Amer Ic Anc in Ematographer • Ja Nuary 2 0 1 8
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8 1 0 2 Y R A U N A J AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER • JANUARY 2018 • THE SHAPE OF WATER – DARKEST HOUR – DOWNSIZING – CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM – THE DISASTER ARTIST • VOL. 99 NO. 1 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 V O L . 9 9 N O . 1 An International Publication of the ASC On Our Cover: Elisa (Sally Hawkins) shares a warm embrace with an amphibious creature (Doug Jones) in the feature The Shape of Water, shot by Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF. (Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.) FEATURES 36 The Shape of Water – Love on the Run 54 Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF limns an unconventional romance 54 Darkest Hour – At All Costs Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC paints a portrait of Churchill at war 68 Downsizing – Get Small Phedon Papamichael, ASC, GSC and a cohort of 68 collaborators size their craft to scale 80 Curb Your Enthusiasm – No Filter Patrick Alexander Stewart steps behind the camera for the series’ ninth season 90 The Disaster Artist – Burden of Dreams Brandon Trost captures the agony and ecstasy of creative ambition 80 DEPA R T M E N T S 14 Editor’s Note 16 President’s Desk 18 Shot Craft: Aspect ratios • Anamorphic • Super 35 • VistaVision 90 30 Short Takes: ASC Student Heritage Award winners 100 Post Focus: Expo 67 Live 106 New Products & Services 114 International Marketplace 115 Classified Ads 116 Ad Index 117 In Memoriam: Harry Stradling Jr., ASC 118 Clubhouse News 120 ASC Close-Up: Stephen McNutt — VISIT WWW.ASCMAG.COM — Love on the Run Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF illuminates the depths of director Guillermo del Toro’s romantic creature feature The Shape of Water. By Jean Oppenheimer •|• 36 January 2018 American Cinematographer Opposite: While working on the cleaning crew at a top-secret government facility, Elisa (Sally Hawkins) meets and falls for a mysterious creature (Doug Jones) in The Shape of Water. This page, above: Strickland (Michael Shannon, left) oversees the creature he captured, while Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) is tasked with studying its unique physiology. Left: Cinematographer Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF. f o he Shape of Water is a fairy tale for DFF and director Guillermo del Toro, Set in 1962, the film revolves y s e t adults, a love story that blends following Mimic in 1997 and Crimson around Elisa (Sally Hawkins). Mute, r u . o s fantasy, drama, Cold War-era Peak in 2015. but not deaf, Elisa is part of the cleaning c e r , y P u t S b intrigue, B-movie monsters, and “Guillermo started talking about crew at a top-secret military installation c i P y P h M black-and-white Hollywood musicals. The Shape of Water while we were shoot- where a clandestine experiment is t p T S a h r , g s i g Winner of the Golden Lion at the 74th ing Crimson Peak,” recalls Laustsen, who underway. The operation concerns a l e o h y t c a o r Venice Film Festival, the feature marks sat down with AC during a recent trip to strange, amphibious creature (Doug h a H e p y S t r i the third collaboration between cine- Los Angeles. “I think he’d had this story Jones in a scaly, bioluminescent body- r x n e o U K F matographer Dan Laustsen, ASC, in his soul for a long time.” suit) who was captured in the Amazon www.ascmag.com January 2018 37 ◗ Love on the Run Right: Elisa and Zelda (Octavia Spencer) keep the facility tidy. Below: The crew captures a scene between Spencer and Hawkins. Bottom: Laustsen checks the camera as director Guillermo del Toro (standing, second from right) discusses a scene with Shannon, Hawkins and Spencer. and brought to the compound by Strickland (Michael Shannon), a cruel and ambitious government man. Quick-witted and bright, Elisa has an easy smile but is terribly lonely, isolated by her inability to speak. For reasons of their own, her best friends — fellow cleaning woman Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and Giles (Richard Jenkins), Elisa’s sad, rumpled next-door neighbor — also feel shunned and alone. The loneliest, most alienated character of all, however, is the aquatic man — Strickland refers to him as “the asset” — whom U.S. government offi- cials think can give them an edge in the space race against the Soviet Union, due to his ability to breathe both in and out of water. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), the chief scientist at the lab, . X . is actually a Soviet spy who has been r M f ordered by his own government to o y s destroy the creature. Instead, e t r u Hoffstetler’s empathy for the fish-man o c ) makes him a willing accomplice when 0 5 , Elisa determines that she and her 6 4 , friends must liberate the creature and 0 4 . return him to the sea. p p ( s Although set in Baltimore in the e g era of Sputnik, The Shape of Water a m i s seems to exist in a charming, antiquated t c e f universe that mixes time periods and f e - l movie genres. Laustsen — who has a u s i won five Robert Awards in his native V 38 January 2018 American Cinematographer Denmark and whose English-language films include John Wick: Chapter 2, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Brotherhood of the Wolf — was captivated by the characters and story but knew it would be a complicated movie to pull off, given that del Toro rarely follows a conventional, predictable path. “He doesn’t do masters,” the cinematogra- pher observes. “The camera travels constantly — starting here, moving there, turning suddenly in another direction, then deviating again and crossing over there. Furthermore, the light changes all the time.” “The roving camera is a principal character in Guillermo’s films,” attests A-camera/Steadicam operator Gilles Corbeil, SOC, who also worked on Mimic and Crimson Peak, as well as del Toro’s Pacific Rim (AC Aug. ’13). “The viewer is constantly absorbing the evolving environment, where every angle has a reason for existing.” Each serpentine twist and turn advances both the narrative and the emotion, as does the shifting coloration of the lighting. The vast array of blues and greens, which carry over into Paul Austerberry’s production design and Luis Sequeira’s costumes, clearly springs from the story’s water motif. However, Laustsen recalls, “The first time Guillermo mentioned The Shape of Water to me, he was thinking in terms of black-and-white. I was excited at the prospect of shooting it on monochro- matic film, but nobody was willing to pay for that, so Guillermo decided to go with color.” Laustsen embraced the change, gelling nearly all of the lights, which the Toronto-based production sourced from William F. White International Inc., Westbury National, and Moss LED. According to gaffer Tom Starnes, 85 percent of the fixtures were a mix of Kino Flo Celeb 401 and 201 units, and Arri SkyPanel S60s; the other 15 percent consisted of traditional Fresnels as well as punchier units such as Dwight Crane-supplied LRX Raptors, Top: Zelda and Elisa first encounter the creature. Middle: Del Toro preps a scene with Stuhlbarg, which were used in conjunction with Shannon and David Hewlett (portraying Fleming, right). Bottom: Laustsen and del Toro plan their move for a shot involving the captive creature. LRX crane trucks. Nearly all of the www.ascmag.com January 2018 39 ◗ Love on the Run lights ran through a GrandMA2 Light dimmer board, which was operated by Desiree Lidon. Specialty gels were ubiquitous: Golden Amber, Steel Blue, VS Red and Cyan, to name just a few. To keep the light soft, the key light was always placed as close as possible to the actors. Hawkins was frequently shot with two 4'x4' diffusion frames — one with Hollywood Frost and the other with 250 Half White — between her and the light source. Elisa’s world is a medley of dark blues, soft greens and cyan. The crea- ture’s skin and the light on him are a striking steel blue. As the two characters become more intimate, the light surrounding them takes on a warm, golden-reddish tinge. Del Toro reserved “I think Guillermo had this story in his soul for a long time.” solid red for love and death. Teal serves as a strong accent throughout the film, tying together the walls of the govern- ment facility and the interior of the laboratory where the creature is impris- oned; it is also the color of Strickland’s new Cadillac. Del Toro is famous for sketching concept drawings in a little black book that he carries with him everywhere — but shares with no one, not even his cinematographer. Still, because the director knew exactly what he wanted, Laustsen notes, “Everything in terms of color was done in-camera. We didn’t change it in post.” An estimated 95 percent of The Shape of Water was shot on stages at Toronto’s Cinespace Film Studios; the final grade was performed at Deluxe Toronto with colorist Chris Wallace, who worked with Blackmagic This sequence of images shows the live-action plate (top), the plate with rough CG animation added for blocking (middle), and the final composite (bottom). Design’s DaVinci Resolve. Nearly the entire movie was shot 40 January 2018 American Cinematographer ◗ Love on the Run Right: Elisa sneaks into the lab with eggs for the creature to eat. Below: A telescoping crane angles the camera into position for a shot of the creature.