partial complicated, but I doubt anyone in the reconstruction of the Guggenheim inte- audience will realize how much work it rior. Finally, the filmmakers located an involved!” old locomotive warehouse nearby and The fact that the video projec- had it refurbished by a structural engi- tions partially dictated how much addi- neer to suit their needs. Even then, only tional light Griebe could use for the three levels of the Guggenheim’s scenes was actually something of a famous spiral rotunda would fit beneath blessing, because there was very little the building’s ceiling, so they were room to rig lights either at the museum dressed first as the upper levels, then or onstage. “There was no possibility of redressed for shots of the lower levels putting up a lighting rig on the stage and the lobby. because the roof would not have taken Tykwer relished the opportunity the weight,” says gaffer Helmut Prein. to effectively become curator of the “A tower rig was also impossible Guggenheim for the sequence, and he because of the shape of the set in corre- chose to display the works of Julian lation to the stage building. It was fortu- Rosefeldt, a German video artist. “Our nate that the projectors necessitated film is about a guy who has to hunt low light levels because that prompted down an organization that represents a us to investigate helium balloons. We seemingly invisible system, and I considered getting a custom-made ellip- thought video art was quite a logical tical 24K balloon, but there wasn’t thing to feature because it’s not physical enough time. Instead, we created a like sculpture or paintings,” says Tykwer. single soft source comprising three 4.8K “We built a 3- or 4-meter model of the helium tubes positioned side by side at Guggenheim that we could stand inside the top of the set, above a layer of Cali- and figured out exactly where we were fornia Sunbounce medium diffusion.”¢

16 February 2009

rushes were graded accordingly,” he says. “We didn’t print any shots, but the HD rushes were so good that Tom said all the way through editing that he wanted the movie to look exactly like the rushes.” The digital intermediate, carried out at Arri Schwarzfilm in Berlin, was Griebe’s second experience with the process. On Perfume, it was primarily the intense color scheme that necessitated a DI, and Griebe used very few filters on set. For The International, he again tended to avoid filtration, “but the main reason for the DI this time was all the visual-effects shots,” he explains. “Probably half the shots in the movie are effects shots, but it’s the kind of film where you don’t want the audience to notice them. We did some architectural enhancements and lots of effects for the Guggenheim action scenes, Salinger’s The large source above the needed quite a bit of light, so we had six and we had a great relationship with investigation into shady center of the set was motivated by the 18K ArriMax units controlled by [visual-effects house] UPP and [visual- financial domed skylight at the top of the Maxmovers on a rig suspended from a effects supervisor] Viktor Muller, who was dealings takes Guggenheim’s rotunda. White silk skirt- crane directly above the skylight.” The always on set with us.” him to a variety of exotic ing was hung on a circular alloy pipe dome of the skylight was covered with a In post, the 65mm footage was locales, surrounding the helium tubes, and an 45'x45' grid cloth, and a few 12K scanned at 4K and the 35mm footage at including additional outer circle of black skirting ArriSuns were positioned on the roof to 2K on an Arriscan. “We didn’t do anything Istanbul. provided complete control of the light. even out the falloff of the down lights. too major in the grade,” says Griebe. “We “In the end, it looked like a space light “Inside, we supplemented with about were mainly just balancing things out. with a diameter of 13 meters,” says 10 Kino Flos on each floor of the rotunda Tom and I didn’t want to get carried away Prein. “The falloff from that source was and three helium balloons,” adds by imposing different looks on certain extremely natural; between the top floor Griebe. “But most of the light was scenes; we wanted to keep the look as on the stage and the bottom, there was coming through the skylight.” natural as possible, and making even little a loss of only 11⁄2 stops.” Prein installed daylight bulbs in adjustments to effects elements in the At that point, the filmmakers about 80 triangular house lights inside grade can take a lot of time. didn’t know how much light would be the museum and gelled them to re- “It was a very special experience to available on location at the real Guggen- create the look of the studio footage. “It make a film with a big studio, especially heim, so they decided to set the was a really exciting moment to arrive as we got to work in Berlin and didn’t have sequence at dusk and keep the light as at the Guggenheim after a night shoot to to go to Hollywood,” he concludes. soft as possible. About 70 4'x4' Kino Flos see whether our ideas about how to “Maybe next we’ll do a short movie — 10 were hidden in the elevator areas on match the real museum to our stage days around the world with just the each floor, and 6' tubes were positioned work had worked out,” he recalls. “I got camera and a few lenses! Sometimes it’s behind screens in the rotunda; all lights there with our New York gaffer, Russ good to go back to the basics.” were DMX-controlled. Additional light- Engels, and Gregor Wilson, the unit ing came from three Kino Flo Flatheads production manager, and we all had to TECHNICAL SPECS punching through an 8'x8' grid cloth on a smile when we looked at the lighting 2.40:1 rotating base on a scissor lift. setup. It matched the look we had devel- Super 35mm (3-perf and 4-perf), When it came to the location oped in Babelsberg perfectly.” 65mm shoot in New York, Griebe’s lighting Griebe shot The International on Arricam Studio, Lite; Arri 235, 435, 765 options were fairly limited. “The Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, 200T 5217 Arri and Angenieux lenses Guggenheim is a complicated building and 100T 5212. “Sadly, the new Vision3 Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, 200T 5217, to light,” he notes. “The people there wasn’t available at that time,” he says. 100T 5212 were very friendly, but we couldn’t Throughout the shoot, he viewed Digital Intermediate mount anything to the structure inside, HDCam dailies. “I took a lot of stills and Printed on Kodak Vision Premier 2393 so we had to light from outside. We sent them to [Arri] with notes, and the ¢

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www.abelcine.com New York 888.223.1599 Los Angeles 888.700.4416 Chicago 630.554.4619 Right: A Canon EOS-5D Mark II SLR mounted to the hood of a car produces a dynamic nighttime drive. The driver was illuminated by an LED light positioned near the car’s speedometer, but the rest of the sequence was lit naturally by architectural lights, headlights and other existing fixtures. Below: The New York skyline is reflected in a male model’s sunglasses during a helicopter shot captured with a 15-35mm lens and an LED Creating Reverie version of the camera was Vincent shot a motion picture of any kind. When light attached by Steve Hullfish Laforet, a photojournalist and commer- Canon agreed to loan him the prototype to a monopod. cial still photographer. His interest in the for a single weekend, “I was sweating Canon’s recent release of the Mark II was piqued when he noticed it because I knew I had to produce some- EOS-5D Mark II, a high-end amateur was capable of shooting high-definition thing,” he recalls. “Immediately, I digital SLR camera, is providing a video (1920x1080p), and on short notice, decided to get a helicopter because one glimpse into the possible direction for he produced a 1-minute 55-second test of my specialties is aerial photography. digital cinematography. The camera has film, Reverie, that attracted a lot of In the meantime, my assistant was a full-size (36mmx24mm) 21-megapixel attention on the Web. The film’s images trying to figure out the camera and set it CMOS sensor capable of shooting 50- show what can be done with a camera up; we had no user manual, and time 25,600 ISO. that is capable of shooting 30 fps at was of the essence.” One of the first American 3,200 ISO and above. In less than 12 hours, Laforet photographers to shoot with a prototype Prior to Reverie, Laforet had not assembled a cast and crew, outlined a story and chose locations. “If anyone had asked me to shoot a film or video a month earlier, my top concern would have been lighting, which is incredibly time-consuming,” he says. “But this camera is so sensitive to low light that you can really rely on natural light, and I think that’s where my skill as a photojournalist really came to bear — I knew I could walk into a room and add maybe one light source to make it look beautiful.” Laforet shot with just two lighting instruments: a ProFoto 7B strobe pack, a strobe unit that has a modeling lamp, and a Litepanels Mini, a small

LED. His grip gear included three Laforet. frame grabsVincent of courtesy Avenger suction mounts with some

Magic Arms by Bogen, regular still- Reverie

20 February 2009

Top: Laforet used camera grip gear and some safety his own Canon cables. He rigged a Ken-Lab KS-8 gyro 24mm and 45mm lenses to on a monopod for the running shot and capture shots of helicopter scenes. Laforet used his own a couple’s Canon prime and zoom still lenses. “In embrace with the Brooklyn terms of what’s in the final film, it’s a Bridge serving 15mm fisheye f2.8, a 16-35mm f2.8 as a romantic zoom lens, a 50mm f1.2, an 85mm f1.2, background. Middle: This a 200mm f2, a 24mm f3.5 and a 45mm shot of a female f3.5,” he says. The latter two lenses model on a were used for shots of a man and cobblestone street was woman in Brooklyn with Manhattan and illuminated by the Brooklyn Bridge behind them. just two “In my opinion, there are three sources: frontal light from a bare revolutionary things about this camera,” bulb and says Laforet. “One, you can use the reflector prime lenses you already own. Two, the positioned high on a stand, and camera is very small and very light; one backlight from of the aerial shots was done with me the headlights of holding a monopod beneath the skids of Laforet’s Jeep. Architectural the helicopter, shooting straight down accent lights over the Empire State Building. Three, provided the camera’s ability to capture detail in additional ambience. low light is incredible; we were shooting Bottom: The at 1/30th of a second at f2 at 1,600 ASA. models kiss It’s that stuff you can just see with your against a dreamlike naked eye but usually can’t capture on background of video or stills. With this camera, you can defocused pretty much go anywhere and shoot lights. what you see, adding a very minimal amount of lighting.” Laforet’s two assistants worked on the shoot along with an assistant director, a makeup artist and the two models. The tiny footprint of the crew and gear also allowed them to shoot with no lighting pre-scout, no film permits and no FAA oversight of the aerial shoot. Laforet says the camera’s low- light capability was especially important for the driving shots that travel through Times Square. “The shot of the rearview mirror and the wide shots of the car were done with the LED light sitting where the speedometer is, lighting the driver’s face — everything else is natural [light].” The camera’s light sensitivity enabled Laforet to rely on some unusual sources, as in a beautiful shot of a female model on a cobblestone street. “There’s only one light, the modeling light on a stand that was very high. It was a bare bulb with the reflector, no

22 February 2009 MEMBER PORTRAIT RON GARCIA, ASC

n the mid-1960s, while I was working in the “I aerospace industry and studying fine art at Art Center College of Design, a racing-boat manufacturer asked me to make a film about his boat in the six- hour Lake Havasu inboard boat race. During that first experience behind the lens, I fell in love with the camera and never looked back. “While struggling to learn cinematography by trial and error, I discovered the American Cinematographer Manual, which led me to American Cinematographer magazine. After 42 years of shooting, AC is still my go-to reference in my never-ending quest for film excellence.”

— Ron Garcia, ASC ©photo by Owen Roizman, ASC

TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE: Call (800) 448-0145 (U.S. only) (323) 969-4333 or visit the ASC Web site

WWW.THEASC.COM not always a cure-all in low light,” notes M. David Mullen, ASC. “Dynamic range is also a factor because you don’t want bright areas to overexpose too quickly and unnaturally.” Curtis Clark, ASC says he would welcome the ability to shoot at a very high ASA as long as there aren’t detri- mental trade-offs in the images. “Obvi- ously, using small lights is a lot cheaper than using large ones. In artistic terms, being able to increase the depth of field affects not just photographic style but also the ability to render details within the scene, and that, of course, would impact set design and art direction.” Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC finds the idea appealing but notes that film technology is advancing to meet Above: Laforet diffusion. There’s a bit of backlight from etted scene, the lights in the back- the challenge posed by digital formats. took creative advantage of the the headlights of my Jeep. On the tight ground go deeply out of focus to create “Shooting Vision3 [500T] at 400 ASA depth-of-field headshot of her, we used a flashlight a nice bokeh effect. “That’s a 400mm and T2 gives you superb results at night characteristics and the brake lights from my car.” lens focused in as close as you can with in the streets,” he says. “It would be inherent to the 5D’s full-frame Laforet even used Adobe Photo- just two normal tungsten lightbulbs in great to be able to shoot at T2.8 or at sensor. In this shop to light a scene. “For the scene the background,” he says. “The tung- T4, but I’m not super-excited about it shot, a 400mm with the model’s face lit by the TV, we sten lights were probably 20 yards because ASA is just part of the equa- lens turns tungsten lights plugged the DVI cable from the laptop behind her, and I was maybe 6 feet from tion.” into a pleasing into the HDMI port of my TV, loaded a her.” That’s not to say Goldblatt can’t background gray slide into Photoshop CS3, and The scenes from the helicopter find a use for the technology, however. effect. Below: Reverie messed with the lightness parameter are among the most impressive in “I use Canon digital cameras to take filmmaker slider to create the flickering blue light,” Reverie. “The shot I wanted from the reference shots of every set when I’m Laforet. he explains. moment we started on this was the doing a movie,” he says. “Ending up The full-frame sensor size of the sunglasses reflecting the Empire State with an MPEG file that you could adjust 5D allows for beautiful depth of field, Building,” says Laforet. “It took quite a quickly on your computer at the end of and Laforet took full advantage of that few years of flying to know the exact the day would be fantastic. Generally in many shots. In one example, a silhou- time to take off to get that perfect speaking, stills do the trick, but some- balance. We took off about 15 minutes times they don’t. This is like another before sunset. For the shot of the model, arrow in the quiver. I had a 15-35mm lens, and my assistant “I think Reverie looks so beauti- was holding the LED light on a monopod ful because it’s a full-frame sensor with behind me. Everything and everyone a very, very shallow depth of field, and was securely safety harnessed and Laforet was using lovely Canon lenses wired.” wide open,” adds Goldblatt. “And let’s The post process on Reverie was not forget there’s a very good eye easy because the Mark II records in behind the camera. Not everybody can H.264 compressed QuickTime format. go out with that camera and get those “You stick the CF card into your results.” computer, drag the files onto your desk- top, drag them into Final Cut Pro and TECHNICAL SPECS then edit,” says Laforet. “There’s no 3x2 rendering.” High-Definition Video Three ASC members recently Canon EOS-5D Mark II weighed in on Laforet’s observation that Canon lenses the Mark II is a “game changer” for I cinematography. “Faster sensitivity is

24 February 2009

2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions

xciting events tend to happen as Pete Kozachik, ASC details his soon as conditions are right, and approach to the 3-D digital Henry Selick’s stop-motion stop-motion feature Coraline, whose feature Coraline, based on Neil EGaiman’s supernatural novella, heroine discovers a sinister world rides in on a host of new innova- tions, including advanced machine- behind the walls of her new home. vision cameras and the emergence of practical 3-D. Most instrumental was by Pete Kozachik, ASC the birth of Laika Entertainment, Phil Knight’s startup animation Unit photography by Galvin Collins company in Oregon, fresh and eager Additional photos by Pete Kozachik to try something new.

26 February 2009 I made it a priority to line up Opposite: Coraline’s talented and experienced camera- “Other” parents men early. Leading their three-man usher her into units were cinematographers John her new home. This page, top: Ashlee, Paul Gentry, Mark Stewart, Cinematographer Peter Sorg, Chris Peterson, Brian Peter Williams Van’t Hul, Peter Williams and Frank (right) and animator Jan Passingham. Most of the camera Maas prepare assistants and electricians had shoot- the scene. ing experience of their own, making Middle and bottom: The the camera department pretty well “Real” and bulletproof. With more than 55 “Other” kitchen, setups working at the same time, we with the former utilizing forced needed guys who were quick, orga- perspective. nized and versatile. From the beginning, we knew the two worlds Coraline inhabits — the drab “Real World” and the fantastic “Other World” — would be distorted mirror images of each other, as different in tone as Kansas and Oz. Camera and art departments would create the differences, keeping the emphasis on Coraline’s feelings. Among the closest film references for the supernatural Other World were the exaggerated color schemes in Amélie, which we used when the Other Mother is enticing Coraline to stay with her. The Shining and The Orphanage provided good reference for interiors when things go awry. Image banks such as flickr.com were a good source for reference pics, and including those shots in my lighting and camera notes helped jump-start crews on new sequences. Artist Tadahiro Uesugi supplied a valuable influence for the show; his work has a graphic simplicity, like fashion art from the Fifties, with minimal modeling but an awareness of light. It helped in spirit to guide us away from excess gingerbread, which is typical in both art and lighting for stop-motion. Before hiring on, I sought a way to improve on limitations of digital SLRs we encountered on Corpse Bride (AC Oct. ’05). On that show, fuzzy video-tap images were animators’ most common

Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Laika, Inc., and Focus Features. and Focus and frame grabsPhotos ofInc., courtesy Laika, complaint. Most promising was the

American Cinematographer 27 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions workable beta version before moving on to other projects. It is an exciting step forward with a lot of features, including 3-D diagnostics and two- way serial communication with Kuper motion-control. Our only seriously missed target was capture speed, which I hope to revisit with new data-transfer technology. While we were in prep, RealD founder Lenny Lipton told Henry about his new 3-D system. Henry saw its creative storytelling potential and believed it would help immerse the audience in our handcrafted worlds. One short visit to RealD fired my enthusiasm; Lenny’s process had overcome every technical snag that Above: In a real- made 3-D infamous, taking inge- world scene, nious advantage of D-Cinema to Coraline’s father plugs away in his make it smooth and dependable. His study. Right: This vision of 3-D as a new tool for the shot of the scene’s cinematographer was infectious. lighting setup shows the floor- We sought the advice of several supported other 3-D advisers who provided modular grid basic theory, knowledge from first- system that gaffer/cameraman hand experience and strongly held Bryan Garver opinions that were not always in designed for agreement. Lenny wisely noted that individual stop-motion we had to choose which advice to setups. He and follow and find our own way. cinematographer To follow this story, one must John Ashlee lit the scene. understand two 3-D parameters: interocular distance and convergence. Interocular distance (IO) is the distance between left and right eyes; it affords us the separate views we inter- pret as 3-D roundness. By adjusting MegaPlus EC11000, a machine- • Nikkor F mount IO, we can expand or contract the vision camera based on a 4K Kodak • Sensor housed in a dust-free, 3-D volume of a shot. Convergence is CCD sensor. It sported these inert-gas-filled chamber the amount our eyes toe-in to align features: • Software-development both images of an object; it gives us a documentation for custom sense of our distance from an object. • Able to double as its own tap, user applications On Coraline, we worked backwards, outputting sharp 1K or 2K mono adjusting alignment of image pairs to at fast frame rates Unlike dSLRs, each camera control audience eye convergence. • Thermoelectric sensor cooling had to be tethered to a smokin’ fast That way, we could pull objects out of for low noise in long exposures PC (running our custom applica- the screen or push them back. • Physically large 36x24mm sensor tion) that grabbed production Because puppets hold still for • Among the cameras tested, its frames and served as a higher-res multiple exposures, we could shift a response curves were most animator guide and color display to single camera left and right to similar to film check lighting. The company R&D capture both 3-D views. That was the • Rugged, machinable aluminum team worked hard on the ambi- beginning of our “3-D sliders.” My body tiously spec’d software, delivering a first instinct had a two-axis rig sliding

28 February 2009 horizontally to achieve the desired Left: Animator IO and back-panning to converge on Travis Knight works on a objects. Lenny advised leaving out scene in Dad’s the convergence axis and aligning in “Real” study. post by sliding one image over the Below: Coraline’s other. We needed extra picture width “Other” father for that maneuver, which a 3K crop puts an of our 4K sensors allowed. entertaining spin on things in Armed with a couple of the “Other” prototype 3-D sliders, John Ashlee version of the began experimenting with using same space. forced-perspective sets without tipping our hand. We learned that a 1Ú2-scale background looked natural in normal stereo, and a ¼-scale background would work in weaker stereo. We made a composite of several elements built at different We had simplified by limiting color script, we decided to impose a scales, scaling a camera move to the test to a single subject, a good complementary Òstereo arcÓ on the match, to see if a composite in 3-D starting point in setting up shots and show. Henry wanted 3-D depth to would hold together. It sounded helpful for newcomers to the show. differentiate the Real World from the promising, and it works just fine as But things quickly got more complex Other World specifically in sync with long as you carefully set up each in deep sets that featured objects what Coraline is feeling. To do that, element, scaling everything, espe- both close to and far from camera. At we kept the Real World at a reduced cially distance to camera and the IO that point, we needed more than an stereo depth, suggesting CoralineÕs distance. IO cheat sheet; we had to rack up flat outlook, and used full 3-D in the Paul Gentry set out to empiri- enough experience to make Other World. At first, full 3-D opens cally determine benchmarks for IO informed judgment calls. As with any up a better world for Coraline, but distance. He shot puppets in a other aspect of cinematography, with when things go bad, we carefully matrix of close-up, medium and experience, we gained confidence exaggerate stereo depth to match her full-body shots at different focal and a more instinctive approach. distress. lengths and IOs. We projected each We all agreed 3-D had to be 3-D adviser Brian Gardner frame in 3-D and rated puppet heads used to enhance story and mood, like pointed out the emotional effects of for normal, extreme and reduced any other photo technique. Along placing a subject behind or in front roundness. Not surprisingly, we with the story arc, lighting arc and of the screen. Similar to shooting up found that the closer you get to the subject, the smaller the IO you need. And we quickly found out how painful excessive IO can be Ñ painful enough to pull an audience right out of the narrative, if not the theater. The big surprise was how little it takes to create a normal sense of roundness. We reasoned that puppets would look natural by setting IO as measured between CoralineÕs puppet eyes vs. the distance between a pair of human eyes Ñ 19mm puppet vs. 64mm human. But to our surprise, normal- feeling roundness in puppet close- ups ranged from 1-3mm IO, and in wide shots from 3-10mm IO.

American Cinematographer 29 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions or down on a character, we could assign power in a confrontation scene by thrusting a character out into the theater, with the weaker position being behind the screen. The technique also helped to emphasize moods as different as intimacy and menace. We found that a setting receding deeply behind screen creates a sense of space and freedom and is more effective at evoking pleasant feelings than bringing everything out into the theater. You might notice this in Coraline’s establishing shots, interior as well as exterior. Sometimes we did the opposite, crowding images into theater space to invoke claustropho- bia or discomfort. A particularly involved use of 3-D included a big effort from the art department. Henry wanted to create a sense of confinement to suggest Coraline’s feelings of loneliness and boredom in her new home. His idea had interiors built with a strong forced perspective and shot in 3-D to give conflicting cues on how deep the rooms really were. Later, we see establishing shots of the more appealing Other World rooms shot from the same position but built with normal perspective. The compositions match in 2-D, but the 3-D depth cues evoke a different feel for each room. These “master twin” shots depended on building the Ashlee’s photography of forced-perspective sets to an exact Coraline’s “Real” camera position. New angles usually (top) and “Other” required a new build. (middle) bedrooms was complicated Because IO was run on a by a moving- motion-control channel, we could camera match- change it during a shot. We had the dissolve in 3-D; there was a same freedom to animate alignment significant in post. The combination became a difference powerful tool for creative work as between the sets’ physical depth. well as solving technical issues. The Bottom: Camera most common use was on camera assistant/motion- trucks that went from wide views to control operator Dean Holmes extreme close-ups. In one case, we programs a move animated the IO from 0.5mm to that will mimic 18mm, starting on a frame-filling the feel of a handheld camera. face and ending on a wide shot of house and yard. This allowed a deep

30 February 2009 Left: Coraline encounters three ghost children on one of her forays into the Other World. Below left: Chris Tootle animates the ghosts, who were shot in a separate pass. The models are attached to a motion-control rig that also carries lights that create interactive illumination for Coraline. Below right: Chris Peterson’s crew sets up a down angle of Coraline for the scene.

3-D effect at the wide end while unconsciously adjust to compensate. work for 3-D constraints. Contrast making it easy for the audience to Our production cameras and depth of field remained useful fuse left and right in the close-up. comprised 38 MegaPlus EC11000s creative tools, requiring just a little We also tried animating IO and eight Nikon D80s, and our extra care, as did camera movement. settings on locked-off close-ups, primary lenses were Tamron and We used composition, color, focal hoping to get an effect as startling as Sigma zooms and Nikkor primes length and filtration in a wide, unre- Hitchcock’s simultaneous zoom- ranging from 14mm to 105mm. stricted range, concentrating on and-dolly trick. For better or worse, With very few exceptions, we did not storytelling. it is barely noticeable — viewers compromise lighting and camera- One of our larger scenes

American Cinematographer 31 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions Our first “master twin” shot is in the Real Kitchen, wide on Coraline and her mother against the window. Paul Gentry used directional soft boxes to throw backlight in through the window, with just enough front fill to keep it all looking rainy and bleak. Later, we see the same composition but on a much more appealing Other World kitchen. Paul used rose and yellow gels on focal spots to create pools and wall scrapes, making the set bright and warm. By gradually darkening walls farther from center, he made the kitchen a stronger lure. John Ashlee’s Real World version of Dad’s Study has a rainy- day window key similar to that in the Above: As depicts an apple orchard that occu- He switched to cooler gels and kitchen but accomplished with they venture deep into a pied several sets up to 30' long and higher contrast for a scary moon- cheater lights, as the window was too forest, Coraline 20' deep. Mark Stewart shot two light battle pitting Coraline and her small and distant to carry the load. and a companion sequences there using 5K and 2K friend, Wybie, against a disembodied In one shot, we see Coraline and her discover there is a physical sources — larger lights than usual hand. We played key continuity father reflected in his ancient limit to the for stop-motion, but the reduced looser in this rapid-cutting computer monitor. John tried Other World, exposure time helped animators sequence, concentrating on making valiantly to set it up for real, even which recedes into a milky- keep their rhythm. He used blue and powerful images. I doubt most view- making a 2" working display, but white limbo. pale-green gels, tight contrast ratios, ers will notice that, but they will feel optical geometry wasn’t on our side. Below: Lit by large bounced sources and a soft key the scene change to awkward pre- Instead, he shot both reflected faces cinematographer Frank as the recipe for impending rain. teen romance, played a little brighter separately, and they were later Passingham, the Motion-controlled gobos provided and with lower contrast for a composited along with a real Plexiglas set subtle, moving cloud shadows. happier mood. computer display. gives animator Phil Dale plenty The most finicky “master of light. The twin” interiors were Coraline’s Real rigs supporting and Other bedrooms, also Coraline and the cat were painted photographed by John Ashlee. His out in post and challenge was a moving-camera replaced with a match-dissolve in 3-D that was second pass. complicated by two sets with radi- cally different physical depths. It took numerous move tests and rebuilding architecture, even bedposts, to line up on a pivotal frame in the dissolve, followed by extra finesse in post. John lit each bedroom for maximum difference in mood; Other bedroom scenes had warm practicals and multiple spots shaping and picking out details designed to delight, but it was never overly bright, allowing bright moonlight to play a part. In stark contrast, he rendered the Real bedroom with chilly soft light from the overcast sky.

32 February 2009

2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions

For an exterior view of Coraline’s “Real” house, cinematographer Mark Stewart surrounded his subjects with bounced light to create an overcast, rainy-day look.

To create a magic, self-illumi- sequentially sculpted series of basement, where she enjoys a vintage nated garden, Paul Gentry balanced figurines rather than flexible burlesque followed by a breathtaking a combination of fiber-optics, small puppets. Brian Van’t Hul shot a rous- trapeze act. Peter Sorg used many incandescents and LEDs embedded ing brass band of circus mice march- MR16 architectural lights to streak in fanciful animated flowers, plus ing in formation, requiring up walls and low-voltage halogens black-light-activated paint. I suspect animators to keep track of hundreds for footlights. Adding other practi- the growing flowers will be mistaken of replacement mice and change out cals, mini spotlights on motion- for CG work, but it is all real stuff. each mouse for each frame. Brian, control movers and a central China Sometimes we shot Coraline sepa- who was also the show’s visual- ball for fill, Peter surpassed the rately so flowers could be animated effects supervisor, juggled different grandeur of our reference, which was in reverse by trimming them frame- scales of sets and characters with the London Opera House. by-frame. complex camera moves throughout We took full advantage of 3-D Frank Passingham rendered a the scene. in the trapeze act, and I suggest you more dangerous version of the I discovered that real circuses see the movie twice so you can watch garden, tinting it with poisonous aren’t lit with great finesse, so to this scene with glasses on and off. It is green moonlight and carefully create more magic, Brian enhanced an effective use of animated IO and diminishing glowing plants while the tent interior with Mini Flos convergence; it adds scope and raising contrast. In quite the oppo- washing up walls for a more appeal- excitement without nuking the site tone, he made the Other house ing background. The mice them- eyeballs. exterior a beacon of light, overpow- selves worked in hard-edged Peter turned right around and ering the full moon with warm prac- spotlight that was brighter and relit his theater sets for a much ticals in windows, outdoor lanterns cooler than the background. Brian spookier note. Coraline’s flashlight and architectural lighting. In effect, also rigged a few practicals overhead and some very dimmed-down prac- the house itself became the key light for atmosphere, creating hot points ticals provide the apparent sources; for a charming conversation of blown-out circus colors. For they were augmented with focal between Coraline and a wise cat. reverse angles on Coraline, he used spots and mini-profiles that we hope I wish George Pal were alive to soft uplight to suggest bounce from will go unnoticed. A blazing spot- accept our salute to his 1940s-era the spectacle offscreen. light comes on to reveal a cocoon in Puppetoons. He would smile in Coraline discovers an opulent the form of a large taffy wrapper, recognition at a sequence using 19th century theater in the Other overpowering any other lighting.

34 February 2009 Peter carefully balanced background practicals to remain just visible enough to describe the space but draw no attention. In a more somber sequence, Peter used a fireplace as a flickering source on Coraline, who sits alone in a dark room as the embers die. A wide shot emphasizes her isolation as the firelight grads off quickly from where she sits. Small bulbs in the fireplace were rigged to flicker in sync with off-screen focal spots under DMX motion-control. The Other living room takes on three separate characters, the first being a duplicate of the dreary night look in Coraline’s Real World. The second phase is a colorful come-on in which every piece of furniture glows as a saturated neon source. The self-illuminated props had clus- ters of red, green and blue surface- mount LEDs embedded throughout their translucent silicone forms. By adjusting the colors on separate DMX dimmer channels, Chris Peterson could match production art without using gels. Backlit purple walls were created with traditional gels on movie lights, but the out-of- Filming in Central Europe? gamut color came back bluish. We For Shoots That Work, got closer by reddening them to the point where they looked completely Contact Germany’s Market Leader! wrong on set but just fine when photographed. The room comes to BROADCAST SERVICES life as furniture and lamps dim up in WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK. an overlapping cascade of light cues. THE VERY LATEST IN DIGITAL MOVIE-MAKING Steve Switaj fabricated a DMX card MULTI-LINGUAL STAFF that could handle 48 channels, more 24/7 TECHNICAL SUPPORT than normally available under Kuper control, and Chris used every one of them. At one point, Coraline is thrust into a dark, dank iron-plate cell where she meets three pale-green ghost children. Chris Peterson shot the ghosts separately on motion- controlled rods against greenscreen that covered the set walls. The same CALL +49.30.230 989 0 motion-control rigs repeated the VISIT movement during animation of www.camelot-berlin.de Coraline, and this time they carried light bulbs, creating interactive light

35 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions

Passingham’s lighting of an “Other” house night exterior is enhanced by True Blue-gelled moonlight, fiber- optic stars punching through black backing and a horizon glow.

that appears to emanate from the The forest gradually simplifies as were motion-controlled to counter- ghosts. Chris activated glow-in-the- Coraline moves further into it, and it rotate against each other. dark stars on Coraline’s sweater with eventually devolves into white noth- Later, when things go bad, the UV tubes and augmented with blue- ingness. Frank created that void with portal is dusty, dark and full of gelled movie lighting. a table made of milky Plexiglas that cobwebs. Peter Williams hid sources With each frame so dearly was underlit by Kino Flos and wherever he could, relying on hidden bought, stop-motion lighting usually surrounded by a white wall. He was cutouts and small hidden sources strives to see character detail almost able to eradicate the table within the tunnel. This was one of throughout, and this is sometimes in edge in-camera with exposure, and many sets where white LEDs were conflict with dramatic purposes. visual effects finished it off. Echoing put to good use. They worked well as Peter Williams took a walk on the that, another scene features a climac- Obie lights, too — right on the lens. dark side with Coraline running tic chase in a giant spider web that is For an even darker tunnel, down a midnight hallway, letting her suspended over a featureless, milky Peter used a candle carried by pass through pools of toplight and void. On multiple sets, both camera- Coraline as the only source. He areas where she is a dim silhouette. men used front light on white cycs to mounted a tiny, high-current lamp Overexposing highlights — create the limbo effect. at the tip of the candle and hid it normally to be avoided — helped Because Coraline crawls from camera with an equally small Peter Williams and Frank through a portal to get to and from piece of blackwrap. The lamp got so Passingham create a flawless white the Other World, there are a lot of hot it had to be turned off between limbo for some sequences. At the tunnel scenes in the film. Chris exposures. With a candle flame point where highlights reached their Peterson shot the friendly version, a added by the visual-effects team, the maximum pixel value, they had no cushy, organic-looking tunnel that source looks genuine, with natural retrievable detail, thus hiding shad- glows with moving purple and cyan falloff. ows and imperfections in the set. In patterns projected by Source Four The last shot in the movie was one such scene, Coraline wanders Lekos from behind its translucent actually shot last. Mark Stewart set out of an Other World forest and wall. (The magazine’s cover shot up on five stages to shoot elements discovers the artificial world to be shows this look.) He created the that would be combined into one unfinished beyond what Other patterns by taping scraps of color gel long, meandering camera move that Mother needs to carry out her deceit. onto pairs of large Plexiglas discs that would go through a garden party

36 February 2009 and then rise up over the house, landing in the same composition as the film’s opening shot. Soft, yellow keylight and enveloping bounce fill rendered a more appealing color and contrast ratio than the standard cold, rainy look. With five different mo-co rigs in play, Brian Van’t Hul and Nic Marrison took the precaution of tracking each rig as it played back its version of the move. They compen- sated for variances that turned up, making all the elements track each other accurately. I like to think we all came out of Coraline’s 83-week shoot a little smarter about 3-D cinematography. AƩend a four-year college that’s as creaƟve as you are. Perhaps fellow first-timers will find Five Towns College oīers the specialized training you need. the following notes useful: Contact an Admissions RepresentaƟve for more informaƟon Besides getting more intuitive or visit us at www. c.edu/signup. about setting up, we learned to make Ō the most of a big 3-D moment — it takes planning, not overdoing IO (631)(631) 656-2110656-2110 distance. That includes using modest FIVE TOWNS COLLEGE www.ftc.edu settings for several shots leading up When you’re serious about music and the performing arts! Dix Hills, NY 11746 to the big moment. We learned that a quick cut doesn’t register 3-D in the eyes of the viewer. The shot has to be onscreen +90° super BOGIE long enough to fuse, and only then should you concentrate on the – motorized – subject. Increasing IO is futile on a swivel range ± 90° short shot; it exacerbates viewer diffi- culty and does not make the shot feel powerful DC-motor deeper. continuous adjustable Although we strove to avoid touch & go – 90° “coming out” shots for pure 0° gimmickry, Coraline includes a few legitimate uses of the effect. In every case, we made the emergence as slow as the tempo allowed so viewers could follow. We also did our best to connect emerging objects to the background — an outthrust hand was much more effective when the arm and shoulder were also visible. Most 3-D purists insist on staying sharp throughout the frame, handheld control unit with the theory being that we concur- joystick and display rently fuse and focus on objects in the real world, and not doing both will cause eyestrain. We learned that www.denz-deniz.com backgrounds can be successfully shot

37 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions Cinematographer/ focus. Had there been a smaller visual-effects supervisor Brian image sensor available with thermo- Van’t Hul layered electric cooling and dust protection, several 2-D fog I would have preferred it, just for elements to create the depth of field in 3-D. Such a sensor illusion of 3-D would likely have trimmed our depth for write-to-disk time as well. this scene. We had been warned that digital paint-out of puppet supports would not work in 3-D because the digital paint would reveal itself, float- ing in the same space as the removed support. That’s true if one is working on a 3-D computer model, but we were going to work on left and right 2-D images. It was not the disaster soft in most circumstances, provided tangle of soft-focus branches to see a predicted, but compositors had to be that we give the viewer no reason to sharp character, but if the branches very consistent on both “eyes.” look back there. (That’s our job as are in another part of the frame, it Brian Van’t Hul shot a lot of filmmakers in 2-D or 3-D.) seems to work. Our most successful live-action effects elements with a Soft foregrounds are a little use of shallow depth of field used Red One, all in 2-D, amid concern tricky but can be used with care, rack-focus between close and distant that they would be revealed as “flat.” especially in accordance with the characters who were conversing. I Time and money limited us to this aforementioned provision. In 3-D, think it helped that character voices approach. The best example of his it’s annoying to look through a guided the eye in sync with racking success is a sequence featuring thick

38 ground fog that was added in post. from a veteran of 3-D production stop-motion genre. Working respon- By layering several 2-D fog elements and experiment when you have sibly and with professionalism, in proper 3-D alignment, he created enough experience to be conversant. everyone produced consistently a believable illusion of full depth. Equally important: watch dailies on beautiful work. One theory our work upheld a full-size screen with a real 3-D Ed. Note: A more detailed was that scenic flats would reveal theater projector. account of this production will be themselves in 3-D. We had to move All through production, we posted on www.theasc.com/magazine painted backgrounds significantly worked in sRGB color space, so it in February. I farther from the set, even when seen made some kind of sense to work out a window. Fortunately, we were from that familiar territory in a big building. (converted to Rec709) in the 2K Stop-motion’s characteristic digital intermediate. Technicolor TECHNICAL SPECS lack of motion blur sometimes Digital Intermediates accommo- 1.78:1 caused a stuttering effect in 3-D dated, responsibly warning us that it horizontal motion, especially in fast was a smaller, different gamut than 4K Digital Capture, Digital Stills camera pans. This was over and film. Colorist Tim Peeler lent his above the effect in traditional 2-D practiced eye through successive Princeton Instruments MegaPlus film projection. Oddly enough, it grades for RealD 3-D, 2K D-Cinema, EC11000; Nikon D80; Red One creates less readability than if the film emulation and home video. motion had natural blur. The visual- (The film will be projected in Dolby Tamron, Sigma and effects team added motion blur to 3-D in some markets.) Nikkor lenses several shots that especially needed With deep respect, I salute the help. Coraline crew for successfully shoot- Digital Intermediate My advice to anyone starting ing the most ambitious and techni- Printed on Kodak Vision 2383 out fresh with 3-D is to seek counsel cally challenging film in the

39 DeadDead ReckoningReckoning

Bill Pope, ASC and director Frank Miller use digital tools and old- school tricks to bring a comic-book hero to life for The Spirit.

by Jon D. Witmer

Unit photography by Lewis Jacobs

t these frame rates, you Gabriel Macht and Jaime King their makeup could stay perfect.” just have to blow the climb the staircase and wait for 1st The “dry-for-wet” technique the heck out of them,” says AD Benita Allen to yell “Action!” filmmakers settled on involves cap- cinematographer Bill “It’s the movement of the turing quick bursts of action at “A Pope, ASC, as actors’ hair and clothes that really high frame rates. “The hair and crewmembers, armed with air give you the sense of being under- body motion looks most like it’s movers, take positions alongside a water,” Pope explains. Miller’s script underwater at 400 to 500 fps — or staircase painted chroma-key green. for The Spirit calls for a handful of even 700 fps,” says Pope. “But at It’s Dec. 13, 2007, day 47 of the 48 underwater sequences, but produc- that speed, it’s hard to act fast shooting days in New Mexico’s er Deborah Del Prete established a enough to move the narrative, so Albuquerque Studios for The Spirit, dictum early in prep that there we’ve ended up shooting between directed by Frank Miller. As opera- would be no below-surface shoot- 200 and 400 fps.” (Months later, tor Vali Valus, 1st AC Greg Luntzel ing. “I wanted to make sure these speaking by phone, visual-effects and camera tech Brannon Brown characters looked their best all the supervisor and 2nd-unit director prep a Vision Research Phantom time,” says Del Prete. “If we put the Stu Maschwitz recalls, “The actors HD high-speed camera, actors actors underwater, there’s no way needed to learn the mysterious art

40 February 2009 of 500-fps acting. The great thing about the Phantom was that we could instantly show them playback in beautiful slow motion on an HD monitor, and they could see that one little flick of an eye could turn into an incredible moment.”) With the help of gaffer John “Fest” Sandau, Pope bolsters the underwater atmosphere with “light projectors with patterns we thought looked like water,” says the cinematographer. “John pounded lights into reflecting boards and Mylar, which we shook around to make some sparkle. You can do the dumbest stuff in the world, and when you’re filming at 400 fps, suddenly you’re a poet.” The projectors, manufac- tured by Rosco, were “the simplest The entire dry-for-wet effect Pulp Sensibilities Opposite: The Spirit (Gabriel of all the ones we tested,” says is put to the test in a take that lasts “I’m a cartoonist,” says Miller. Macht) watches Sandau. “Two wheels rotate in no more than a few seconds: with “I believe in comic-book stories over Central City. front of a light. You can put differ- air movers attacking the actors from that are fun to draw and fun to This page, above: Ellen Dolan (Sarah ent lenses on it to get a tighter pat- all sides, King (playing the siren write.” Outside of Miller’s own Paulson) consoles tern with more throw or a wider Lorelei Rox) leaps in the air, kicks work, there is perhaps no better her father, Police pattern with less distance. [Key her legs and shakes her hair while example of such a story than The Commissioner Dolan (Dan Lauria). grip] Tony Mazzucchi and his crew Macht (playing The Spirit) throws Spirit, created by Will Eisner in a Below left: rigged a pipe to hang off the bot- himself forward in a belly flop. The weekly series that ran from 1940- Director Frank tom of a Condor, and we hung whole thing lacks a certain grace, to 1952. Miller and Eisner were close Miller’s graphic sensibilities eight of these fixtures off that. say the least, until the Phantom friends until Eisner’s death, in 2005, punctuate The They’re DMX-controllable, and HD’s footage is played back. and Miller notes, “Will’s influence Octopus’ (Samuel when we needed the extra stop for Suddenly, both actors appear to be on my work was seminal. His stuff L. Jackson) reaction to The high speed, we’d have three or four suspended in the depths, hair and was advanced beyond anything I’d Spirit’s war on hitting the same space, and when clothes swirling around them. ever seen before.” Over a career that crime. Below right: we didn’t need the speed, we could Maschwitz shouts in excitement spanned roughly six decades, Eisner Miller (in black) explains his vision spread them out to cover a bigger from behind the monitor, and it all pushed the limits of sequential art, to cinematographer area. I think it’s the best water effect clicks. Poetry. challenging how stories could be Bill Pope, ASC.

Photos and frame grabsPhotos of courtesy and Odd Lot Entertainment. Lionsgate I’ve ever seen.” told and ultimately ushering in the

American Cinematographer 41 Dead Reckoning long-form “graphic novel.” Given that legacy, Miller hesi- tated when he was first approached about a film version of The Spirit. “I took three minutes to say, ‘Absolutely not!’” he recalls. “Then I realized I couldn’t let anybody else touch it, that my understanding of the material was probably deeper than almost anybody’s. Then I was ready to direct the movie.” Taking a few cosmetic liber- ties, the film follows Eisner’s mask-, fedora- and red-tie-sporting hero from his origin as Denny Colt, an idealistic cop who becomes a vigi- lante when he wakes up, quite alive, To capture The after being murdered. The Spirit Spirit’s underwater wages his two-fisted war on crime encounter with Lorelei Rox (Jaime alongside Police Commissioner King), the Dolan (Dan Lauria), and together, filmmakers utilized they go after the king of criminals, a “dry-for-wet” technique that The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). involved blasting The Spirit marks Miller and the actors with Pope’s first collaboration, but it was air movers while recording at speeds not the first time their paths had of 200-400 fps with crossed. Pope, a longtime fan of a Phantom HD high- Miller’s comics, explains, “I still have speed camera. The water effect was a comic of Frank’s that I bought further emphasized when he did signings at [Los with Rosco light Angeles comic shop] Golden Apple projectors suspended from in the Eighties. It’s been read so Condors. many times it’s totally worn out. When I got the call [for The Spirit], there was never any doubt; I had to do it.” Asked why he approached Pope, Miller cites the cinematographer’s work on Darkman (1990). “I thought that was one of the best superhero movies ever made,” he says. “It had a real pulp sensibility.” Likewise, The Spirit’s big- screen adventure bears many a pulp hallmark, not least a supporting cast of femmes fatale. Borrowing freely from Eisner’s work, Miller’s screenplay incorporates Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson), Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), Plaster of Paris (Paz Vega) and the Commissioner’s daughter, Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson). “Bill’s got a great eye for making women look beautiful,” says Sandau. “He’s very much a soft-light

42 February 2009 Left: A 20'x20' section of floor was constructed for The Spirit’s lair beneath Wildwood Cemetery, and the shadow from the overhead window frame was achieved practically using a 20K Fresnel and a massive frame with adjustable slats. Below: While most of the film was shot against greenscreen, certain scenes — such as those set inside Sand Saref’s (Eva Mendes) hotel room — were shot against black. guy, and he’s very careful about world spilled across stages 7 and 8 at tures,” says the gaffer. All the Kino making sure both eyes are lit. We Albuquerque Studios, with the Flos illuminating the greenscreen used the Kino Flo BarFly quite a bit; largest of the greenscreens running were fitted with green tubes and it’s a small fixture with a lot of the length of a stage and reaching up run through a dimmer board. punch that works as a really nice some 40' toward the perms. To light Sandau explains, “At times we eyelight.” Pope took his “glamour the screens, Sandau’s crew set up top would just need two tubes on each work” even further in the digital and bottom rows of Kino Flo Image fixture to get a correct level on the grade, which he describes as “a 80s, plus a row of Kino Flo green, but when we did off-speed bodacious, stylistic leap into the ParaBeam 400s and 200s to fill in a stuff, we could bring up eight tubes Miller and Eisner world. They green “cove” that obscured the bot- top and bottom to get a higher level romanticize women to a major tom row of Image 80s from the of exposure.” degree, so we decided to go with the camera’s view. “I think we ultimate- “It’s almost like a stage play, MGM-circa-1934 look — the ly ended up with about 260 fix- where you do weeks of rehearsal women are diffused and everything else is sharp. People will either hate us or laugh with us.”

Stage Plays “With digital technology, I feel we can recapture what filmmakers like Orson Welles and Fritz Lang did — we can create very stark work that is not based on the way things really look,” says Miller. “Instead, it’s based on what’s inside the director’s and animators’ heads.” As was done on Sin City and 300 (AC April ’07), two recent adaptations of his comic-book work, Miller decided to craft The Spirit’s look by shooting largely against greenscreen and creating environments in post. The Spirit’s green

American Cinematographer 43 Dead Reckoning “If somebody touches it, it’s got to be real,” says Pope. Accordingly, this revolving door was built onstage, while the rest of the building was fabricated in post. Gaffer John Sandau established a daytime ambience for the scene with an overhead rig comprising diffused FinnLight Toplights.

and then build a set around that encounter a reporter, construction up on their work, the filmmakers rehearsal,” says Pope of working in workers and girls in an ice-cream decided early on to establish an all- the green environment. “We were parlor yelling for The Spirit’s auto- digital workflow that began with free to consult and improvise.” The graph. Cabs pass by and almost run Panavision’s Genesis high-defini- method was stretched to its limits in them over. And almost none of this tion-video camera. Both Pope and a long walk-and-talk sequence that existed [onstage] except the peo- Maschwitz had previous experience follows The Spirit, Commissioner ple.” with the camera. “If you really con- Dolan and Officer Morgenstern “We put green tape down on trol the lighting, the Genesis pro- (Stana Katic) through the daytime the green floor and told the actors duces amazing results that can be streets of Central City. During their that’s where they could walk,” seamlessly dropped into the digital walk, Pope explains, “they explains Sandau. “To make it look workflow,” notes Maschwitz. like sunlight, we put 20Ks and 10Ks Because the Genesis has a top on Condors, and we softened them speed of 50 fps, another camera was a bit. We sometimes had two needed for the high-speed Condors and let it get a little darker sequences. “We felt the Phantom between them, as though the actors HD had the best shot at holding up were walking through the shadow next to the Genesis,” says of a building. We also had Maschwitz. “It has the same size FinnLight Toplights to give us an chip, so we could use the same lens- overall ambience. The Toplights use es and get the same focal lengths.” six Par 64 globes, and we used The Phantom comes standard with medium and wide beam 1,000-watt a PL mount, so the production’s globes. We used those instead of camera (rented from Abel Cine space lights because they’re more Tech) was fitted with a Panavision efficient, have a lot more punch and mount to accept Primo primes are built with two frame holders; (provided by Panavision Woodland you can double-diffuse them and Hills). then hang a larger frame below to Despite sharing compatible make a soft, almost non-directional 1920x1080 sensor sizes, the Genesis’ light.” sensor comprises a 12.4-megapixel In an effort to simplify the CCD array, whereas the Phantom post pipeline and give the visual- HD incorporates a CMOS imager. effects team (comprising 10 ven- Further differences abound between dors from multiple countries) a leg (continued on page 48)

44 February 2009

Building Central City

Pope (seated he Spirit’s Central City has always “These .cin files were converted to Morgenstern (Stana Katic) down on dolly) been a thinly disguised substitute .dng sequences at The Orphanage streets, sidewalks and alleyways fell captures a sprawling walk- Tfor Manhattan, so it’s no wonder and then converted to 10-bit DPX to the crew at Look Effects, led by and-talk director Frank Miller describes the using Adobe After Effects. This was visual-effects supervisor Max Ivins sequence setting of his film as “a combination done to take advantage of the and visual-effects producer Melinka onstage in Albuquerque of my and Will Eisner’s versions of Photoshop/Lightroom raw conver- Thompson-Godoy. Studios. Look New York City.” Because principal sion algorithms, which were tested Look’s workflow is usually Effects later photography happened entirely to perform better than Vision based around Apple’s Shake soft- constructed the actors’ onstage, bringing the city to life Research’s own de-bayering software, but the team opted to work surroundings required the efforts of 10 visual- ware.” primarily in Adobe After Effects for under the effects vendors across North The 10-page workflow docu- The Spirit to more easily integrate guidance of visual-effects America and Australia: The ment provided the visual-effects with Maschwitz’s After Effects-cen- supervisor Stu Orphanage, Riot, Digital houses with step-by-step instruc- tric operation at The Orphanage. Maschwitz. Dimension, Fuel VFX, Furious FX, tions for creating their own 10-bit “Maya was the primary software we Ollin Studio, Entity FX, Rising Sun DPX deliverables in the Cineon log used for all of the 3-D tracking ren- Pictures, Cinesoup and Look Effects. format and replicating the LUT the dering,” notes Ivins. “Tracking was All vendors were kept on the filmmakers viewed on set. done in several packages, including same page at The Orphanage, where Maschwitz wrote, “All principal Boujou and PFTrack, and Maya for visual-effects supervisor Stu photography was monitored in hand tracking. Maschwitz and his collaborators Rec709 HD video through a high- “Because [the walk-and-talk] “did EDL-based ingest of SR tape contrast, low-saturation LUT covers so much ground, you lose a [recorded from the Panavision known as ‘Mash4.’ The Mash4 LUT lot of the tracking markers,” he con- Genesis] and got 10-bit DPX out the contains subjective color correction, tinues. “So we pre-processed almost other end,” he says. “That’s how the a film-print preview and a conver- every background with a method of entire movie made its way from tape sion to video space.” extracting the contrast from the to our Nucoda Film Master system. “I determined that The Spirit greenscreen; we were tracking the Everything we shot became a DPX was a neighborhood’s hero,” says corners, the edges and sometimes sequence.” Miller. “If you have a working the surface and the seams of the A somewhat more circuitous knowledge of Manhattan, you’ll find greenscreen. We put that through workflow had to be devised for the that from Jane Street to Houston our 3-D tracking software and pret- Vision Research Phantom HD cam- Street is Central City.” Building that ty much tracked without tracking era, which records a bayer-pattern neighborhood for a daytime walk- markers. Figuring that out saved us image in a .cin file. In a document and-talk that follows The Spirit hours. There were only a couple of Maschwitz drafted for the vendors (Gabriel Macht), Commissioner shots we had to hand-track.” about the workflow, he explained, Dolan (Dan Lauria) and Officer Simultaneous to the tracking, Look’s artists expanded the concep- tual environments created in-house by Peter Lloyd or provided by The Orphanage, and then projected rough geometry onto the scene to test the accuracy of the tracks. Throughout the process, the Look team confabbed regularly with Maschwitz via CineSync, a remote review and approval program enabling live, real-time interaction with the footage (Post Focus, AC July ’08). As Central City took definite shape, the lighting captured onstage was tweaked to fit the actors’ new surroundings. “There are a lot of subtle color corrections and shifting of levels to get everything right for

46 February 2009 the environment,” says Ivins. “We work with what we’re given, but we also end up doing a lot of 2-D [correction].” This included darkening the actors when they step into a digitally fabricated alley, for example. Atmosphere is everything in Central City, and in addition to creating a subtle haze to obfuscate background layers, the Look team was tasked with a night scene featuring The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), one of his goons and a flurry of snowflakes. Thompson- Godoy recounts, “Stu wanted the snow to fall photorealistically. He actually went to New York and shot photos of snow against streetlights, and they proved to be a really valuable reference.” Part of the sequence involved a split-diopter effect, which required completely different treatment of each flake as it crossed from one side of the split to the other. “It goes from being a little flake of snow to being a big, out-of-focus flake when it crosses that line,” says Thompson-Godoy. “And the snow had to interact with the people — it couldn’t look like shining objects when it crossed them. We had to finesse how bright the snowflake was on the person’s body versus on his face.” While all of the vendors worked with identical Mash4 LUTs as a reference, everyone delivered uncorrected, raw 1920x1080 images. Then, the LUT was re-applied in The Orphanage’s Nucoda Film Master, and all of the shots were hard-matted to 1920x818 for exhibi- tion in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. Considering everything the Look team had to master for the walk-and-talk sequence, Ivins muses, “We took something infinite- ly complex and tried to reproduce it — you’ve got shadows, reflections, depth of field and atmosphere. It makes you appreciate how complicated the real world is.” Top: A frame grab from the sequence as originally recorded with Panavision’s Genesis. Middle: The frame with the high-contrast, low-saturation Mash4 LUT applied. Bottom: — Jon D. Witmer The composite frame with Look’s background before the Mash4 was reapplied. Frame grabsFrame of courtesy Effects. Look

American Cinematographer 47 Dead Reckoning blacked-out tent to check his image. “Once you’re in that tent, you’re one level removed, and you can make mistakes because you’re not connected with reality. A cinematographer’s job is to run the set, dance with the actors, dance with the director and make things happen. When you stick yourself in a tent, you become like those directors who just stare at the monitor and never get out of the chair — you’re not doing your job. “When someone comes up with a digital camera that lets me see the LUT in the eyepiece, I will agree that it’s equal to working with film.”

Macht and Practical Solutions Jackson spent days tussling in “Too often, I feel overloaded an actual mud with color when I’m watching a pit. Sandau movie,” says Miller. “Everything’s explains, “We had FinnLight tutti-frutti. And since I think like a Toplights cartoonist, I tend to color like one.” overhead to “We wanted this to be a black- provide some ambience and and-white movie, but Frank definite- give the mud ly wanted the tie to be red,” notes some highlights, Pope, standing in his office inside and we had 20Ks and 10Ks Albuquerque Studios and waiting for through big the call after lunch. “So I said, ‘If frames off to the we’re going to have a color, it needs sides. When we needed to get to have a thematic thread.’” more light to (continued from page 45) the same dynamic range [as the Accordingly, the hero’s red tie serves someone’s face, the two systems. “Panavision has Genesis], it required its own treat- as a reminder of the blood spilled we used what we called the focused on capturing the broadest ment, and we eventually figured out when Colt was murdered and The projection dynamic range to satisfy cine- a LUT that worked. The LUTs for Spirit was born. “When bad things softbox — matographers’ need for exposure,” both cameras actually suppressed are happening, when there’s a splash basically a 2K with a 2- to says Maschwitz. “You can put a green to various colors, mostly gray. of emotion, red plays a part,” says 3-foot snoot and mattebox on the Phantom, but it’s We also had a version that could Pope. diffusion. It’s still been designed to do ballistic- turn anything green into white and Emphasizing the red tie called soft light, but it’s very impact analysis.” anything not green into black, and it for some clever tricks, but Maschwitz controllable.” To bring the cameras closer could take anything red and make it notes that it was always pho- together and allow the filmmakers pure red. We could put Gabriel in tographed practically — it was never to see an image “that would mimic front of a greenscreen, and on the a CG fabrication. When the film- the high-contrast world of Frank monitor we’d see a black silhouette makers really wanted the tie to pop, Miller as much as possible,” says with a bright red tie — you could he says, “we puppeteered a fluores- Pope, look-up tables were devel- see a Frank Miller drawing in real cent tie from off-camera using oped for both cameras that could be time!” (The LUT also included a monofilament line, and we had an applied in real time on the set. Kodak Vision 2383 film-print emu- ultraviolet light hitting it. That gave (Although the LUTs were visible on lation.) us the foundation for some abstract- the monitors, footage from both Pope says he had no major ing and some rotoscoping to get the cameras was recorded raw for full problems with either camera system posterized color effect.” The Spirit’s flexibility in post; see sidebar on during the shoot, but he notes one black-and-white Chuck Taylor ten- page 46.) Maschwitz explains, drawback to shooting digitally in nis shoes were similarly treated with “Because the Phantom doesn’t have general: having to retire to a a fluorescent paint to make the

48 February 2009 treads pop in select scenes. Sandau used the UV-and-fluorescent trick on Sin City. “Altman, a theatrical-lighting company, makes a couple of UV fixtures that have nice projection, but they burn an HMI-type globe and don’t have a flicker-free mode, so when we did high-speed, we put 4-foot UV tubes into standard Kino Flo four-bank fixtures. The second unit used the Kinos almost exclusively.” (Bob Finley, a longtime collaborator of Pope’s, was the 2nd-unit director of photography.) The filmmakers did not create CG actors and shot all stunts in- camera. According to Pope, there perfect greenscreen, and green- crosses the floor, he walks through a A series of flashbacks was also a hard-and-fast rule for screens are always less than perfect,” shadow cast by a window frame far reveal the physical elements shot onstage: “If says Maschwitz. “Diaphanous overhead. To achieve the effect history between somebody touches it, it’s got to be material — which appears in a lot practically, Sandau’s crew “hung a Denny Colt (a.k.a. The Spirit, real. That’s something Stu learned of Eva’s wardrobe — gets exponen- 20K with a Fresnel lens in it almost played in his on Sin City, and it was something I tially more complicated when to the perms, and then we had a youth by Johnny really wanted. you’re trying to extract it from 12 cookie as close to the actor as we Simmons) and Sand Saref “We had a movable swamp different shades of green. So occa- could get it,” says the gaffer. “The (played here by on rollers with grass all over it, and sionally, we shot on black — some- frame was probably 30-by-20 and Seychelle we rolled it from stage to stage,” he times black-for-black, sometimes hung by chain motors from the ceil- Gabriel). ½ Straw and an continues. The set piece makes an black to replace later.” ing. We could move these big pieces amber gel were important appearance when Dolan After waking from the dead, of wood around and adjust the combined to meets The Spirit on Central City’s The Spirit makes his home in angle of the slats running through create a sunset effect that outskirts. A corpse lies in the grass, Wildwood Cemetery, and Pope it.” Sandau and visible behind the two characters, recalls shooting inside the hero’s Another example of a practi- Pope called the whose conversation grows in vol- lair with almost no greenscreen. cal solution employed onstage “Miller Time” look, referring to ume as tempers flare. The scene is “We had a 20-by-20-foot floor involves the lead-in to a flashback the classic beer “basically lit with one light,” says because we wanted that texture, that unravels the history between commercials. Pope. “The cops have pulled up and and we hung black drapes all Denny Colt and Sand Saref. As The turned on their headlights [simulat- around,” he says. As The Spirit Spirit walks along the waterfront, a ed with Mole-Richardson Single Pars]. I told the actors, ‘Here’s your light. When you turn your face away, it looks like you’re brooding, and when you turn toward the light, it looks like you’re opening up.’ I look at that scene now and think it’s the best scene in the movie, and it’s because the actors ran with it. There was nothing there, just that little patch of grass in the distance with a body on it. But Dan and Gabriel made it very special.” A handful of scenes incorpo- rated black or white backdrops. “Well-planned rotoscoping is sometimes more efficient than less-than-

American Cinematographer 49 Dead Reckoning

Flanked by Picking Nits The Spirit and After seeing the finished film, Plaster of Paris (Paz Vega), Pope acknowledges that some Maschwitz scenes don’t quite match the picture steels himself he had in his imagination. For to give shape to the instance, when shooting the flash- green void. back to the young Denny Colt and Sand Saref (played by Johnny Simmons and Seychelle Gabriel), “the setting sun lit one side of the actors’ faces with golden light, and the other side was lit cooler, as it would be at sunset,” he explains. “We were meant to have a scene in which the foregrounds, including lighthouse beacon flares the lens Most of the time, it was a Mole- the actors, would be reality-based and serves to segue into the past. Richardson 2K beam projector, and the backgrounds would be Sandau recalls, “On the set, this idea which has no Fresnel and a set of more mannered. Instead, the entire pops up out of thin air: ‘Hey, let’s do concentric rings to focus the light in scene came back from the vendor a lighthouse!’ So I thought of a a very sharp beam that projects with a uniformly sepia color, and beam projector we’d set up for quite a distance. We also had a 1K the backgrounds were rendered something else, and one of my guys beam projector for tighter sets. You realistically. It might sound like a got up on a ladder and just panned just pan it through, and it really has subtle distinction, but when little it in. That became a regular piece the feel of a lighthouse.” things are projected, they aren’t so whenever we did the waterfront. subtle anymore.

50 “The movie was well done by all organized and I kept it all look- to hit the nail on the head when he all in the visual departments, but ing right.” The heart of the Bunker says, “What I really wanted to cap- there was a learning curve, and I comprises a DI suite built around a ture was the absolute enthusiasm don’t think [the curve] was ever fin- Nucoda Film Master with 2K pro- and verve Eisner brought to The ished,” he continues. “We set out to jection; there, Maschwitz and Spirit. We’ve got a panoply of digital do quintessential Frank Miller Aaron Rhodes, the associate visual- effects, but the movie isn’t cluttered. images, but to be ultra-Frank, every- effects supervisor and lead colorist, It’s focused on the story and the thing should look as brazenly stylis- oversaw all 1,966 visual-effects hero.” I tic as possible. He can suggest an shots, grading the sequences as they entire alley with just a black line, the came in. edge of bricks and a white gash [of The Spirit underwent a final light] across the character’s face. grade at Modern VideoFilm, where Instead of that, we ended up with Pope worked with colorist Skip TECHNICAL SPECS some super-real backgrounds. It’s Kimball to “darken the mids overall closer to Eisner’s work, so it’s part and make it more contrasty,” says 2.40:1 Miller and part Eisner. It’s a hybrid.” the cinematographer. “In the end, High-Definition Video To keep a close eye on the some wanted a little more skin tone work coming in from the visual- in the actors’ faces than I cared for; Panavision Genesis, Vision effects houses, Pope visited San I liked it colder and closer to black- Research Phantom HD Francisco during post and sat down and-white, but they wanted it to be in The Orphanage’s “Bunker,” which more reality-based, so there was Primo lenses Maschwitz describes as “the visual- that compromise.” Digital Intermediate effects hub of the movie, where All parties involved — Pope [senior visual-effects producer] included — are proud of their Printed on Kodak Vision 2383 Nancy St. John and her crew kept it accomplishments, and Miller seems

51 Embracing Anamorphic John Bailey, ASC ince shooting the 1988 char- AC recently caught up with acter piece The Accidental Bailey to discuss his latest anamorphic takes full advantage Tourist in anamorphic 35mm picture, the new ensemble comedy He’s of the widescreen for director Lawrence Kasdan Just Not That Into You. Directed by Ken S(AC Nov. ’88), John Bailey, Kwapis, the film is based on the best- format on the ASC has favored the widescreen for- selling book by Sex & The City writer romantic comedy mat for dramas both large and Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. small. Several years ago, he took the He’s Just Not That lead in lobbying Panavision to American Cinematographer: Into You. develop new anamorphic lenses, After you wrapped He’s Just Not That and in 2006, the company respond- Into You, you used anamorphic again ed with the Anamorphic Wide- on two comparatively low-budget fea- by Patricia Thomson Angle Zoom lens, the AWZ2 40- tures, The Greatest and Brief 80mm (T2.8), dubbed “The Bailey Interviews With Hideous Men. Do you Unit photography by Zoom.” This was followed by the believe anamorphic is now feasible for Darren Michaels Anamorphic Telephoto Zoom, ATZ any genre and any budget? 70-200mm (T3.5), and by a new set John Bailey, ASC: Panavision is of prime lenses, the G-Series. supporting anamorphic again in a way

52 February 2009 Opposite: Anna (Scarlett Johansson) and Conor (Kevin Connolly) share a reflective moment thanks to a mirror strategically positioned at the far-right edge of the anamorphic frame. This page, top: A shot of Mary (Drew Barrymore) illustrates it wasn’t a decade ago. The develop- more controlled frame as part of the lel stories of five women and the anamorphic’s shallow depth ment of these new anamorphic aesthetic. men in their lives. We have certain of field. “One zoom lenses and the G-Series One of the great things about scenes where many of them are in of the things I primes has totally revitalized the anamorphic is that you don’t have to an office or a personal environment love about anamorphic in a format, especially for young cine- cut as much. When you’re staging together. I felt the wider aspect ratio character-driven matographers who’d been wary of actors, you can give them a larger would allow us to be intimate with film is that you the system because of the lenses’ field across the frame to work in. For them yet keep them together in the use much longer lenses than limitations or because they’d only shots with three or four actors, you same shot in a way that was more you’d use in a shot video in film school. A lot of don’t have to be as wide to hold accommodating than 1.85:1. One of spherical format, younger cinematographers are them all in the frame; you can do a the things I love about anamorphic and that gives you more control embracing it now. medium shot. In 1.85:1 or 16x9 in a character-driven film is that you of the Because of the wider aspect video, you might have that wide use much longer lenses than you’d background,” ratio and horizontal stability, I frame for just a second, but it would use in a spherical format, and that says cinematographer would say anamorphic does not be too wide to hold for any length of gives you more control of the back- John Bailey, lend itself so freely to a verité style, time, so you’d need to cut in for cov- ground. Being able to throw the ASC. “Being able but that has to be qualified because erage. background out of focus really helps to throw the background out Lars von Trier and Robby Müller For He’s Just Not That Into you be present with the actor. With of focus really [BVK] shot video with an anamor- You, you had to argue the case for both 1.85:1 and Super 35mm, you helps you be phic attachment on Breaking the anamorphic through several layers sometimes have background in present with the actor.” Bottom Waves, and that was very documen- of executives at New Line. What focus way beyond what you want; left: Bailey at tary in style. But by and large, when argument did you make? that’s also one of the great problems work. Bottom you decide to shoot a film in Bailey: This movie is an with high-definition video, of right, left to right: Gigi (Ginnifer anamorphic, you’re accepting a ensemble piece with intercut, paral- course. Now, if that’s what you want, Goodwin), Beth (Jennifer Aniston) and Janine (Jennifer Connelly) banter during an impromptu meeting. Photos courtesy of courtesy Line Cinema. Photos New

American Cinematographer 53 Embracing Anamorphic

Right: Mary warns Anna about the hazards of dating. Bailey used a prototype of Panavision’s 70- 200mm Anamorphic Telephoto Zoom to dolly across the aisle and move into a close-up of Barrymore. “That was a very specific shot I would not have been able to do with any other lens,” he says. “Subsequently, a lot of the moves from over-the-shoulder into a single or from a three-shot into a tight over were done with that lens.” that’s terrific, but for the films I do, persuade them to build the first lens. higher-speed, short-range zoom; at Below, top photo: once I establish the environment, I I approached Phil Radin at the time, the existing [zoom] was an Gigi and Conor really want to concentrate on the Panavision in 1993, after I’d finished 11:1 48-520mm, which was a T4.5, share a meal in a restaurant with intimacy of the performances. In the Line of Fire [AC Sept. ’93]. and it was very soft. You didn’t dare stylish design Anamorphic is perfect for that. That was the first large-scale, multi- shoot it at anything less than a T6.3, elements shown off Tell us how you convinced camera film I’d done in anamor- which is absolutely impractical for to full effect. Bottom photo: Neil (Ben Panavision to prioritize anamorphic, and I felt very compromised by an interior. I told Phil, ‘I don’t care Affleck) and Beth phic-lens development in recent the number of lenses available and about having a long-range zoom. I have a heart-to- years. how mismatched they were. I told just need something for masters and heart talk. Bailey: It took me 10 years to Phil that Panavision should design a medium shots to get me from one to the other.’ I don’t like to use a big zoom for anything; I’ve never needed a 10:1 because I just don’t do moves like that. I needed something that would allow me to move from a wide master shot into something tight enough that would be cuttable for the coverage. I also wanted to be able to make a slight size adjustment on the zoom without having to move the dolly and change marks. Phil did what he could, but at that time, Panavision was going through a turnover in ownership. Shortly after that, they made the decision to get in bed with George Lucas and Sony, and all the development money was devoted to Panavising the Sony HDW-F900. One night, I was talking about anamorphic at a SMPTE meeting, and I called Panavision out. I said, ‘Panavision was founded by Bob Gottschalk and Richard Moore [ASC] as an anamorphic-lens system, and if Bob were alive today, he’d kick the ass of every one of you

54 February 2009 who has abandoned your founding Shooting anamorphic is now another. It makes for much more Barrymore and Johannson run mandate!’ I think I finally shamed more like working with spherical even-looking dailies. through their them, and they started to think lenses. The optical quality of both of Phil says Panavision is having lines for director about it seriously. It still took anoth- these lenses is really extraordinary. a very difficult time supplying Ken Kwapis, who opted to er couple of years, and Phil Radin The 70-200mm has as good a reso- enough of these lenses to meet stage the scene was my ally all the way. lution and color rendition as any demand. They’re rented almost all as a dolly move The first new lens was the 40- prime I’ve used, and, of course, the time. There is no anamorphic- (note tracks on 80mm, and even though the range is because it’s one lens, you don’t have lens system in the world that is as floor). only 2:1, I found it very useful. Then, the color shifts you get when you good as Panavision’s, and this has about a year and a half ago, I went change from one fixed lens to been a real boost for them. ¢ back to Phil and said coverage was still an issue; from the medium shots to the close-ups, I still had to use fixed lenses, and the Primos only go up to 100mm, so I had to use the old E-Series lenses. There was only a 135mm and a 180mm — nothing in between. I said, ‘Is it possible to make a second lens that would cover from where the first lens ends and take me up into a real close-up range?’ They then came up with the 70-200mm, which actually goes a little bit wider as it ties into the 40- 80mm. It’s about 2⁄3 of a stop slower, but it’s still very doable for most situations. Both lenses have the anamorphic lens element in front, so there’s much less loss of light.

American Cinematographer 55 Embracing Anamorphic dolly to get that shot. Subsequently, a lot of the moves from over-the- shoulder into a single, or from a three-shot into a tight over, were done with that lens. How would you have shot this film before these zooms existed? Bailey: We would have had to lay a lot more dolly track, make corrections on the track, or re-mark the actors a lot more. As actors work from take to take, their natural instincts tend to bring them in closer to each other, but it’s not so easy to make a correction if you’ve got dolly moves along a fixed path on rails and are on a fixed lens, so you tend to get sloppier, looser composi- Above: Alex On He’s Just Not That Into That move — across and in to a tions. You don’t want to change the (Justin Long) You, what kinds of situations were close-up — was to be done in one actors’ marks because they’ve got the shares his bartender’s appropriate for the wide-angle shot. Ken Kwapis and I had been rhythm of where they’re playing. wisdom with zooms? planning the day’s shoot to get that With the short-range zoom lenses, I Gigi. Below: Bailey: When we started pro- one shot, and we had to keep shoot- just ask the operator to tighten the Bailey (far left, in white shirt) duction [in fall 2007], the 70- ing around it because we were liter- composition by 5-10mm. That’s surveys the set 200mm prototype was still being ally waiting for Phil to bring the been very helpful in maintaining the while Kwapis built, and it wasn’t ready for our first prototype lens from Panavision. We intimacy and integrity of the com- (wearing headphones) week. There’s a scene in which Drew had the dolly tracks laid, and I’d laid positions we originally set up. confers with Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson out the shot with my finder. As soon Also, the zooms are quicker. If his cast. are wandering through the aisles in as Phil showed up, we slapped the you’re using fixed lenses, you have to a drugstore, and Drew is checking lens on the camera and did the shot. take out the matte box, take out the out different sprays and talking That was a very specific shot I would lens, put on another lens, change the about the hazards of dating. The not have been able to do with any donut and the lens rods. It’s not that camera dollies across the aisle and other lens — I wasn’t able to move it takes so much time, but at times, it then does a slow push-in on her. the camera in close enough on the can break the actor’s flow. When I want to keep the dramatic focus together, having the ability to change focal lengths without changing lenses makes a big difference. How did you approach the night scenes? Bailey: On most night street locations, I was working at a T2.8 or T3 with the 40-80mm. When I got in close for coverage with the longer lenses, I’d add a bit of supplemental light and build it up to a T3.5. Or, if I were in a real problem, I would just force-develop a stop — there are four or five shots that were force- developed. My normal rating is very conservative; I overexpose by about half a stop, anyway. In the scene in the drugstore,

56 February 2009 we were shooting at a T4-4.2 using the 70-200mm, which is a T3.5 lens. Panavision originally hoped it would be a T3 or even T3.2, but it didn’t work out that fast. But it’s fine. The great thing about shooting full aperture, which you do with anamorphic, is your field of information is so large that even when you force-develop a stop, you’ve got very high-quality images. Did you keep the zoom lenses on the camera most of the time? Mfbso Bailey: Our lenses included some Primos, a few E-Series and C- Series lenses and a 3:1 [270-840mm] zoom, but the two new zooms are so GjmnnbljoH good I kept them on almost all the 9><>I6A;>ABB6@>C< ######## 8:CI:G;DG9><>I6A>B6<>C<6GIH time. I switched back and forth from 69K6C8:9EDHIEGD9J8I>DC 6I7DHIDCJC>K:GH>IN ######## one to the other. Keeping the same E=DIDCB6I>DC eliminates the question of having to ######## 8 L:79:H>DEGD9J8I>DC 'JOBODJBM"TTJTUBODFBOE$BSFFS4FSWJDFT"WBJMBCMF ######## I didn’t feel at all compromised in L:79:K:ADEB:CI -%%"-%-"89>6/ >C;D589>67J#8DB/ 89>67J#8DB terms of the resolution of the lenses. In fact, I think the 70-200mm is sharper than most prime lenses. I almost always put some diffusion on it! If I were doing an action film, I’d probably shoot it straight, but for women, I always put slight diffusion on it — black nets or [Tiffen] White Pro-Mists or a combination of the Thank You two. If you use the right diffusion, you can cut the edge without making the lens seem soft. Dir. Danny Boyle, Have any other develop- DoP Anthony Dod Mantle ments bolstered the viability of and their team anamorphic in recent years? Bailey: Kodak’s Vision2 stocks for using the SI-2K Mini in have made a huge difference. You the challenging project to have that extra speed and finer grain intercut digital and celluloid and can force-develop without captured images for the being compromised. Also, the splendid feature film advances made in intermediate Slumdog Millionaire. stocks are absolutely fantastic. When I’m doing an A-B, trying to match quality between a print from the © Anthony Dod Mantle original negative and a fourth-generation release print, they’re very SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera close. You don’t have the loss in quality from answer print to release print © Pille Film Rental | www.pillefilm.de that you used to have. ¢ [email protected] [email protected] www.pstechnik.de www.si-2k.com 57 Embracing Anamorphic The crew The matter was further com- sets up to capture a plicated by the fact that I was in New sailboat York on another film when the time sequence with came to do the DI. I had a great deal Affleck and co-star Bradley of support from Ken, from [colorist] Cooper. Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3, and from our New Line executive, Rick Reynolds, but I was still 2,500 miles away. I flew to Santa Monica on the weekends to look at what had been done and give notes, but I ultimately had very little control. Stefan and Ken did a really good job, and I’m happy with their work, but the film still doesn’t look the way it would have if we’d finished it on film. For instance, I feel the gamma You did a digital intermedi- changed that right at the point is a little flatter somehow; it should ate on He’s Just Not That Into You, where we would have been starting have had a more dramatic look. and you’ve written in these pages the process. Because the film is Company 3 has a wonderful process, that you’re not a fan of the DI anamorphic and had a very highly but I feel that a negative [struck process. How was your experience? resolved image, Ken and I argued from] a DI doesn’t have the same Bailey: New Line told us that we should not be forced to do a luminosity or transparency that a when we were in prep that we could DI — particularly a 2K DI — but film-to-film finish has — and it cer- finish photochemically, but they New Line made us do it. tainly doesn’t have the resolution!

58 ing disconnect. When I shoot, Bailey offers Kwapis his answer-print and release on film, I thoughts about feel a more immediate connection the next shot. with my work, and for me, that’s very important. I

TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Anamorphic 35mm Panaflex Platinum, Gold II I’m looking at a print from a 2K Even though I’m not able to Panavision lenses video master, and I’d say the original do the power windows and second- 35mm anamorphic negative is ary color-control when I answer- Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, 250D equivalent to at least an 8K digital print on film, there’s a satisfaction I 5205, 50D 5201 file. As far as I’m concerned, using a have in maintaining the workflow DI on an anamorphic film is like on film all the way through. Every Digital Intermediate down-rezzing your image from time I’ve done a DI, no matter how Printed on Kodak Vision 2383 35mm to 16mm. good the colorist is, I feel an increas-

59 Citizen of the World

Well-traveled Australian cinematographer Donald McAlpine, ASC, ACS earns the Society’s International Award. by Jon Silberg

onald McAlpine, ASC, ACS, Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant John McTiernan’s Predator (1987; who will accept the ASC Career (1979) and Bruce Beresford’s AC Aug. ’87); Phillip Noyce’s Patriot International Award this Breaker Morant (1980), were among Games (1992; AC June ’92) and month, is truly an interna- the well-received films that show- Clear and Present Danger (1994); D tional cinematographer, hav- cased the power and beauty coming Baz Luhrmann’s frenetic Romeo + ing shot some of the films that out of the Australian industry of the Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge raised Australia’s movie industry to time. Since working on his first (2001; AC June ’01); and Gavin worldwide prominence in the 1970s American picture, Paul Mazursky’s Hood’s Wolverine, the upcoming X- and, since then, more than two Tempest (1982), the cinematograph- Men spinoff. dozen films for Hollywood studios. er has kept busy on a variety of pop- McAlpine credits his upbring- Two of McAlpine’s feature credits, ular Hollywood projects, including ing in various parts of rural New

60 February 2009 South Wales, Australia, with helping him develop “an early sense of open space and country.” When his father contracted tuberculosis and was sent to a sanatorium, young Donald began earning money at the age of 12, doing farm work during the harvest. The experience could have led to an occupation as a sharecropper, a common path at the time, but a life of farming did not appeal to him. Instead, he used some of the money he made to take a four-week boat tour of Europe after he finished high school. That turned into a full year of working odd jobs in England, France and Belgium. “I found the way to meet people and really learn about a country is through work,” he recalls. After returning home, to Sydney sent his life on another ed to put together a news story. I Opposite: ASC McAlpine enrolled in college as a course. shot one about Parkes, a rail town International Award recipient physical-education and science McAlpine took a group of that was in the process of transfer-

photo courtesy of courtesy photo McAlpine. Donald major. Several of his teachers were students to visit the headquarters of ring from steam to diesel, and I got McAlpine, ASC, coaches for Australian teams that the Australian Broadcasting a lot of visually graphic material of ACS. This page, above: Ewan were preparing to compete in the Channel, the country’s relatively locomotives on turntables.” McGregor and 1956 Olympics, and McAlpine new network. Fascinated by what he ABC used his footage and Nicole Kidman Breaker Morant Morant Breaker helped them by shooting 16mm saw, he inquired about a job. He asked for more, so McAlpine creat- share a duet in Moulin Rouge and 8mm film loops of the athletes’ recalls, “I had the 16mm camera I’d ed a visual essay about the wheat (2001), which performances; such films were a used to create the film loops, and I harvest, chartering a plane to make brought popular teaching tool at the time. said, ‘If I capture the end of the it as impressive as possible. “The sta- McAlpine his first ASC and Upon graduating, McAlpine began world on film, would you guys buy tion loved it because they were try- Academy Award teaching phys-ed in a high school in it?’ They gave me four 100-foot rolls ing to be a national network, but nominations. rural Parkes, and he had been teach- of black-and-white and a sheet they were always short of rural- Bottom left: On the set of ing for several years when a field trip explaining what [images] they need- based material,” he recalls. “I made Moulin Rouge, McAlpine (right) watches playback with director Baz Luhrmann and Kidman. Bottom right: McAlpine

photos by Sue Adler, courtesy of 20th Century Fox. courtesy of 20th Century Fox. Adler, Sue by photos at work on Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant (1980). Moulin Rouge Rouge Moulin Portrait by Douglas Kirkland. Douglas by Kirkland. Portrait

American Cinematographer 61 Citizen of the World

Top to bottom: more money for one of those essays McAlpine takes than I did for one week of teaching, a break with actor William but it wasn’t just about the money; Holden on the it was a great ego boost. The head- set of Peter master eventually told me the work Collinson’s The Earthling (1980); I was doing for ABC was interfering the with my teaching, and he told me to cinematographer cease and desist. When I called the (standing with Polaroid camera station to tell them, they offered me in hand) and his a full-time job. That was all I need- crew work in a ed to hear! I became an assistant tight location on Beresford’s The cameraman and then a camera- Club (1980); man.” McAlpine That opportunity led to a job prepares a shot for Puberty Blues with Film Australia, a government- (1981), another supported company that created collaboration educational films and cinema with Beresford. shorts on 35mm. “We got to travel all over the world,” he recalls. “It was very exciting.” McAlpine was happy working at Film Australia, and although the thought of shooting a feature occasionally crossed his mind, there was very little feature production in Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Eventually, however, he heard that a young director named Bruce Beresford was seeking a cinematographer to shoot an outrageous comedy, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972). “Bruce’s production manager was looking at the core of people shooting 35mm neg,” says McAlpine. “I’d shot shorts and some commercials, and the production manager asked me for names of people I thought could shoot a feature. I gave him three names, and he came back and said, ‘Bruce watched their work, but he also saw a little film you did, and he’s very interested in having you be his cinematographer if you’re willing to leave your job at Film Australia.’ I said, ‘Be careful if you’re standing in the doorway!’ Within weeks, I was in London preparing my first feature.” He notes that the era marked the “rebirth” of the Australian film industry, part of a public-relations effort by the government to address

the perception that Australia had an of courtesy Photos McAlpine.

62 February 2009 image problem. “People thought of us as a big farm with no industry and no culture,” says McAlpine. “The country did have a thriving [film] industry in the 1920s; they made wonderful films and kept up with the change to sound, and in the 1930s, it was going great guns. Then the Hollywood studios moved in and said they wanted to be a part of it. Everyone thought that was great, but the studios bought up most of the Australian production facilities and closed them down to prevent competition. Then World War II happened, and the industry really stopped until 1969.” After shooting two comedies with Beresford, McAlpine began shooting four films a year in Australia. A small group of filmmakers was starting to do serious and got the very best out of those before. There’s a scene where the Above: The work, often focusing on Australia’s two prints. We may have been igno- Boers attack the fort and the soldiers cinematographer at work on Paul history. When McAlpine shot the rant about some techniques and not defend the door with a machine Mazursky’s drama The Getting of Wisdom for that efficient, but we were certainly gun, and I remember Bruce Tempest (1982), Beresford, he felt he was taking a working hard.” [Beresford] saying, ‘We’ve got to “doing what I have to do,” he step in his own artistic develop- Breaker Morant, set during shoot this with seven cameras.’ And notes wryly. ment. “It was the life story of an the Boer War, was a big production I said, ‘What the hell are you talking Below: Tempest Australian author, sort of a mini My for the country at the time, and the about?’ I was ignorant about shoot- actors Susan Sarandon and Brilliant Career, and it was the first reaction it received internationally ing that kind of action. So we got in John Cassavettes time I had a chance to shoot beauty was also significant. “It was my first all the extra cameras for a day, and wait with instead of just story.” eight-week shoot — so lavish!” everybody had one! We shot the McAlpine on location in My Brilliant Career came McAlpine recalls with a chuckle. “I finale over two dawns, and then we’d Greece. next, and McAlpine’s camerawork hadn’t done anything on that scale continue on to about 10 or 11 a.m. on the lush historical drama brought him a lot of attention. “I think we were trying to find an identity,” he says of his fellow filmmakers Down Under. “A lot of the films we were doing were about our own history, similar to America’s Westerns. It was really us trying to tell ourselves as much as anybody else that we Australians have an identity of our own. Everyone [in the Australian industry] was sort of thrilled on a whole different level than happens today; we had small crews, and everybody was working outrageous hours and giving their all. A cinematographer never got more than two answer prints, but

Photos courtesy of courtesy Photos McAlpine. we had remarkable people in the lab

American Cinematographer 63 Citizen of the World McAlpine collaborated with Noyce, a fellow Aussie, on the spy thrillers Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and the cinematographer admired Noyce’s ability to work on star-driven blockbusters and keep the focus on storytelling. “Phil is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever worked with,” he says. Although McAlpine found a great deal to like about working in the Hollywood system, he acknowledges that he has encountered what so many creative people in Tinseltown must cope with: typecasting. “Hollywood tries to typecast everybody. After Down and Out in Beverly Hills came out, I received four different scripts for movies with dogs! But I’ve always Above: Of course, Bruce was right about short order, the cinematographer tried to do something different. If I McAlpine and bringing in all the extra cameras!” found himself working with bigger have to choose between two scripts director/actor Paul Newman When Mazursky began prep- crews and more gear than he’d ever I like, I’ll go with the one that’s least work out a shot ping Tempest, a fantasy very loosely had before. “It’s amazing how like something I’ve done before.” on Harry & Son based on Shakespeare’s The accepting I was of all of that,” he That interest in diversity has (1984). Below: Jack Ryan Tempest, it so happened that The recalls. “I got used to it very quickly. led McAlpine to take on comedies (Harrison Ford) Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant I took it and ran with it!” He even- such as Parenthood (1989) and races to protect Career and Breaker Morant opened tually shot three more films for Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), dramas such his family in Patriot Games simultaneously in New York. Mazursky: Moscow on the Hudson as Medicine Man (1992) and The (1992). Mazursky was impressed by the (1984), Down and Out in Beverly Man Without a Face (1993), and looks of all three films, and he con- Hills (1986) and Moon Over effects-heavy fantasies such as Peter tacted McAlpine about Tempest. In Parador (1988). Pan (2003; AC Jan. ’04) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005; AC Dec. ’05). In 1996, Luhrmann, another Aussie, offered McAlpine a new creative challenge. Luhrmann’s directorial debut, Strictly Ballroom, had impressed 20th Century Fox enough to get them interested in his next project, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The project wasn’t a “go” yet, but McAlpine accepted a meeting with Luhrmann to see what the director had in mind. “I was between films, and I’d been impressed with Strictly Ballroom,” he recalls. “I met Baz in his offices above a defunct Chinese restaurant, and when I walked in, the place was full of, well, ‘hippies’ is too strong a word,

but they were certainly very infor- of courtesy Pictures. Paramount SMPSP, Morton, Merrick by photo Bottom of courtesy photo McAlpine. Top

64 February 2009 mal. I was old enough to be their grandfather! But Baz’s strength is his ability to sell anyone on his ideas. I asked him what age group he was aiming for, and he said, ‘We’re basically aiming it at 12- year-old girls.’ So I asked, ‘Who’s translating the language for 12- year-old girls?’ He said, ‘Every word will be Shakespeare’s.’ I started to lose interest at that point, but he’s such an enthusiast that he ensnared me.” Luhrmann told McAlpine Fox had the same concern about the language, and the studio wanted him to shoot a scene so executives could get a better idea of how it would play. “They wanted a prop- erly lit scene on 35mm, and I told Top to bottom: A Baz that would be an absolute dis- devastated Romeo (Leonardo aster because they would judge DiCaprio) only that scene — they wouldn’t approaches his use it to imagine what the whole lover’s coffin in Luhrmann’s film could be like,” the cinematog- Romeo+Juliet, rapher recalls. “Instead, I suggested which McAlpine we shoot video of big slabs of the calls “probably the most script. What I wanted to prove to rewarding film myself, I realize in retrospect, was I’ve ever worked the idea that this Shakespearean on”; actress Sonia Braga dialogue could be understood in cozies up to the the situations described in the cinematographer script. I just couldn’t visualize it on the set of Mazursky’s working, and if I couldn’t visualize Moon Over it, I doubted the studio could. So Parador (1988); Baz and the studio agreed, and we director Ron Howard amuses shot with a small video camera. I McAlpine while told him not to worry about the working on look and to put all the money he Parenthood (1989). had for the test into the sound. Everybody wanted to know how the dialogue would work in con- text, so they had to be able to hear it! “We shot big slabs of the script in the rain, staying under a bridge to keep dry. We work- shopped the scenes, and we had Leonardo DiCaprio [playing Romeo] and a great ensemble of photo courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Other photos courtesy of courtesy Other photos McAlpine. Arts & Sciences. of Picture Motion of courtesy Academy photo the Australian actors, few of whom made it into the final film. Then [editor] Jill Bilcock got hold of the

Romeo+Juliet Romeo+Juliet footage and cut it using the frenetic

American Cinematographer 65 Citizen of the World cinema in my career! The only noise I heard through the film was the sound of some girls sobbing at the appropriate places.” Moulin Rouge, his next collaboration with Luhrmann, was also extremely rewarding for McAlpine, who spent a year prepping the picture with Luhrmann and production/costume designer Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s wife. The film brought McAlpine his first ASC and Academy Award nominations. “Baz is someone who can get the best out of every grip, electric, cameraman and actor,” he notes. “He inspires everyone around him, and he has brilliant judgment.” Being honored with the Above: Director style you see in the film. I realized wife and I went to see it on a ASC’s International Award “was Martin Ritt (right) there and then that it was Saturday afternoon in Calgary. I had totally unexpected,” he says. “Over chats with McAlpine and enthralling and involving and the to speak to the manager to get a seat the years, I’ve read in American actors Jane Fonda language was absolutely under- because it was sold out, and we sat Cinematographer about the other and Robert De standable, and that’s when I signed there surrounded by teenagers, and people who’ve gotten the award, Niro on the set of Stanley & Iris on.” they were all talking and shouting but it never occurred to me that I’d (1990). Below: The Shot in Mexico, Romeo + before the movie started, as kids do. be considered for it. I don’t really cinematographer Juliet “was probably the most I thought we wouldn’t be able to think of myself as an Australian or on location in New York Armory rewarding film I’ve ever worked on,” hear any of the film, but as soon as American cinematographer; I think for John Badham’s continues McAlpine. “I was shoot- the opening scene came on, every- of myself as a citizen of the world. action comedy ing another film up in Canada when one in the audience just shut up. It I’ve never really considered my The Hard Way (1991). Romeo + Juliet was released, and my was one of the greatest moments in nationality as a brand. “The thing I love most about my job is the interaction with people,” he continues. “Next to the director, the cinematographer is the one on a film who interacts more closely with more people than anyone else. It’s very rare to find a field where 100 people are all working together to realize a single creative endeavor. When it’s working like that and I’m part of the team, life is pretty good.” I Photos courtesy of courtesy Photos McAlpine.

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a year capturing angular shots of New York skyscrapers, clouds of urban steam and smoke, and glistening harbor waters with a Debrie L’Interview Type E motion-picture camera. The editing juxtaposed similar and dissimilar images to create a symphonic effect that Strand described as “expressive of the spirit of New York, of its power and beauty and movement.” Following its completion, Manhatta was screened several times under a variety of titles, among them New York the Magnificent and Fumeé de New York (The Smoke of New York), but in 1927, the original negative was lost. The BFI discovered a print of the film in its collection in 1949, and Manhatta was soon back in circulation, albeit in poorly duped 16mm reduction prints. Eventually, the BFI source print was destroyed because of nitrate deterioration, and only a single 35mm black-and-white dupe negative survived. This element Pictured in this served as the source for Lowry’s digital shot from the restoration, which was overseen by 1920 silent short Manhatta is the archivist, curator and conservator Bruce J.P. Morgan Posner. Building on Although the 35mm dupe negative Wall Street. The restored frame was an improvement over the 16mm prints is above; the in circulation, it still displayed many shot at right defects, notes Posner. “The problems shows the original frame, included buildup of dirt, scratches, tears, whose flaws holes, bad splices, varying grain and included a contrast and blocked highlights,” he says. horizontal light flare and “There were also weave and jitter move- mottled dirt ments in multiple directions, cross-frame markings. luminance shifts, processing and printing- light flares, poor tonal grading and improper stabilization and breathing caused by mis-registration between individual frames along the strip of film.” Lowry Digital Nederlands Filmmuseum in Amsterdam Compounding matters were image Restores Manhatta recently collaborated on the restoration flaws in the original cinematography; for by David Heuring of the 1920 silent short Manhatta, one of example, most of the rhythmic vibrations America’s earliest avant-garde films, at appear to have been introduced by hand- Anthology Film Archives, the Lowry Digital in Burbank. cranking the camera while it was loosely British Film Institute, the Library of To make the roughly 12-minute mounted on a tripod and uneven process- Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, film, noted still photographers Paul ing and printing via a primitive rack-and-

the National Gallery of Art, and the Strand and Charles Sheeler spent almost tank system. Ultimately, all those flaws of courtesy Lowry Digital. Archives, AnthologyArt Film of and grabsFrame Modern ©2008 Museum

68 February 2009 NFIBJ?FG=FI=@CDD8B?KFLK&?==8ZX[\dp`j\idXep repair it without leaving a trace. A human being can create the necessary pixels to make a seamless repair over the course of five frames, but what about 100 frames? When you add warping, flicker and inconsistent luminance, there are serious hurdles to overcome. “To do the heavy lifting, you have to use automation because the computer will repair things in precisely the same way, frame after frame, without a trace,” he continues. “That allows the artist to go in and find usable image areas from which to borrow to make repairs. Our company was founded on the invention of temporal image processing, and we’re continually expanding what’s possible through the use of that technology.” The Lowry team spent more than 900 hours on Manhatta between October 2007 and September 2008, and that included both automated work and the ARRIFLEX 235 ON BOARD BATTERY SYSTEM “hands-on” efforts of Lowry’s staff. Each of the film’s 11,223 frames was re-regis- The new Oppenheimer 235 OB Battery System easily mates tered, stabilized and cleaned; scratches, to your Arriﬂex 235 camera and allows the use of standard Anton splices, rips and tears were repaired; and Bauer, IDX, PAG, or Frezzi batteries to power the camera at all speeds. flicker and flare were reduced. By using a standard battery, you reduce costs and increase run time. Posner notes that many of the The OppCam Riser Base provides additional 24V and 12V power steps in the restoration process introduced new problems that had to be outlets. The system is simple, reliable and cost effective. Available now! solved in turn. For example, the stabilization process resulted in further exaggera- Problem solving [email protected] ideas and innovative Seattle: 206-467-8666 products since 1993! Toll Free: 877-467-8666 69 Pictured are within acceptable technical standards for before (bottom) and after (top) digital, film and video color spaces. versions of a According to Posner, the filmout files harbor view. registered perfect film-grain reproduction, Flaws in the source material while the video files were modified to included visible appear slightly sepia-colored to match the thumbprints on film output. Decisions about such things the print, vertical print as grain were made by Posner in consul- scratches and tation with archivists from the various underexposure. sponsoring entities. “We worked with some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on silent film and still photography to realize a digital duplicate of … the 35mm original,” says Posner. “Early negative stocks were quite good, but the print stocks weren’t,” he continues. “Since Manhatta was shot off and on over the course of nearly a year, the lab work varied greatly from batch to batch. Seeking a global ‘look’ for the film grain became a serious consideration. As a conservator, you’re trying to make something as close to the original experience as possible. After cleanup and repair, you often need to re-introduce some grain, but you don’t want to introduce anything that looks fake. We resolved those questions as best we could in concert with our restoration partners. Lowry’s files worked extremely well with the 35mm fine-grain stocks.” It is not known whether Strand and Sheeler intended to have a musical accompaniment for Manhatta, though the tion of pre-existing vertical scratches punches and rips. The restoration’s record shows this was done at some of its that ran across multiple frames. Before budget precluded the repair of all these earliest screenings. For the DVD of the processing, the scratches flowed defects, so the restoration team decided restored film, silent-film accompanist straight through the frame, but after to remove 102 irreversibly damaged Donald Sosin was commissioned to processing, they jumped back and forth frames. compose a new orchestral score that was from frame to frame. The restored picture was digitally performed by the 39-piece Slovak Sinfoni- Another mysterious problem was graded by Lowry colorist Rick Taylor, who etta. The music was conducted by Peter a slight 1-to-6-frame-long fogging of the worked in a Baselight suite, and a key Breiner and edited and mixed in Dolby film stock at the beginning and end of reference for this work was 14 single Digital 5.1 at Chace Audio Productions in each shot. Posner speculates the flares frames Sheeler had saved from the orig- Burbank. could have been caused by the start-stop inal camera negative to make photo- The 35mm archival negatives and positions of the shutter in the camera graphic prints. The pristine, vintage prints were processed and printed at YCM during shooting, or in the printer during photos helped the team determine the Laboratories and are being preserved by duplication. It is also possible that short ideal contrast, tone scale and color and the Museum of Modern Art and the ends of fogged raw stock were used. also provided exact dimensions for the Nederlands Filmmuseum. Lowry also Much of the damage shows as white film frames, which had been printed in generated 2K digital files and HDCam-SR flashes where the negative was nearly varying sizes on the 35mm dupe nega- 4:2:2 tapes formatted for different exhibi- solid black. The same frames also tive. The restored picture was formatted tion and broadcast purposes; this material displayed the detritus of cement splicing, to fit an aspect ratio of 1.30:1. is being preserved at the Library of a white or black horizontal line across Taylor modulated the overall Congress, where Manhatta is listed in the the frame, and defects such as nitrate tonal scale, keeping whites and blacks National Film Registry. I

70 February 2009 OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS IN MARCH 2009 Go to AFI.com/AFIFEST for more information New Products & Services

through the Pioneer Hallway, which marks the historical evolution of Pioneer’s plasma televisions from the world’s first 50" 1080p plasma (Elite Pro- FHD1) to the first generation of Kuro. The main area of the Kuro Loft is the TV Taste Test, which allows visitors to compare their choice of HD content (cable, Blu-ray, video games, etc.) distributed to six 50" flat-panel displays from Pioneer, Sony, Samsung and Pana- sonic. These screens are mounted on a custom-made exhibit wall and are controlled by a central equipment rack housed inside this stand. The final section of the Kuro Loft is the Ultimate Kuro Living Room, a Kuro Loft Opens Doors advanced display technologies. home theater consisting of best-in-class The Pioneer South Coast Plaza The entrance welcomes visitors audio and video products to accompany retail store has partnered with Media- with Pioneer’s high-end music system, the award-winning Kuro television. Mation, Inc. to open the Kuro Loft. the X-Z9, an iPod/USB/MP3 sound The Kuro Loft is available by Designed to be a home-entertainment system that upconverts compressed appointment only. For more information playground for Hollywood’s creative audio into full dynamic sound. Moving or to schedule an appointment, visit industry, the Loft showcases today’s deeper into the space, visitors pass www.kuroloft.com.

72 February 2009 Clairmont Renting v3 MOE Lenses Clairmont Camera is now renting Vision III Imaging’s v3 MOE (Moving Optical Element) lenses. Available in 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 135mm focal lengths, the lenses capture different points of view relative to the plane of focus, thereby adding realism, depth and shape to scenes and subjects. Compatible with any industry- standard PL-mount film or digital camera, the lenses incorporate patented

Panavision Adds Phantom EX3 Gets Pro35 Adapter to Rentals P+S Technik has introduced a ½" Panavision has announced an Pro35 lens adapter designed specifically agreement with Abel Cine Tech and for Sony’s PMW-EX3 camcorder, offer- Vision Research for acquisition of Phan- ing users the ability to use professional tom HD high-speed digital cameras. The PL-mount 35mm cinema lenses with the contract makes Phantom HD cameras EX3’s B4 mount. With the adapter, users and custom accessories available for can enjoy the same depth of field, focal rent in a complete Panavised package lengths and angles of view found in along with Panavision’s inventory of 35mm film cameras. ZGC, Inc., the optics, including anamorphic lenses. exclusive North American distributor for Abel Cine Tech, the exclusive North P+S Technik, offers the ½" Pro35 in a American agent for Vision Research’s package that also includes a support kit Phantom HD and 65, supplies the with bridge, two extension handles, two camera systems, technical support and regular handles and a battery. v3 parallax scanning technology. The training to Panavision. P+S Technik recently received a lens iris rotates in a simple circle, with Peter Abel, president of Abel GTC Award for it Pro35 family of image the amplitude (distance off center) and Cine Tech, notes, “Our strategic relation- converters. frequency (cycles per second) adjustable ship with Panavision moves Phantom For more information, visit by the camera operator. (The normal HD into an arena we have eagerly www.pstechnik.de or www.zgc.com. frequency for shooting at 24 fps is 4.3 sought since the camera’s inception. cycles per second; this can easily be With their experience and unique posi- adjusted for off-speed shooting.) tion in the market, we couldn’t hope for Clairmont’s rental package also a more accomplished partner than includes the lens controller and cabling. Panavision to make this objective a For more information, visit www.clair reality.” mont.com or www.inv3.com. Each Panavised Phantom HD camera system will include two new Redrock Micro Offers products, the 512 GB CineMag flash dSLR Kits storage magazine and the CineStation Capitalizing on the high-quality download station. These products speed video afforded by a number of digital production and enhance workflow both SLR cameras, Redrock Micro now offers on and off the set. Panavision is the first a variety of accessories designed to to supply this full system (two transform the cameras into production- CineMags and one CineStation) to each ready cinema solutions. Phantom HD package. Redrock Micro’s dSLR accessory For more information, visit line includes a 15mm support system, a www.panavision.com, www.abel follow-focus with 35mm lens gearing for cine.com or www.visionresearch.com. accurate and repeatable focusing, a swing-away mattebox for light manage-

American Cinematographer 73 The Scanner Elite is Egripment’s a minimum reach of 9' to a maximum of follow-up to the successful Scanner 24'. The arm travels at speeds of up to 5' System, which was introduced in 1997. per second, and a soft-stop feature The Elite is longer (21'), reaches higher guarantees an automatic smooth stop (24') and carries a larger payload (up to every time. Units come standard with a 100 pounds) than the original Scanner. Mitchell-mount adapter and can easily Nevertheless, the Scanner Elite remains accommodate most remote heads in a compact crane system that can be either an under- or over-slung configura- operated either by one person handling tion. Adjustable weights ensure jib arm all controls at the rear of the arm or by balance with all popular head/camera two people, with separate crane and combinations. A smaller version — the camera operators. Techno-Jib 15, with a maximum reach For more information, visit of 16' — is also available. www.egripment.com. For more information, visit ment and easy lens changes, a shoulder www.telescopicjib.com. mount and handgrips for steady handheld use, and a support cage for enhanced stability and low-angle shots. The accessories are available in a dSLR Cinema Bundle or a dSLR Field Cinema Bundle; Redrock’s modular design allows users to add more pieces as they see fit. For more information, visit www.redrockmicro.com.

Egripment Extends Crane Line Egripment Support Systems has expanded its product line with the TDT and Scanner Elite crane systems. The TDT Remote Crane System combines a lightweight remote camera crane and remote head in a single product. Portions of the remote head are built into the front section of the arm, and the Telescopic Introduces Panasonic Unveils controls at the back of the crane are built Techno-Jib 24 Portable Recorder as a part of the weight bucket. The North Hollywood-based Tele- Panasonic has introduced the system is available in 20' (TDT 6) and scopic LLC has introduced the Techno- solid-state AG-HPG20 P2 Portable 30' (TDT 9) configurations, each of Jib 24 telescoping jib arm. The device recorder/player, which supports the 10- which can support up to a 44- can instantly extend or retract, enabling bit AVC-Intra codec as well as formats pound load. innovative shots otherwise achievable ranging from DVCPro HD to DV and only with a telescoping crane. serves as a master-quality deck for fast A single operator can control file-based recording. diverse camera movements and opera- The HPG20 allows users to play tions (including zoom and focus as well and review P2 cards on its 3.5" LCD as telescoping the jib arm) through a screen, manage clip files and metadata, customizable user interface. Controls record content from a wide range of and a viewing monitor mount easily on cameras via its HD-SDI input, and back- either side of the arm and can be posi- up data onto hard disk drives. Featuring tioned for optimal viewing and user two P2 card slots, the HPG20’s solid- convenience. The Techno-Jib can also state design holds up to the demands of be fitted with a remote head for opera- field operation while weighing only 2.5 tion with conventional hand wheels. pounds. The Techno-Jib 24 extends from Recording and playback formats

74 February 2009 supported by the HPG20 include 1080/60i, 1080/50i, 720/60p and 720/50p in AVC-Intra and DVCPro HD 4:2:2; and 480/60i and 576/50i in DVCPro 50, DVCPro and DV. The unit plays back content automatically, with no need to change settings, and can operate in 50Hz or 60Hz. For added versatility, the HPG20 supports up-, down- and cross-conversion for HD or SD transmission. It also allows “confidence playback” from P2 files stored on a hard disk drive. The unit’s HD/SD-SDI and IEEE 1394 input interfaces open the door for a variety of applications in HD or SD production and allow the HPG20 to be paired with a wide range of tape-based and solid-state cameras and camcorders from multiple manufacturers. Additionally, the recorder can play back to large HD production monitors or transfer uncompressed content to HD- SDI-equipped decks and storage networks. When connected to a laptop’s IEEE 1394 output, the unit serves as a transcoder to HD-SDI- equipped monitors for full real-time playback from the timeline. In addition to viewing recorded files in a thumbnail view, users can copy or transfer select clips from one P2 card to another, copy selected clips from a hard disk drive onto a P2 card, edit a clip’s metadata and save a text memo to individual clips when recording or previewing. P2 cards can also be

75 hot-swapped for continuous recording. Other features include an SD card slot for loading metadata or saving user files, and helpful recording functions like a waveform/vectorscope display, loop record and auto record commands that accompany the HD-SDI signal. Internal speaker and headphone (M3 mini) jacks are also included. For more information, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast.

Alan Gordon Expands Line Alan Gordon Enterprises, Inc. has expanded its product line with battery blocks designed for use with both film and HD camera systems. The Triton Cine HD Battery Block 15 AHR uses nickel

Red Apple StudioCruzer and composite. The monitor is capable Makes Debut of displaying images in 1080i, 720p and CaseCruzer has introduced the 480p. Key features of the V8000HDMI Red Apple StudioCruzer, a carry-on case include built-in support for various DV designed to protect a Red One camera battery plates, built-in support for V- and an Apple MacBook Pro laptop. mount and AB batteries, safe area The case’s interior provides a guides for 1.78:1 and 1.33:1 aspect snug fit for the One, with separate, ratios, and video pass-through for all modular cutouts for the body, LED analog inputs. viewfinder and lens. The lid compart- Ikan also offers the monitor’s ment provides a tight wrap for a 15" or earlier incarnation, the V8000HD, in a 17" MacBook Pro, with a separate deluxe kit that includes a hard case for cutout for the power supply. transporting the monitor, a 970 L-series Offering superior mobility over lithium ion battery (capable of powering varied terrain, the StudioCruzer features the V8000HD for over three hours), the mounted urethane wheels and a 17" ICH-750 battery charger, an AC power retractable extension handle. The case adapter, a DC car adapter and a heavy- also features side and front carrying duty camera mount. metal hydride cells, and the TritonBelt handles. Metal reinforced padlock For more information, visit Battery Belt and Cadblock Battery both protectors add strength and security, www.ikancorp.com. use NICAD cells. Compatible with any and the case is waterproof, airtight and of the standard connections currently dustproof, with a neoprene O-ring seal used in the industry, the batteries are and an automatic purge valve. available in 12-, 14.4-, 26-, 28.8- and 30- Weighing 15 pounds, the Red volt configurations. Apple StudioCruzer measures The batteries’ smart technology 22"x14"x9" and comes with an uncon- incorporates built-in microprocessors, ditional lifetime warranty. The manu- which manage battery efficiency and facturer’s recommended price is $320. provide charge termination, voltage cut- For more information, visit off and an easy-to-read fuel gauge. www.casecruzer.com. The battery blocks are manufac- tured in the company’s Hollywood facil- Ikan Unveils LCD Monitor ity. For more information, visit Ikan’s V8000HDMI 8" on-camera www.alangordon.com. HD monitor features a widescreen LCD panel and a number of input options, including HDMI, component, S-Video

76 February 2009 Christie Projects Brilliant3D Christie, a leader in digital cinema projection, has unveiled its Bril- liant3D technology, enabling 3-D content to be projected in full 2K resolution for digital cinema projectors utilizing 1.2" DMD chips from Texas Instru- ments. Christie’s new technology provides 33 percent more brightness for 3-D content and uses only a single lens system. “Brilliant3D will enable ex- hibitors to project 3-D movies onto the largest screens while reducing both lamp and electricity expenses,” says Craig Sholder, vice president of Christie’s Entertainment Solutions. “Christie engineers initiated development of this technology so that audiences would have the most compelling 3-D experience.” Joseph Peixoto, RealD’s president of worldwide cinema, adds, “This advancement, combined with our RealD XL system, enhances the 3-D experience tremendously. Together, we can fill screens up to 75 feet in width with true triple-flash-capable technology, making 3-D films even brighter and clearer.” Brilliant3D will be available on Christie’s CP2000-SB, CP2000-XB and CP-2000-ZX 2K DLP Cinema projectors. Christie’s CP2000-M digital cinema projector, based on the .98" DMD chip, will also feature Brilliant3D technology. In addition, Christie has announced a new suite of variable-prime zoom lenses that enable a convenient and cost-effective single-lens solution for 2-D and 3-D content regardless of format. For more information, visit www.christiedigital.com. ¢

77 Digieffects Simulates Camera, Projection Artifacts Digieffects is shipping Simulate: Camera, a plug-in package offering a specialized collection of effects for mimicking camera and projection artifacts within Adobe CS4 and Apple Final Cut Pro 6. Effects featured in Simulate: Camera include Archive, a film-degra- dation effect; Overexpose, for adding variations in exposure to otherwise stable footage; and Destabilize, useful for emulating camera shake. Addition- ally, as with all Digieffects software launched since Jan. ’08, Simulate:

HDCameraGuide.com shop CS4 and Windows Vista 64-bit Launches (x64). Version 3.0.2 of the Knoll plug-in, HDCameraGuide.com is now which enhances the lighting in Photo- online, featuring exclusive video inter- shop images to produce dramatic or views, product introduction videos, a natural effects, takes advantage of the video-rich Learning Center, an Interac- faster performance and better memory tive Lens Selector and much more. The handling of Vista x64. site will also work with manufacturers Features of Knoll Light Factory to produce product demonstrations and 3.0.2 for Photoshop CS4 include instructional videos. improved performance, better usability, “There’s a lot of great HD equip- photo-realistic lighting effects such as ment out there, and a wide range of lens flares, real-time preview with support products, but it’s not always resize capability, 110 lighting presets, Camera includes Randomizer and easy to determine what to buy,” says 16-bit color support for better looking Presets; Randomizer adjusts multiple Michael Grotticelli, the Web site’s glows and gradients, and Mac Intel parameters within the user interface, editor-in-chief. “HDCameraGuide.com is compatibility. Digital Anarchy’s other causing new and unpredictable results, a single-source product-marketing site Photoshop products have been fully while Presets allows users to move that connects buyers with manufactur- tested to support Photoshop CS4 in both effect parameters between supported ers’ products.” Mac and Windows 32-bit environ- host applications. Robert Sharp, presi- The site is designed to help users ments, and they will be updated for the dent of Digieffects, notes, “These decide which HD camera, lens, battery, Windows 64-bit environment in early effects, like many of the latest releases tripod, microphone and even 2009. and upcoming releases from Digief- teleprompter is best for their require- For more information, visit fects, are designed to be straightfor- ments. Visitors can also rate cameras www.digitalanarchy.com. ward, affordable, every-day usable according to a five-star system and add staples of visual postproduction.” comments. There’s even a section on historic cameras that have made their mark on the industry. For more information, visit www.hdcameraguide.com.

Knoll Light Factory Plugs into CS4 Digital Anarchy has announced the full compatibility of its popular Knoll Light Factory plug-in with Adobe Photo-

78 February 2009 Simulate: Camera is available for Cine-tal Announces UNDERWATER a recommended price of $99. For more Authorized Service Centers information, visit www.digieffects.com. In an effort to provide high-qual- HOUSINGS ity, around-the-clock customer support B&G Adds Budget Forms Pro for its line of image processing, color for B&G Designs has added Budget management and display solutions, Forms Pro to its line of production soft- Cine-tal Systems has launched an inter- RED ONE ware. Designed for budgeting shorts, national network of authorized service features, commercials, music videos, centers. Initially, the network will include and documentaries and more, Budget Forms three sites staffed by dedicated, factory- Pro comprises budgeting templates trained technicians: Imagica Digix in PHANTOM HD compatible with any version of Tokyo, Japan; Janusz Rupik in Warsaw, Microsoft Excel. Poland; and Cine-tal’s headquarters in The Budget Forms Pro CD-Rom Indianapolis, Ind. The company plans to NOW AVAILABLE contains three different sets of budget- add several additional authorized service ing forms: the film budget, the A.I.C.P. centers in the coming months located in commercial budget and the music-video leading media-production centers world- budget. Each template contains a wide. complete seven-page set of profes- “We feel that it is imperative to sional budgeting forms covering all be able to respond to our customers’ areas of production, from prep through support needs at anytime and post, with a complete line-item break- anywhere,” says Bob Caldwell, Cine-tal’s 310/301-8187 down and a top-sheet budget summary. director of customer support. “If a client www.hydroflex.com The top-sheet summary features all encounters an issue on a Saturday in relevant production information, includ- Tokyo, it can now be resolved through a ing the complete budget breakdown and local source that same day.” grand total. Cine-tal’s authorized service Compatible with any size and centers will provide both pre- and post- type of production, Budget Forms Pro sale customer support. Services range can be easily customized for an individ- from product demonstrations and customer training to systems repair and technical support. 24-hour emergency support is also available through each location. “Our aim is not only to provide timely response when problems arise, but also to serve as a resource to our customers, helping them to get the most out of our products,” says Caldwell. For more information, visit www.cine-tal.com.

Sachtler Ships Upgraded FSB Cell Following testing by product developers and selected users, ual project’s needs. Users can change Sachtler’s FSB Cell battery for MiniDV line-item names and percentage and HDV cameras has been optimized amounts, and add comments and addi- and is now shipping. tional information to the top-sheet The FSB Cell’s underside is fash- breakdown. ioned like a camera plate and can be Budget Forms Pro is available for fastened perfectly onto Sachtler’s FSB a suggested price of $129.99. For fluid heads, ensuring secure locking and more information, visit www.movie handling features; by mounting the forms.com. battery directly onto the fluid head, the battery’s weight (1.43 pounds) increases

79 from both CCD and CMOS sensors. a robust motion-capture solution for The Tru-Cut IR-750 filter main- body or facial performance that is very tains a high MTF (modulation transfer easy to set up and use,” says Robin function) in the visible spectrum, and its Pengelly, senior vice president of Vicon’s coating meets or exceeds military stan- Entertainment Division. “It’s ideal for dards for durability, making it easy to customers who require the fidelity and clean. Like all Schneider professional power of a Vicon T-Series system but filters, the Tru-Cut IR-750 is manufac- are working in smaller studio spaces.” tured from crystal-clear, water-white For more information, visit optical glass that is diamond cut, preci- www.vicon.com. sion ground, and polished to the most exacting tolerances. Alan Gordon Offering Tru-Cut IR-750 filters are avail- Engraved Scene Slates able in 4"x4", 4"x5.65", 5"x5", Alan Gordon Enterprises, Inc. 5.65"x5.65" and 6.6"x6.6" rectangular now offers two styles of engraved scene stability without adversely influencing sizes, plus 138mm, 77mm, 4.5" and slates. camera balance, maintaining smooth Series 9 round sizes. The combo slate measures and steady pans and tilts. For more information, visit 12"x9.25" and is made of heavy-duty Depending on the type of www.schneideroptics.com. plastic. Engraved letters and dividing camera, the FSB Cell can provide an lines provide a durable, longer-lasting operating time of up to eight hours. Vicon Adds T10 alternative to silk-screened lettering. Additional equipment, such as Vicon has added the T10 to its Sachtler’s 8LED on-camera light, can recently introduced MX T-Series motion- also be powered by the FSB Cell. capture cameras. The T10 replaces the For more information, visit MX3+ as Vicon’s entry-level camera, www.sachtler.us. offering 3 times the resolution along with faster performance, 3-D on-board Schneider Introduces Tru-Cut tracking, backwards compatibility and IR-750 Filter new high-powered strobes that Responding to HD cameras’ high increase camera range and detail. sensitivity to light in the infrared spec- The T10 is a 1-megapixel camera trum, Schneider Optics has introduced that enables users to capture finer the Tru-Cut IR-750 filter, designed to details in larger volumes, and with GigE eliminate IR light before it reaches the Ethernet, data streaming is 10 times Machined from Alder wood, the clap camera’s sensor; use of the filter results faster than with the previous MX3 sticks provide a distinctive pitched clap. in more vibrant colors and truer blacks system. “The new T10 camera delivers The combo slate also comes with a dry- erase marker. The insert slate measures 5"x4" and is made of white acrylic. The slate is ideal for tight shots that preclude the use of a full-sized slate. For more information, visit www.alangordon.com. I

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Slumdog Golden at Hofmann Appointed ceremony in December. The goal of Camerimage Education Director WIFTS is to recognize women who have Director of photography Anthony Sergio Vela, president of distinguished themselves in their Dod Mantle, BSC, DFF was awarded the Mexico’s National Counsel for the respective fields. Awards were also Golden Frog for his work on Slumdog Culture and the Arts, has appointed presented to actress Alfre Woodard, Millionaire (AC Dec. ’08) at the 2008 Henner Hofmann, ASC, AMC to a producer Gale Anne Hurd, film distribu- Camerimage Festival in Lodz, Poland. four-year term as general director of the tor Adrienne Fancey, and musician and The jury comprised still photographer Centro de Capacitación Cinematográ- humanitarian Ada Ho. Ryszard Horowitz, editor Steven Rosen- fica, located in Mexico City. Hofmann, blum and cinematographers Gabriel who helped found the AMC and served Primes Goes Camping Beristain, ASC, BSC; Stephen Gold- as that organization’s president from Robert Primes, ASC partici- blatt, ASC, BSC; Juan Ruiz-Anchia, 1992-2001, was selected from a final pated in a three-day VariCamp alongside ASC; John Toll, ASC; Pierre Lhomme, pool of nine candidates. director/cinematographer Suny Behar AFC; Nicola Pecorini; and Nigel Walters, and digital-imaging supervisor Nick BSC. Theodorakis in December. The hands-on The jury awarded the Silver Frog workshop covered all aspects of the to César Charlone, ABC, for Blindness Panasonic VariCam cameras, including (AC Sept. ’08), and the Bronze Frog to the new 2700 and 3700 models. Rainer Klausmann, BVK, for The Baader Meinhof Complex. Burdett, Levinson Join The 16 films in competition this New LaserPacific Division year also included 33 Scenes from Life, ASC associate members Ron shot by Michal Englert; Changeling, shot Burdett and Lou Levinson have been by Tom Stern, ASC, AFC (AC Nov. ’08); appointed to LaserPacific’s new digital Doubt, shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, motion-picture mastering and remaster- BSC; The Duchess, shot by Gyula Pados, ing division. Burdett will serve as HSC (AC Sept. ’08); Elite Squad, shot by general manager, and Levinson will Lula Carvalho; For My Father, shot by serve as the supervising colorist. Carl F. Koschnick, BVK; Four Nights With “Ron Burdett brings incredible Anna, shot by Adam Sikora; Gomorrah, perspective and experience to the task shot by Marco Onorato, AIC; Go With of creating motion-picture masters — Peace, Jamil, shot by Aske Alexander No Subtitles Honored he has been a post-industry pioneer for Foss; The Hurt Locker, shot by Barry in Santa Fe more than 25 years,” says Brian Burr, Ackroyd, BSC; La Rabia, shot by Sol No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo LaserPacific’s CEO. “While technology Lopatin; Tulpan, shot by Jolanta and Vilmos, directed by James Chres- will be an important component of our Dylewska; and A Woman in Berlin, shot santhis, ASC (AC Sept. ’08), won the service delivery … having an expert by Benedict Neuenfels, BVK. Best Documentary Film Award at the such as Lou Levinson guide our creative AC contributor Benjamin Bergery Santa Fe Film Festival in December. hand as we make technology decisions moderated two master classes during Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (pictured), will truly put the focus on our customers’ the festival, one featuring Lhomme and one of the film’s subjects, received a products.” I Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, the other featur- Luminaria Lifetime Achievement Award ing Society members Stern, Ellen Kuras at the ceremony. and Kramer Morgenthau. Also, Deakins participated in a lighting work- Vincent Lauded shop. Amelia Vincent, ASC was For more information, visit honored with a Women’s International www.pluscamerimage.pl. Film and Television Showcase award at

the organization’s inaugural awards Linda Carfagno. by Photo

86 February 2009

ASC CLOSE-UP Peter Suschitzky, ASC

When you were a child, what film made the strongest Eugene Smith and Bill Brandt; and the movies of Kurosawa, Bergman, impression on you? Antonioni and Fellini. After that comes painting, particularly Bruegel, When I was 6 or 7, my father asked a colleague if he would bring his Goya, Velásquez, Titian and the German Expressionists. 9mm film projector to show a few films for my birthday party. He brought a few Chaplin shorts, The Rink (1916) and The Immigrant (1917) How did you get your first break in the business? among them. For most of us, this was the first time we had seen moving My first break came when I got a job as a second camera assistant on images, so the effect was very powerful. I have never forgotten the joy commercials and then documentaries. I was then lucky enough to get and laughter and sense of magic I experienced along with my friends as the chance to shoot my first movie when I was 22. we watched the images projected onto a sheet hastily pinned to the wall. When I reached the age of 14 or 15, I was already a movie addict What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? impatient to see the latest Kurosawa or Bergman movie. I think the most satisfying moments have been those when I’ve felt I was able to contribute to a good movie, proposing something the direc- Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire? tor might not have thought of and having it all happily received. Other There are many colleagues working in different parts of the world significant moments have involved taking my children to a set on which whose beautiful work I love. Also, ever since I went to film school, I’ve I was working. admired the best cinematographers of the silent period, which for me culminated with Sunrise (1927), and I have gone on admiring the best of Have you made any memorable blunders? all periods. I would only add that despite one’s efforts, if the movie is If our careers last long enough, we all make blunders. I am no excep- not good, then the cinematographer’s work has little meaning. tion, but as some of mine involve other colleagues, I won’t mention them here! What sparked your interest in photography? My father, Wolfgang Suschitzky, was a photographer and cinematogra- What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received? pher (Get Carter), so naturally, as a child, I was curious to understand I was once invited to a dinner where Billy Wilder was one of the guests. what he did in that darkroom and on those locations. He asked me what I was doing, to which I replied, ‘Oh, a small movie.’ He said, ‘There’s no such thing, just good ones and bad ones.’ For the Where did you train and/or study? rest, I listened to an inner voice that said, ‘Develop as many interests as Institute des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques in Paris. you can, as you will need them to fill the long gaps between movies and enrich life in general.’ Who were your early teachers or mentors? At film school, the cinematographer-in-residence, Jean Pierre What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? Mundviller, had started work as a newsreel cameraman and then Last week, I re-read My Last Breath, Luis Buñuel’s autobiography, which became a movie cinematographer in pre-revolution Russia. He’d been inspired me and made me laugh a lot. one of the cinematographers on Napoleon (1927). He took me to the roof of the school building, where he’d had a hand-cranked camera Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to installed. My first lesson on it consisted of him singing the marching try? song that French cameramen sang to keep a steady 18 fps. He then My favorite genre as a spectator is probably comedy. However, the proceeded to teach me how to make a fade in the camera and how to profession thinks of me as someone suitable for the darker side of life! do a dissolve. To a very young student in the middle of the French New Wave, all that seemed to be a waste of time. However, those are the If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing most treasured memories I have of the school, and the early lesson that instead? I tended to dismiss as not being of any practical use made me think, I would love to have been a musician, but I was certainly not good years later, of our early, pioneering colleagues; because all effects were enough, and I would like to have been a collector and dealer of paint- in-camera, they had to make decisions we are never obliged to make, ings, but I wasn’t rich enough! such as choosing to stop a scene on a good take, winding the film back for a dissolve, and then taking the camera to the next location and going Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for member- for the first take! It filled me with respect for the achievements of the ship? silent era. Mundviller died only a few years after I studied with him, but John Bailey and Allen Daviau. contact with him made me feel I had touched the hand of someone who was present at the birth of the movies. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? The ASC makes me feel I am in touch with my peers, even if I can’t What are some of your key artistic influences? attend the meetings. I My artistic influences are music, which I have always loved above all other arts; the best photographers of my childhood and youth, including Photo by Ilona Suschitzky. by Photo

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