DECEMBER 2012
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Wes Anderson makes personal films that don’t Wes don’t look, move or feel like anyone else’s. else’s. He draws you into his fantastical worlds with beauty and humor, and their artifice only deepens the story’ stor y’ss emotional power power.. Cinematographer Robert Yeoman softens Yeoman softens the colors and gives them the slight tint of a faded Polaroid photograph.”
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FOR MORE ON THE ARTISTRY AND ACCLAIM ON THIS FILM GO TO WWW.FOCUSAWARDS2012.COM
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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
On Our Cover: James Bond (Daniel Craig) finds himself pushed to his limits by a villain with a very personal grudge in Skyfall , shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC. (Photo by François Duhamel, SMPSP, courtesy of Sony Pictures.)
FEATURES 34
MI6 Under Siege
50
Ravishing Romance
66
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC lends elegance to the action in Skyfall , the 23rd James Bond adventure 50
Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC brings a novel approach to Anna Karenina
Freedom Fighter Janusz Kaminski captures a U.S. president’s defining moment in Lincoln
78 An A-Plus Event Plus Camerimage celebrates its 20th anniversary
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DEPARTMENTS 8 10 12 18 90 98 95 100 101 106 108 110 112
Editor’s Note President’s Desk 78 Short Takes: Swimmer Production Slate: Rust and Bone • It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index 2012 AC Index In Memoriam: Harris Savides, ASC ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Jerzy Zielinski, ASC, PSC
— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES — Podcast: Claudio Miranda, ASC on Life of Pi DVD Playback: Sunday Bloody Sunday • End of the Road • Terror Train
D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2 V o l . 9 3 , N o . 1 2 T h e In t e r n at i o n a l J o u r na l o f M o t i o n I m a g i ng
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EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR SENIOR EDITOR
Stephen Pizzello
Rachael K. Bosley
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Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard, John Calhoun, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson ————————————————————————————————————
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 92nd year of publication, is published monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A., (800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344. Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $). Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood office. Article Reprints: Requests for high-quality article reprints (or electronic reprints) should be made to Sheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail
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“‘ANNA KARENINA’ LOOKS TRULY STUNNING THANKS TO DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY SEAMUS McGARVEY. A BOLD VISION THAT’S BOTH FASCINATINGLY THEATRICAL AND THRILLINGLY CINEMATIC.” OLIVE R LYTTE LTON, INDIEWI RE
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING
BEST PICTURE BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY SEAMUS McGARVEY ASC, BSC
For more on the artistry and acclaim on this �lm go to www.FocusAwards2012.com
American Society of Cinematographers The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but an educational, cultural and pro fessional or ganization. Membership is by invitation to those who are actively en gaged as directors of photography and have demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC membership has become one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a pro fessional cinematogra pher — a mark of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS - 2012/2013 Stephen Lighthill President
Daryn Okada Vice President
Richard Crudo Vice President
Kees Van Oostrum Vice President
Victor J. Kemper Treasurer
Frederic Goodich Secretary
Steven Fierberg Sergeant At Arms
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD John Bailey Stephen H. Burum Curtis Clark Richard Crudo Dean Cundey Fred Elmes Michael Goi Victor J. Kemper Francis Kenny Matthew Leonetti Stephen Lighthill Michael O'Shea Robert Primes Owen Roizman Kees Van Oostrum ALTERNATES Ron Garcia Julio Macat Kenneth Zunder Steven Fierberg Karl Walter Lindenlaub MUSEUM CURATOR
Steve Gainer 6
Editor’s Note Last year, during an event at the ASC Clubhouse, I cornered my friend Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, on the front lawn. “So, Roger, I hear you’re shooting the new James Bond movie with Sam Mendes,” I began casually. “How’s it going?” Not yet sensing my fanaticism for the 007 franchise, he maintained a relaxed mien. “Things are moving along,” he said. “Lots of locations, loads of action to coordinate. It’s a big production.” Like Scaramanga, I took my golden shot: “Well, I’ve been a Bond fan my entire life, and now my oldest son is obsessed. And we have a simple request: you’ve gotta make this movie COOL. If you can’t do it, nobody can! I’m counting on you, and so is Nicholas. He’s planning to wear a kid-size tux next Halloween, and his toy briefcase is stuffed with spy gadgets. You can’t let us down. Do it for the Empire!” Roger’s composure wavered slightly. “Well, er, there aren’t many gadgets in this one,” he said. “But I think Sam has a good handle on the material. We’ll do our best ….” His eyes began darting around as he searched for his wife, James, who invariably rescues him from this type of pickle. Alerted by the tiny homing beacon Roger apparently conceals in his wristwatch, she appeared within seconds. “Don’t let him off the hook, James,” I told her. “Remember, this is Bond we’re talking about!” She laughed, and then assured me her spouse had the situation under control. “Trust me, he knows the stakes!” I backed away, flashing Roger the “I’m watching you” gesture De Niro made famous in Meet the Fockers. Freed from my lunacy, he finally cracked a smile. Thankfully, Skyfall proves that the Deakins-Mendes pairing was an inspired choice. A compelling plot, well-executed action and a truly entertaining villain (embodied with arch élan by Javier Bardem) make this 007 adventure one of the best yet, and Roger’s elegant cinematography lends the picture an abundance of style. Our London correspondent, Mark Hope-Jones, declassifies Roger’s strategies in this month’s cover story (“MI6 Under Siege,” page 34). This issue also deconstructs the epic sweep of Anna Karenina, shot by Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC (“Ravishing Romance,” page 50), and Lincoln, shot by Janusz Kaminski (“Freedom Fighter,” page 66). While both films are rife with period detail, the former sends the camera soaring and the latter opts for more classical, tableau-style compositions. Respect for cinematographers and their art form is the raison d’etre of Plus Camerimage. Held annually in Poland, the event is the world’s premier cinematography festival, and this year’s showcase marks the 20th anniversary. We hope our pictorial tribute (“An A-Plus Event,” page 78) conveys the convivial atmosphere that always prevails, thanks to the event’s tireless organizers. On another front, we offer our hearty congratulations to contributing writer Michael Goldman for the publication of his book Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work (Abrams). Authorized by Eastwood, the 240-page book covers all 32 of the films he has directed and is illustrated with unit stills, key art, production-design sketches and film frames. Included are interviews with Eastwood and many of his collaborators, providing an excellent retrospective of a maverick filmmaker whose methods have proven very influential.
Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor 8
. C S A , n a m z i o R n e w O y b o t o h P
F O R YO U R C O N S I D E RA T I O N
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY JA N U S Z KA M I N S K I
President’s Desk Last month I noted that the ASC was a partner in the original Digital Cinema Initiative, which helped steer the development of theatrical digital projection, and that we continue to be active in the evolution of tools for creating digital motion pictures. We have just learned that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has honored us with a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for our Technology Committee’s work in creating the ASC Color-Decision List, or ASC-CDL. The TV Academy notes that this software “enables primary color-correction data to be passed from the shooting set to dailies and editorial post, as well as interchanged between different color-correction systems and applications, and helps communicate scene-specific ‘looks’ throughout the production and postproduction pipeline in an iteratively modifiable fashion that can also form the basis or starting point for final color grading.” The ASC-CDL Subcommittee of our Tech Committee created this tool to ensure that the original intentions of the cinematographer and his or her collaborators are carried through from set to screen. We thank all the members of our Technology Committee for this achievement. Around the corner from us is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose Science and Technology Council has been hard at work developing another groundbreaking tool, the Academy Color Encoding System, or ACES. The TV Academy is also honoring ACES with an Engineering Award, noting, “This is a SMPTE standards-based colormanagement architecture designed for the production, mastering and long-term archiving of motion-picture and television (non-live broadcast) production content.” Among other things, the TV Academy continues, ACES “provides a set of digital-image-encoding specifications, transforms and recommended practices that enable the creation and processing of high-fidelity images” and “offers a larger dynamic range of scene tones, a wider color gamut and greater mathematical precision than is possible with 10-bit Cineon encoding or HDTV standards.” In other words, with the ASC-CDL, the sharing of accurate color-correction information between different facilities and machines is possible, and with ACES, different file formats from a variety of cameras can now share one timeline through post. The ASC and AMPAS are working to provide a framework that will help everyone in motion-picture production manage a world of wildly different image languages. As reported in these pages, the ASC and the Producers Guild of America recently completed the Image-Control Assessment Series with several cameras to see how ACES performs under production circumstances. AMPAS, ATAS, the ASC, the PGA and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, all nonprofit organizations, are bringing studios, manufacturers and cinematographers together to help organize the chaotic world of digital imaging. We are also happy to note that this month marks the 20th anniversary of Plus Camerimage in Poland. A great celebration of all forms of cinematography, including music videos, documentaries and narrative features, the festival is an intense immersion in the art and craft of filmmaking that attracts an array of students, professionals, enthusiasts and equipment manufacturers from all over the world. Many ASC members are attending, as always. . d n a l k r i K s a l g u o D y b o t o h P
Stephen Lighthill ASC President
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American Cinematographer
RUST AND BONE
STÉPHANE FONTAINE, AFC
W WW . SO NY C L AS S IC S AW AR DS . C OM
Short Takes
Cinematographer Natasha Braier, ADF captured artful shots of Olympic swimmer Tom Litten for director Lynne Ramsay’s black-and-white short film Swimmer .
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An Olympic Swimmer By Jean Oppenheimer
The Olympics are not only an international sporting event, but also an opportunity for the host city to show off its cultural and artistic side. As part of the 2012 London Olympics, and the Paralympic Games that followed, four of Great Britain’s leading filmmakers were asked to each make a short film that reflected their visions of London and the games. Scottish director Lynne Ramsay was among the quartet. Ramsay teamed with Argentinean cinematographer Natasha Braier, ADF to make Swimmer , a musically driven black-and-white tone poem that follows a swimmer as he traverses the waterways of England. The soundtrack consists of snatches of dialogue the swimmer overhears on shore and a mix of music, including excerpts from several British films (including If … and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner ), Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and the 1930s song “The Very Thought of You.” “There is no storyline,” affirms Braier. “It’s more of an 12
December 2012
emotional journey, a kind of abstract interpretation. Some shots reflect the swimmer’s point-of-view, some are observational, and some try to convey a state of mind.” Ramsay and Braier decided film “was the right format for Swimmer partly because of the high contrast you get with reflections on the water, partly because film still captures details in the landscape better than digital, and partly because we both love film,” continues the cinematographer. “We originally had this romantic idea of shooting on black-and-white stock and playing with filters, but the only black-and-white stock we could get, Eastman [DoubleX] 5222, was much grainier than I remembered. We also explored infrared. Finally, I suggested we shoot on color stock, Kodak [Vision3 200T] 5213 and [500T] 5219, for the finer grain and then desaturate the image in the DI. That actually brought us close to the look of infrared, because we could isolate each color and change the tone in post.” By way of example, Braier points to the clumps of undulating reeds that blanket a section of the river. When grading the film at The Moving Picture Co. in London, she and colorist Jean-Clément
American Cinematographer
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The swimmer slowly sinks after being struck by an arrow. This shot was made in a studio water tank at Basildon Studios. “[Set designer] Jane Morton did an amazing job building a set in that tank, putting in plants and dead trees to make it look like the river,” remarks Braier. “I backlit Tom with two Molebeams and used an HMI bounce for the fill.”
Soret isolated the greenish-yellow of the reeds and made them whiter. They then isolated the blue sky and made it darker, which, against the white reeds, produced an infrared effect. (No infrared filters were used during the shoot.) Framing for a final aspect ratio of 14
December 2012
1.85:1, Braier shot the 13-minute movie in 3-perf Super 35mm using an Arri 435, Cooke S4 primes, uncoated Zeiss Super Speed primes and an Angenieux Optimo 17-80mm zoom. She selected the 435 because some scenes of the swimmer (Olympian Tom Litten) were to be shot at American Cinematographer
150 fps. An Arri 35-3 was used for underwater footage that was shot in two water tanks, one at Pinewood Studios and one at a smaller studio in Basildon. Swimmer involved location work at three sites: a river in Devon, a tributary filled with reeds and a nearby reservoir. The shoot
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Best Cinematography Danny Cohen BSC
universalpicturesawards.com
© 2012 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
Ramsay (left) and Braier confer on location in Devon.
was initially scheduled for summer 2011 but was pushed to October, and by that time, the water was so cold that Litten could remain submerged for only a few minutes at a time, and had to rest for two or three hours between swims. This meant he was restricted to a mere six or seven minutes in the water all day. During that time, Braier had to get three shots of him swimming surrounded by countryside. These were filmed at the reservoir, and the camera was mounted on a Libra head on a GF-16 crane that was moved along a 280' track on the shore. Litten swam the same route three times, and Braier captured it from the front, the side and the rear using the Optimo zoom. By arming out the crane, the filmmakers could get directly above Litten and film extreme close-ups as he turned his face to take a breath. Braier spent a day walking around the reservoir until she found the perfect stretch of flat ground that would accommodate the crane and was long enough to film the three shots at 150 fps. “We wanted to capture all the subtleties of Tom’s movements, like the muscle movements you cannot see with the naked eye. By shooting high speed, you can see the body better. You can also see the water drops flying in the air.” All of the shots depended entirely on available light, so the filmmakers chose an area that faced south, enabling them to 16
December 2012
work with backlight all day. Braier explains, “When we wanted to be slightly in front of Tom, we shot in the afternoon. When we wanted his profile, we shot at midday with the camera facing directly south. When we wanted to be behind him, we shot in the morning. “[Key grip] David Cadwallader had to push the crane down the track at the same speed as Tom was swimming, and an Olympic swimmer swims very fast!” she continues. “Because we were shooting at high speed, I could shoot at f8 or f5.6 and not need NDs.” Everything went smoothly. Even the English weather cooperated, remaining sunny throughout the day. “That day was certainly the most technically challenging,” says Braier. Scenes that feature reeds were shot in the tributary, with Braier on a motorized raft. “We rigged the camera using a bungee cord so it was sitting almost on top of the water,” she recalls. “The water was totally calm, fortunately!” The river in Devon was used for several short sequences that take place onshore. One shows a group of children carrying bows and arrows who jump into the water and attack the swimmer with their weapons. Their entry into the water was shot in a studio water tank, with the camera on a tripod on the tank floor, looking up at the kids. Braier is a professional American Cinematographer
diver, but Pinewood requires a commercial diver’s license for underwater shooting, so she brought in camera operator Mark Silk, who brought his own housing for the Arri 35-3. To light the scene, Braier positioned three 10K Molebeams and two 6K Pars outside the tank. “Moles are my favorite lights for underwater work because they’re quite sharp and the closest [match] to the sun,” she observes. “I kept the kids pretty dark, almost in silhouette, with just a little bit of information. I thought that made it more interesting and even frightening. I added a bit of fill, but not much.” After being struck by an arrow, the swimmer slowly sinks. “[Set designer] Jane Morton did an amazing job building a set in that tank, putting in plants and dead trees to make it look like the river,” remarks Braier. “I backlit Tom with two Molebeams and used an HMI bounce for fill.” The first shot of the swimmer is a deep underwater shot, which was filmed at Pinewood. The swimmer starts as a small dot in the distance and then swims toward the camera, propelling himself with a butterfly kick. “The tank was 20 meters long, and we used the 18mm prime to make Tom look farther away than he actually was,” says Braier. To create a corridor of light for him to swim through, Braier rigged several 10K Molebeams going through frames of Hampshire Frost directly above the tank. The area around the Pinewood water tank is large enough to accommodate a 30' Technocrane, and the filmmakers used one to capture some shots of Litten, positioning the camera directly above him. Braier says her crew on Swimmer — Cadwallader, gaffer Bernie Printace and 1st AC Eloi Sanchez Moli — was top-notch. “Dave worked on 2001,” she notes. “Swimmer was the first time I worked with him, but since then, I have used him on ● every job I’ve done.”
Production Slate Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) helps Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) out of the ocean in a scene from Rust and Bone.
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A Rough Road to Romance By Benjamin B
Rust and Bone, the third feature-film collaboration between director Jacques Audiard and cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, AFC, is a modern fable about a love affair between two lost souls. Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a struggling single father who ekes out a living as a street fighter. Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) is a marineanimal trainer who loses both of her legs in a work accident. Slowly, Ali helps Stephanie emerge from her darkness, and she, in turn, helps him overcome his self-imposed isolation. AC recently met with Fontaine in Paris to discuss his work on the picture. American Cinematographer : How would you describe what this film is about? Stéphane Fontaine, AFC: Simply put, it’s beauty and the beast, but with a fallen princess and a beast who doesn’t realize he is one. It’s a kind of melodrama, a love story that begins where others might end. They meet, they sleep together … and then, their story has to develop. What did you and Audiard discuss for the look of the film? Fontaine: We wanted a film of contrasts, not necessarily contrast inside a scene, but contrast in the relationship between two scenes. The cinematography is not subtle. When the image is dark, it’s really dark, and the scene that follows is very bright, dazzling. Also, there is a sort of constant movement. Ali and Stephanie are both falling apart and rebuilding themselves, and the image accom18
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panies that movement. The film goes in all directions. The approach was a kind of naturalism, but an assertive naturalism, with images that are very deliberately pronounced. And we didn’t attempt to smooth out transitions or accidents. This is your first digital feature, and the first for Audiard. Why did you choose digital, and what made you select the Red Epic? Fontaine: I think the choice of digital came out of curiosity. Also, we had to digitally erase Marion’s legs in post for many scenes, and it seemed like a good idea to simplify the workflow by shooting digital. I shot a lot of tests; we compared the Epic, the [Arri] Alexa, the Canon [EOS] 5D and 7D, and Kodak [Vision3 500T] 5219 and [200T] 5213. I was really happy with the Epic. There’s a lot to say about the Epic vs. the Alexa. I feel that there is more detail with the Epic, sometimes too much, and the bokehs are much rounder. Also, the Epic is very light and compact. I didn’t want to shoot handheld with the weight and bulk of an Alexa and a Codex [recorder]. In addition, the Epic gave us the ability to quickly go from 24 fps to 300 fps with the same camera body; that was a big advantage. We captured in 5K, cropping a 2.40:1 window out of the 1.90:1 frame. We tested different compressions at 5K, and my eye wasn’t able to see a difference between 3:1 and 5:1, but we started to feel a bit of a difference at 6:1. So we shot 5K with 5:1 compression except for the 300-fps shots, which are 2K with 6:1 compression. They have an interesting texture. I have to add that some image flaws don’t bother me. In fact, in the context of this film, they were desirable. A flawless image would have been un-breathable. ➣
American Cinematographer
. s c i s s a l C s e r u t c i P y n o S d n a s n o i t c u d o r P t o N y h W f o y s e t r u o c , u o j a p r A r e g o R y b s o t o h p e n o B d n a t s u R
Right: Stephanie returns to her former workplace to visit a colleague. Below: Ali tries to forge a livelihood as a street fighter.
There are many moments with reduced depth-of-field, like the shots of Stephanie in her hospital bed. Fontaine: That’s a choice of miseen-scène that was reinforced by shooting in the Epic’s 5K mode. In that mode, the sensor is much larger than 35mm. A 40mm lens with the Epic [in 5K mode] is about the same as a 35mm lens in Super 35. How did you rate the camera? Fontaine: I set it at ISO 800 and worked with my light meter as I would with film. That way, I could shoot very quickly. When you’re working on a stage and you have time, you can consult the waveform 20
December 2012
monitor and have a video village of calibrated monitors, but when you’re on a set with a handheld camera and shooting without a rehearsal, which often happens with Jacques, you take a quick reading and you go! What image did you monitor on the set? Fontaine: We used the Red Gamma 2 display LUT for the monitor image. It has reinforced blacks, but it’s still pretty lowcontrast. You didn’t use pre-established LUTs? Fontaine: No. I think wanting to see American Cinematographer
the finished film on set is absurd, as if the film were already locked in. I don’t know what the film will look like when I’m shooting. I have some clues and desires, but I also want to be able to be surprised. For me, it’s an advantage to have an uninteresting image on the monitor on the set. I feel like I’m looking at video assist. I don’t understand why, suddenly, people now expect to see the finished image on the set. I have shot commercials with the Alexa in ProRes. You turn on the monitor, and everyone’s happy. You feel like you’re watching TV. There is a kind of ease to it; there is already a result that is satisfactory. That worries me. I think the Epic is a camera that’s more oriented toward postproduction. Of course, each film is a different case. You can also shoot with Alexa in ArriRaw with a digital-imaging technician. How did you approach all the day exteriors in this movie? Fontaine: My intervention was minimal. I mostly used reflectors of different sizes [large frames or handheld]. The general idea was to avoid taking up a lot of space with my installations so as to give the director and the actors the greatest latitude possible. There must be a harmony between the tools you use and the director. The weather was sometimes frustrating; we often had to overcome the lack of sun. In
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Director Jacques Audiard looks on as cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, AFC captures the action.
the apartment where Ali lives, I had 18K ArriMaxes on a crane to light [through the window on] one side, and 12Ks to illuminate the roof you see through the window on the other side. We also often used small units, like 1K Pars, to create sunlight in dark interiors. Were you able to schedule the shooting times in day exteriors? Fontaine: It’s a rare luxury to say, ‘We have to shoot right now.’ This requires an agreement with the director, actors and producers — no small feat. There always comes a time when the interest of the cinematographer is not consistent with the production requirements. We did get to shoot one scene on the beach at magic hour, just after sunset, with two cameras, which I requested so we could go faster. We also felt that it was good to be a little chaotic at times. When Ali applies for a job, for example, we start with strong sunlight on the boss, and two shots later, the sun is gone. Sometimes bad continuity creates an interesting dynamic. Every movie has its own rules. The morning scene on the seaside promenade, when Stephanie asks Ali to be sensitive to her feelings, is very simple and strong. Fontaine: It’s a real morning with a little mist. We didn’t use much, just two VistaBeam 600s to soften the contrast. How did you shoot inside the van during the street fighting? Fontaine: On the car ceiling, there 22
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was a fluorescent tube with a lot of diffusion. The side and rear windows had a special tinted coating that I selected during prep. And I’m lucky to have good camera assistants who can change the stop without it showing! What about the night exteriors? Fontaine: Jacques and I have done a lot of warm nights in our previous films, but for this movie, I wanted a night that was white and cool, but not electric blue. I prefer cyan. In the nightclub parking lot, my gaffer, Xavier Cholet, replaced the streetlamp with three or four 1.2K Cinepars balanced at 4,000°K. And when Ali drops Stephanie off at her home, all the streetlamps were changed to mercury vapor. Although the film is realistic, there are poetic moments, like when Stephanie swims in a sea filled with sparks of light. Fontaine: I love that shot. It very gracefully shows what she feels. It looks like the shot in Death in Venice where the boy is at the water’s edge. Patrick Leplat from Panavision explained to me that this highlight dancing on the sea is not a flare, but a ‘smear.’ At some point, flaws and qualities come together! How did you approach the scenes for which Marion’s legs would be digitally erased in post? Fontaine: Our visual effects were done by Mikros Image, and it was great because they left us totally free. Marion simply wore green stockings. A few years American Cinematographer
ago, we would have been forced to do two passes or use motion-control, which would have lengthened production time and bored the actors and director — it’s like watching paint dry. Tell us about the DI. Fontaine: As usual, I worked with [colorist] Isabelle Julien at Digimage. The DI was very simple. I showed her some of my intentions by giving her frame grabs that I had reworked in Lightroom. I wasn’t telling her, ‘Do this,’ but rather just beginning a dialogue. It is essential that a colorist be able to appropriate the film and even surprise you. You prepared these images after the shoot? Fontaine: Yes. I used a 15-inch MacBook Pro. Digimage calibrated my screen with a probe and created a profile for my LCD screen that was close enough [to theirs], not too far in contrast and color. It was quite satisfactory and simple. You finished the film at 4K resolution. Why did you project 2K at Cannes? Fontaine: The 4K image was too defined, too digital, too hard; there were too many things in it. The 2K seemed truer. How would you describe Audiard’s method on set? Fontaine: He wants each take to be really different from the previous one. It’s as simple as that. When we cut, he says, ‘Shall we do something else?’ I might propose something, or he might ask me for something different in terms of focal length or angle. We move very fast. There may be many shots, but there are few takes of each shot. On the set, it’s important to Jacques that nothing is ever frozen, that he can change any parameter at any time. Even when the camera is static, as it often is in Rust and Bone, the filming has to be alive. It’s got to breathe, even through its flaws. This article is adapted from one that appeared in the June 2012 AFC Newsletter. TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 Digital Capture Red Epic Cooke S4, Angenieux Optimo ➣
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The denizens of Bikini Bottom were brought to stop-motion life for the holiday special It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! , directed by Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero and shot by Ralph Kaechele.
I
A Handcrafted Holiday Special By Jon D. Witmer
It’s a hot day in early August when AC arrives at snow-speckled Bikini Bottom, constructed to scale inside the lower level of stop-motion-animation company Screen Novelties in Los Angeles. From the pelagic pineapple of SpongeBob SquarePants to the aquatic arbor of his good friend Sandy Cheeks, the submerged city was built by the Screen Novelties team — which includes founders Seamus Walsh, Mark Caballero and Chris Finnegan — for It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!, which begins airing this month on Nickelodeon. Co-directors Walsh and Caballero called on cinematographer Ralph Kaechele, a regular collaborator, to shoot the special. A native of Germany, Kaechele began his career as a camera assistant and operator, and studied cinematography at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, and the American Film Institute. After a tour of the Bikini Bottom sets, Kaechele sat down with AC to discuss the SpongeBob shoot. American Cinematographer : How did you come to collaborate with the Screen Novelties team? Ralph Kaechele: About six years ago, I got to know Chris, Mark and Seamus 24
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through a friend I’d shot a short film for. I hadn’t done any stop motion, but they liked my reel, especially my lighting, so we did a four-week shoot for a one-minute commercial. I had to learn on the job how I could apply my lighting ideas in a miniature world, but I also discovered so many things that aren’t possible in live action, like long exposures or even changing lenses within a shot. The commercial won an award, and we’ve been working together ever since. How would you describe the Screen Novelties style? Kaechele: It takes a lot of inspiration from Rankin/Bass [the company behind stop-motion classics Rudolph the RedNosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town]. It’s a little bit lo-fi; it’s not a superglossy or over-controlled look. They inject a charm that comes from making things imperfect. For me, the most important thing is they’re always trying to do everything in-camera. There’s so much attention to detail. You spend a lot of time thinking about each frame. Handcrafted textures are very important, which is really cool for the lighting — the more textures you have, the more you see the light. The puppets were digitally sculpted and then covered in various fabric materials to ensure that handmade texture. How did they respond to light? American Cinematographer
Kaechele: It’s all about the angle and quality [of the light]. Usually, the keylights were really soft, and I used strong backlights to make the puppets pop out of the space. Patrick [the starfish] was definitely my favorite character to light; no matter what I lit him with, the texture came out really nicely. The villain, Plankton, was tricky. We had him in three different sizes, so from one shot to the next, I’d have to adjust my lighting to the different scale of the puppet. In wide shots, we used a really small puppet so the space around him would appear bigger, but for his close-ups, he was about 10 inches tall. We could see different details in the different scales, so I had to compensate for that as well. What did your preproduction entail? Kaechele: I was very involved in figuring out the logistics of the shots. Kelly Mazurowski, the production designer, and I were always putting our heads together to make sure the sets would work for camera. Most of the time, we used modular sets so we could remove pieces to put the camera in position. We also planned the practical lights that would go into the sets, keeping in mind animator access. You can do the most beautiful lighting, but if the animator can’t reach the puppet, it’s no good! What kinds of practicals did you incorporate? ➣
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Kaechele: We wired small 12-volt and 110-volt bulbs in various sizes that we bought at hardware stores, and we used a lot of tiny Christmas lights. Carl Helder was basically my gaffer and camera assistant; he had to solder tiny wires for days! It was a super-minimal crew. I get to be very handson in stop motion, and I love that. Occasionally we brought in more people, like Tony Doublin, who was a great help. We couldn’t afford to rent 20 Kino Flos for the length of the approximately 100-day shoot, so Tony built what we called ‘Ghetto Flos,’ four-bank fluorescents made out of thick, black cardboard lined with tinfoil that we hung to light the backgrounds. I think Tony made around 16 units. It was all very makeshift, but it did the job! What cameras did you use? Kaechele: We shot with Canon [EOS] 7D and 60D DSLRs, staying at 100 or 200 ASA and 3,200°K. We had six cameras running, one for each stage. There were five regular stages and one down-shooter stage, which is where you rig a camera to shoot down at a glass plate to film 2-D elements to animate effects. We also did a little green- or bluescreen, depending on the color of the character [in the scene], but that work was very minimal. In stop motion, it’s really important that you have all manual lenses. We used Nikon AIS and AI primes with Fotodiox adapters to ensure there were no electronic contacts that could communicate with the camera. You’re working on a shot over long periods of time, sometimes two or three days, so to avoid flicker, we wanted to make sure that once we set the lens, the iris and focus wouldn’t move. Were there particular focal lengths you favored? Kaechele: We stayed on the wider side. Shallow depth-of-field gives away miniatures right away, so to compensate for the cameras’ large sensors, I shot at T11 and sometimes even T16, but I also had to keep the light level low in order to not harm any of the objects in front of the camera. Many sets and puppets were made out of materials that wouldn’t hold up to the direct heat of a 2K or a 5K. We shot a lot with long exposure times, between 2 and 4 seconds [per frame]. Was it up to the animators to
From top: SpongeBob visits Sandy inside the squirrel’s glassed-in abode; Caballero readies Patchy the Pirate for the show’s opening segment; set builder John Joyce puts the finishing touches on an arctic landscape.
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Right: The nefarious Sheldon J. Plankton hatches a scheme with his computer, Karen, inside the Chum Bucket set. Below: Kaechele (foreground) and production designer Kelly Mazurowski experiment with a laser pointer on Karen’s monitor screen.
expose each frame? Kaechele: Yeah. Once the directors approved the mechanics of the shot, I would finesse the lighting, and we’d hand everything over to the animators, who also executed camera moves and lighting cues. It was usually just one animator per stage. We used iMacs with Dragonframe [stop-motion] software, and the animators could trigger the camera with a controller. What sorts of camera moves did you utilize? Kaechele: We used two- and threeaxis slider rigs, and the animators would 28
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hand-crank the camera from position A to position B. There are also a few moves that we wanted to have a rather frantic feeling, so we asked them to just move the camera on the tripod. It was the same with dimming lights: it wasn’t supposed to be totally perfect. We could have digitally controlled the lights and key-framed every little change, but instead I gave the animators Variacs with a bunch of handmade markings, which allowed them to inject some of their own artistry and creativity. Sometimes I rigged seven or eight dimmers next to each other, so it was like the animator had a American Cinematographer
dimmer board! Were there any tricks you used to help sell the underwater environment? Kaechele: I sometimes had the animators move the lights or dim them up and down to create a kind of wave feeling, but we didn’t want to do too much or distract from the story. The SpongeBob cartoon has flowers drifting in the background, and we were really keen on doing that in-camera. We used bridal net about 3 or 4 feet in front of all of the backgrounds to add a little bit of diffusion, and I projected Lekos onto the net through gobos that we had printed with the flower shapes. Sometimes we even animated the flowers [frameby-frame to move across the net]. I think the most critical point was how we were going to represent winter. That dictated a lot of the lighting and the color palette. It was Mark and Seamus’ choice to paint the ocean floor in a light blue rather than a sand color. I added to that with the lighting, making it cold, with strong and crisp backlights. I also used a lot of overhead ‘sky’ fill to give the sets a nice, soft ambience. I bounced 2Ks into 8-by-8 bounce boards that we flew over the sets. Bouncing is great when you’re shooting in miniature — a 1-by-1 Styrofoam board can be like a 20-by-20 butterfly in the real world! Did any of the sets prove particularly challenging? Kaechele: The interior of the Chum
Clockwise from top left: Caballero positions SpongeBob while Kaechele and Walsh examine the hero’s pineapple home; the codirectors sign off on the set; Kaechele finesses SpongeBob’s lighting.
so when I went into the final grade at Encore with colorist Kevin Kirwan, about 80 percent of the look was already there. We just had to fine-tune it and do quality control. What’s next for you? Kaechele: I try to keep a nice balance between commercials, narrative and stop-motion work. When I finish a job somewhere else in the world, it’s always nice to come back [to Screen Novelties]. Coming up with solutions and being really creative in our approach is the blood in my veins. I’m looking forward to our next collaboration. TECHNICAL SPECS
Bucket [home to Plankton’s lab] was really cool. There were about 600 tiny, handhammered metal plates, and it was amazing to see how they’d bounce light around. That set gave me the chance to light in a low-key and dramatic way, with hard spotlights, like Inkies and Tweenies, whereas the outside world was bright, cold and crystal clear. Sandy, the squirrel, lives in a tree that’s surrounded by a plastic bubble. We wanted to get real reflections rather than create them with CGI, so we took a huge sheet of Plexiglas and bent it around the set. But with a 180-degree-curved piece of Plexiglas, you also see the camera and the animators, and over the course of the day, something behind the camera will move, and you’ll wind up with little reflections that bounce 30
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from side to side. The mechanics of those shots were tricky, but it was fun. I used a polarizer to control some of the reflections, and we placed tree leaves in the foreground and behind the camera to block others. Did you see any dailies during the shoot? Kaechele: We captured raw files that we converted into QuickTime sequences that I would cut to the animatic. That gave me a good overview of color, contrast and exposure, and it also let us know whether a shot was working. In stop motion, you have very little head and tail, so it’s crucial to see character actions and camera motions cut together. We did a basic color grade here [at Screen Novelties], American Cinematographer
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CLARIFICATION In our September coverage of Samsara (“Around the World in 65mm,” p. 46), we erroneously omitted ASC associate member Christopher Reyna’s credit: imaging producer. He served in that capacity throughout Samsara’s six years of production and post.
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MI6
Under Siege Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC joins Her Majesty’s secret service with Skyfall , the 23rd James Bond adventure. By Mark Hope-Jones
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ritish secret agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) returns to the big screen in Skyfall , which reteams director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, and is the first film in the franchise to be shot digitally. Although the action-packed picture is a departure from Mendes and Deakins’ previous collaborations, Jarhead ( AC Nov. ’05) and Revolutionary Road ( AC Jan. ’09), the director says their prep was similar in many respects. “I told Roger that although Skyfall was much bigger and had an action element
American Cinematographer
Opposite page: In the first scene of Skyfall , James Bond (Daniel Craig) attempts to prevent a serious breach of NATO security. This page, top: M (Judi Dench) mourns the deaths of colleagues after a terrorist attack on MI6. Middle: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC wields a handy lighting rig. Bottom: Bond places himself in a vulnerable position to get closer to silky villain Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem).
. d n . a s l o e r s B u i t o n i c ç i s n P a a J y r F d n o y n a S b , f y P S o h p P y s a e r t M g S o l , r u t o e o c h s p m a g t h e i n u a m U D I
that we hadn’t really tackled before, in every other regard, it would be like working on any movie with me,” says Mendes. “I would want from him exactly what I always have, which is an immense involvement in prep, and to be my chief collaborator on set.” Deakins recalls that during his long prep with Mendes, “we went
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MI6 Under Siege In the movie’s ambitious opening sequence, 007 makes ingenious use of a construction excavator to catch up with an enemy agent attempting to escape onto a train car.
through the script together, talking not just about the visuals but also about character development. It was great to be involved in that interchange of ideas, because those discussions affected how the script developed.” Having not made a film in England since The Secret Garden (1993), Deakins enjoyed the opportunity to work with some colleagues from his past, including gaffer John “Biggles” Higgins, with whom he shot more than a dozen films in the 1980s and 1990s. “It was a real treat to get back together with Roger again, and it felt like we were just carrying on from where we left off,” says Higgins. “Some of the technology and the methods had changed, of course, but the cooperation was the same.” Deakins brought three key crewmembers with him from the States: 1st AC Andy Harris, dolly grip Bruce Hamme and digital-imaging technician Joshua Gollish. “Because I operate, my camera team is really important, and Andy and Bruce are crucial to the way I work,” he says. “They set up the camera while I’m lighting so I can just walk on and do a shot.” He had previously collaborated with Gollish on In Time ( AC Nov. ’11), his first digital feature. Mendes had not yet worked with 36
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Specific portions of the ensuing fistfight were captured under the actual sky (top) and on a soundstage (bottom left). Bottom right: Bond’s fellow MI6 agent Eve (Naomie Harris) tracks his pursuit. A specially rigged camera car allowed crewmembers to pilot the vehicle while capturing shots of the actress, who could focus on her performance while “driving.”
digital capture, however, and he tion to be ready for Skyfall , and which acknowledges that he “was initially very has the same rotating-mirror shutter suspicious because I’m a big fan of film.” and optical viewfinder as the Arri 535B Deakins believed shooting Skyfall digi- that Deakins has used for many years. tally would be beneficial at a number of “That was a big thing for me,” says the the locations being discussed, and he cinematographer. “Of course, the mirror showed Mendes some tests from In shutter made the Studio heavier, so for Time , which he had shot with the Arri handheld work I tended to use the Plus, Alexa Plus. “I was very impressed, so we but I probably shot 70 percent of Skyfall shot our own tests, and I continued to with the Studio.” be impressed,” Mendes recalls. The uncompressed ArriRaw Since shooting In Time , Deakins format was also a new development for had maintained a dialogue with Arri, the Alexa since In Time . Deakins notes, expressing his desire for a version of the “We were told Skyfall would get an Alexa that had an optical viewfinder. Imax release, so how our images would His request was fulfilled with the Alexa look on that giant screen was a big Studio, which Arri rushed into produc- consideration. I shot tests comparing
www.theasc.com
uncompressed HD, which I used on In Time , and ArriRaw, and we blew those images up and watched them on an Imax screen at Swiss Cottage. It was quite startling; both images looked pretty damned good, but the ArriRaw had a definite advantage.” One of the sets for which digital acquisition made a significant difference was the 67th floor of a Shanghai skyscraper, built on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios. The scene that takes place on this set depicts Bond stalking an assassin through the empty offices at night, with vast electronic billboards on nearby towers casting hypnotic patterns and reflections on the glass panels that December 2012
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MI6 Under Siege separate the rooms and spaces across the entire floor. “We needed some source for this scene, and I thought using billboard hoardings outside the window to light the whole set would be the most interesting way to go, because Sam had said he wanted to capture the feel of Shanghai,” says Deakins. “Once we decided to build it as a set, Biggles and I started researching what kind of LED screens we could get to light it. We had to make sure there wasn’t too much of a moiré pattern between the pixels of the camera and the pixels of the LED screen, which would be 70 feet away.” “We got the art department to make up a 6-by-6-foot glass panel so we could experiment by putting images from various LED sources across it to check for any problems,” explains Higgins. “Eventually, we decided to use a system called Pixled F-11 for the bigger, dominant screen. F-11 refers to the 11mm pitch of the LEDs, the gap between them. The lower the pitch number, the higher the resolution, so these were quite high resolution. For the other, smaller screen, we used a commercially available system, Pixelines, which is fairly old technology in the LED world. It’s much lower resolution, but Roger liked its quality.” A model of the set was built to help determine angles and visual-effects requirements, with a TV monitor standing in for the large LED screen. “We needed images for the monitor, and the art department found this footage of jellyfish floating through the frame,” says Deakins. “When it came time to discuss what we really wanted to put on those screens, Sam and I looked at each other and said, ‘Well, why don’t we just leave it as jellyfish?’ It looked interesting, and it was a really deep blue, and we wanted this whole Shanghai section to feel quite cold. So that’s how the jellyfish got in the film — they were just stand-ins, really!” Almost all of the light for the scene came from the screens, with Deakins rating the Alexa at its suggested base sensitivity of EI 800 and stopping his Arri/Zeiss Master Prime
Top: When a plot twist allows Bond to go off the grid, he seeks thrills by engaging in a very dangerous drinking game. Middle: 007 examines a wound while contemplating a return to active duty. Bottom: Bond is stunned to discover that his injuries have affected his marksmanship.
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lenses down to T4-T5.6 when shooting directly at the screens, or less when shooting side-on. (Most other interiors were exposed at T2-T2.8.) Higgins notes, “If we were only seeing a quarter of the screen in shot and we wanted to maintain the exposure level, we could map that quarter electronically and take it down a stop or two without any color shift, leaving the rest of the screen running brighter to keep the ambient up. It was a very flexible system.” Deakins adds, “I did use some small LED panels off-screen to augment for closer work, but we basically shot without any other light source. That was just as well because we had a lot of shots to do in very little time.” (The LED panels used for augmentation were simply indi vidual panels from the modular systems used for the big screens outside the windows.) Although a good light level was achieved on the set, Deakins speculates that he would have struggled to shoot this scene on film. “Not only were there extreme ranges of contrast and color, but there was also very little light at the far side of the set from the LED panels, as there were something like 10 sheets of very thick glass in the way,” he says. “That was a situation where seeing the exact image I was shooting and knowing exactly where my exposure was in terms of the contrast of the image on the LED screen was a real advantage. For me, the difference with digital is the comfort factor of seeing it and the freedom to push it further than I might on film. That Shanghai set made me realize we’d made the right choice of format. It was one of the first things we shot and was quite complicated, so it was a relief when we managed to get through 12 setups and it all looked pretty good.” For this sequence and many others in Skyfall , Deakins made use of a Power-Pod remote head mounted on an Aerocrane jib arm, a technique he has often used in the past. In fact, much of his camerawork followed the approach he and Mendes had developed on their previous collaborations: a mix of careful planning and spontaneity. “It stays the
Top: Eve gives Bond a tour of the new MI6 headquarters. Middle: M approves Bond for active duty despite the reservations of her skeptical government superior, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes, center). Bottom: M and Bond attempt to interrogate Silva, who taunts them from a high-tech holding cell.
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MI6 Under Siege
After returning to the field, Bond tracks an assassin to the 67th floor of a Shanghai skyscraper, where neighboring electronic billboards throw mesmerizing patterns on the building’s glass panels. The skyscraper interior was built on the famed 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios. High-resolution LED screens provided the electronic patterns and nearly all of the scene’s lighting.
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same — it’s not about the scale of the movie,” says Deakins. “On Jarhead , Sam said to me one day, ‘Here we are, doing a $70 million picture with all these stunts and explosions, and you’re shooting with a handheld Arri 3-C!’ It was the same on Skyfall . Some days, [Bcamera operator] Pete Cavaciuti and I would both have handheld cameras on these big stunts. That’s the way Sam and I like to work; we both enjoy being quite instinctive on the day.” Big action scenes, such as a train crashing through the roof of an underground bunker, required multiple camera positions, but in general, the number of cameras was kept to a minimum. Deakins notes, “It varied from day-to-day and depended on the scene, but it wasn’t like we had to do everything with five cameras just because it’s a Bond movie. Sam likes to have the main cameras focused on the characters and the dialogue. Sometimes we’d add other cameras to get little pieces, and, of course, with all the complex action sequences, we did use additional units. Both [2nd-unit director of photography] Alex Witt and [splinter-unit director of photography] Peter Talbot shot some fantastic footage.” The visual-effects team also used Alexas. “Because he had no experience with digital capture, Steve Begg, our visual-effects supervisor, did some very comprehensive tests in prep with a number of film formats, as well as another brand of digital camera, in all sorts of situations where the dynamic range of the camera was key,” Deakins notes. “Steve did some fantastic work on the film both with models and CG comps.” The cold look developed for the Shanghai skyscraper contrasts with a view Bond gets of a room in a neighboring hotel, which is suffused with yellow and stands out like a box of light in a cold environment. “Color was very important throughout the shoot,” says Deakins. “We tried to shoot London exteriors in overcast conditions, though that wasn’t always possible. In the story, MI6 is driven underground into
After dispatching the assassin, Bond moves on to an opulent waterfront casino in Macau, where he meets Sévérine (Bérénice Marlohe), an exotic beauty with dangerous connections.
bunkers beneath the city, and there we used harsh fluorescent lighting and a monochromatic feel. When we cut from that to Shanghai, we punch into this futuristic world, and then, for the casino in Macau, the idea was to go back to an older, more mysterious world, so we chose red and gold. Each color palette was designed in the context of the others.” The waterfront Macau casino was also a set built at Pinewood Studios. The sequence begins with an exterior shot of Bond approaching the casino on a small boat, surrounded by hundreds of floating lanterns and navigating through illuminated arches in the shape of dragons’ heads. “We shot that on the Paddock Tank at Pinewood,” says Deakins. “We wanted some sort of boom arm to track behind the boat, but England, and just about every grip in that ran off a power supply rather than we had to get back from the edge of the the country came out to see it!” batteries, and we gave them a bit of tank in order to make the most of the The dragons’ heads provided the flicker. They had stabilizers hanging space. My grip suggested a 100-foot strongest light source, while the floating down from them, so we didn’t need SuperTechnocrane, and that allowed us lamps were dimmed-down 100-watt anyone in the water. We were lucky it to do the tracking shots, get the very fixtures. Higgins explains, “The wiring was a calm night, because a strong wind high angles we needed, and work very was underwater, and for safety reasons, would have caused real problems! In the quickly. I think it was the first time that we had to find bulbs that would run at background, the entire outline of the particular crane had been used in a low voltage. We used 24-volt fixtures casino was lit with thousands of 60-watt
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MI6 Under Siege golf-ball fixtures on dimmers. That was a massive rigging job for my practical team.” Once Bond enters the casino, the camera follows him around in an extended Steadicam shot, which largely dictated the lighting design. “You see the whole set in that one shot, so we had nowhere to put normal movie lights,” continues Higgins. “Roger fought to get a two-day pre-light, and we rigged various kinds of practicals. We had a workshop at Pinewood, and whatever the art department designed went through there. Every practical in the movie was modified or made on site.” “We rigged about 260 practical lights, and most of them held a heavily dimmed 1K bulb,” Deakins elaborates. “Another part of the set was lit by about 100 double-wick candles that had to be replaced every 10 minutes. Over the gaming tables, we modified some big overhead lanterns by lining the shades with a gold stipple reflector and putting in 2K bulbs, which were dimmed, to bounce off the gold and create warm, glowing light over the tables. For the sequence in the bar, we did a big, gold bounce rig, which was the most complimentary way to light faces. We used a number of different techniques.” The set had the appearance of being entirely lit by practicals, but Deakins’ crew did rig other lights for closer work. “In the center of the main gambling area, we had a 20-foot circle of 2K Blondes on a truss that could be lowered to give a soft, gentle light, with the Blondes dimmed to about 20 percent,” says the cinematographer. “We also had well over 200 300-watt Fresnel lamps on scaffold pipes that we could drop down to get the light at 45 degrees to the actors.” Higgins adds, “The poles varied between 6 feet and 20 feet long, with multiples of six Arri 300s, going up to 18 on some of them. We used multiples of six because the dimmer packs output in six channels, so a single cable from the dimmer could deliver six circuits.” For Mendes, the lighting of the casino set was a good example of how
Top: Director Sam Mendes works through a scene with Dench amid carefully bounced light. Middle and bottom: Bounced light was also used to capture closeups for a sequence in which Bond meets his new quartermaster (Ben Whishaw), whom he dubs “Q,” in London’s National Gallery. Deakins exploited the gallery’s enormous skylight to lend the scene a natural ambience.
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ARRI congratulates congratulates EON EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Studios, Sony Pictures Pictures Releasing, Releasing, cinematographer cinematographer Roger R oger De Deakins, akins, ASC, BSC, and the entire entir e crew crew of of SKYFALL SKYFALL on this this incredibly incredibly cinematic tour tour de force. force. Thank you for for making ARRI ALEXA ALE XA Studio, Studio, M and Plus cameras cameras part part of your journey. journey.
www.arri.com w ww.arri.com
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MI6 Under Siege digital capture benefited the production. “The way Roger lit that set, with all those practicals, was extraordinary, and there’s no conceivable way we could have done that on film,” he says. “That’s just one of many examples of how much flexibility the Alexa gave us without sacrificing the look of the picture for one second.” Other aspects of digital acquisition, however, pleased Mendes far less. “With a lot of big monitors on set, there’s a slight sense of a spread of focus, which is not what I’m used to,” he observes. “There is also a certain loss of magic in the process of transformation that happens between shooting an image on film and first seeing it on the big screen. It gives you a huge lift to see what you shot the previous day projected large, if it has been properly timed. On Skyfall , it was the other way around, because we could look at the image on a very good monitor on set and see it exactly as Roger intended, and when we saw dailies the next day, they were lowerresolution images and wouldn’t look quite as good. So there wasn’t that wonderful sense of surprise.” During the shoot, ArriRaw files were recorded to Codex recorders via Tlink connection. Concurrently, ProRes 4:4:4:4 files were recorded in Log C format to in-camera SxS Pro cards. The smaller files were used for dailies and editorial work, whereas the ArriRaw files could be conformed in sequence, bringing the full amount of picture information into play for the final digital grade. This all formed part of a workflow provided by EC3, a collaborative entity that allows Deluxe facilities EFilm and Company 3 to combine resources and offer services to productions on location as well as in post. For Skyfall ’s final grade, Deakins worked with two colorists, Mitch Paulson of EFilm in Hollywood and Adam Glasman of Company 3 in London. From a photographic standpoint, some of the most complicated scenes in Skyfall appear in the major action sequence that serves as the movie’s climax, which takes place on the Scottish
Top: Deakins grabs a handheld shot of Dench and co-star Rory Kinnear (playing Bill Tanner, M’s chief of staff) amid the chaos of an attempted assassination. Middle: Bond pursues the fleeing gunman through a tunnel in the London Underground. Bottom: As the chase continues onto an escalator, Deakins captures a shot of Craig sliding between the handrails.
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MI6 Under Siege
In an attempt to safeguard M, Bond spirits her off to Skyfall, his family’s estate in the Scottish Highlands, where he engages in an explosive confrontation with Silva and his henchmen. Bottom: The estate’s elderly caretaker, Kincaide (Albert Finney), guides M across the moors. This portion of the “exterior” was actually shot inside the largest stage of Longcross Studios, just west of London, with lighting provided by a tapered rig of 32 Dinos gelled with ¾ and ½ CTO.
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moors. Deakins explains, “It involves interior and exterior scenes of a mansion and, later, a chapel, and it goes from daytime to dusk to night. The night work involves explosions, a spotlight from a helicopter and a firelit chase across the moors. It’s an extended sequence of light change, and we were shooting the various elements on very different days. Take that dawn scene in No Country for Old Men [ AC Oct. ’07] and multiply it by 50 — that’s how difficult it was! “The hardest thing was the interior of the mansion, which we built onstage at Pinewood, because of the changes to the light coming in from outside,” he continues. “On that set, I used bounced HMIs outside the windows and almost nothing inside. We started off with white bounce and then went to a blue bounce material, and
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MI6 Under Siege
In a reflective moment, Bond surveys London from the rooftop of MI6.
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then we took the blue away and just used black drapes around the set to build up the feeling of the light dying. We even started filtering the HMIs, and eventually, we got up to Full plus Half CTB to get that deep twilight before we went into complete darkness.” Once darkness fell, Deakins had to create the effect of a helicopter searchlight shining through the windows and following Bond around the space inside. He notes, “We created a big trackway on the ceiling outside the set, a computer-controlled lighting rig that would zip a 6K Par around the house.” The movement of this searchlight had to match between the interior on stage and the exterior on location. “On our location ‘set,’ we shot some of the scene with a real helicopter mounted with a Midnight Sun,” says Deakins. “We did some closer work with a 6K Par that was mounted to a camera remote head on a tower crane,
and which was controlled by a camera like it was lit quite naturalistically by fire TECHNICAL SPECS operator with the help of a witness sources, and then replace the Dinos camera.” with CG fire in post,” adds Deakins. 2.40:1 and 1.90:1 Imax The chase across the moors was “We did much the same thing for the Digital Capture filmed inside the largest stage at oil fires in Jarhead .” Longcross Studios, just west of Summing up his latest collabora- Arri Alexa Studio, Plus, M London. At this point in the story, the tion with Deakins, Mendes observes, “I mansion has caught fire, and the action think we probably had more fun on this Arri/Zeiss Master Primes had to look as if it was being lit by the movie than on any we have done flames in the deep background. Higgins together in the past, even though it’s explains, “We built a tapered rig of 32 been the hardest work and the largest Dinos gelled with ¾ and ½ CTO, using scale. I think we were able to use the each Dino bulb like a pixel on an LED resources of a Bond movie to achieve screen, so we could program in images things that are simply not possible on a of fire and the lamps would mimic it. smaller budget. Roger had us make this rig very hot in “Shooting digitally is a different the middle and then fading out toward rhythm of work, but in the end, it’s just the edge. We started running the Dinos a choice,” he continues. “Can I imagine at up to 80 percent, with the flicker, and shooting a movie on film again with then as the fire goes out, we dropped Roger? Yes. Would there be moments that off. We also filled the set with where I thought, ‘This wouldn’t have smoke because the weather was meant happened with digital’? Yes, there to be foggy. The effect was very eerie.” would be. I will certainly shoot movies “The idea was to use the Dinos to on film again, but perhaps not a movie make the smoke filling the stage look of this scale.” ●
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Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC creates lyrical imagery for Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina . By Benjamin B
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R avishing
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Anna and Vronsky’s affair is contrasted with the relanna Karenina , an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel about the impossible love between a married noblewoman and tionship between two secondary characters, Levin (Domhnall a cavalry officer in Czarist Russia, is director Joe Wright’s Gleeson), a farmer who proposes to Kitty (Alicia Vikander), a third feature collaboration with Seamus McGarvey, ASC, young woman enamored with Vronsky. When Kitty refuses BSC, and the cinematographer says Wright’s unique take on Levin’s proposal, he retreats to the country, but finally returns the material inspired everyone to strive for bold results. “Joe has to ask for Kitty’s hand again. A wiser Kitty accepts, and the quite a daring sensibility in terms of mise-en-scène and produc- couple offers an image of connubial happiness in their countion design, and this is probably his most expressive film yet,” try home. he says. After scouting locations in Russia and elsewhere, Anna (Keira Knightley) is married to Karenin ( Jude Wright decided to create an original vision of Tolstoy’s tale by Law), a leading political figure, and is devoted to him and their placing almost all of the action in a theater, complete with son. On a train trip to Moscow, she meets a handsome, young footlights and backstage areas. “I try to find a concept and officer, Vronsky (Aaron Johnson), and later shares a memo- stick to it, and often I do that by imposing limitations on rable dance with him at a ball. When Anna returns to St. myself so that I can find a cohesive language for the film,” says Petersburg, Vronsky follows, declaring his love for her. The two Wright. “That’s something I was taught by Ryszard become lovers, and when Anna reveals the affair to Karenin, he Lenczewski, a cinematographer who worked with me some threatens to ruin her if she leaves him. Torn between staying time ago [on the TV miniseries The Last King ]. I feel that with her husband or living with Vronsky and becoming a social setting the aesthetic boundaries of the project liberates everypariah, Anna is driven to madness and a tragic fate. one; if we have those boundaries, we can go anywhere and
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In a frame grab from Anna Karenina, Anna (Keira Knightley) contemplates a grim future with her husband and without her lover.
do anything. By setting Anna Karenina in a theater, we had to do everything in that space and sort out what that meant in terms of lighting and camera movement.” Wright’s unexpected decision to set the action in a theater created a big challenge for production designer Sarah Greenwood, who supervised the rapid 12-week construction of five sets at Shepperton, including on the giant C stage. “It was actually really invigorating,” she remarks. “We were a little bored with the idea of another typical costume drama, and Joe’s brainwave was the most exciting thing that could happen. Everyone had a huge amount of energy and belief to push this through. We had 12 weeks to design
s b a r g e m a r f d n a s o t o h P . m a h r a p S e . i r s u r a e L u t y a e b F y s h u p c a o r F g o f t o o y h p s e t t r i n u U o c
and build that theater and get it dressed and lit. It was just epic.” She emphasizes that her work was informed by the location scouts she and Wright had done during prep. “We’d done three months of prep, including scouting in Russia, and had an enormous amount of information and research. That enabled me to refine it into what we were trying to do within the theater.” “The lovely thing about Sarah’s sets is the way they are aged, the way they are tinted and darkened,” says McGarvey. “Before I’ve even lit it, the characters sit apart from their environment. This allows me to use big, soft sources for close-ups.” Among the film’s most striking visual aspects are its camera moves, www.theasc.com
which flow freely during complex set pieces and also during seamless segues from one setting to another. “The moves were very choreographed,” says McGarvey. “For Joe, that was a way to suggest mannered society and its mores.” The moves were also designed to keep the restricted space lively. “The danger of setting 80 percent of a story in a theater is that it can be very dull, so we very deliberately decided to explore the space with the camera,” he continues. The intricate real-time set transitions “were part of the regimen.” “Joe is very camera literate, and he designs shots that are usually easy to achieve,” observes A-camera/Steadicam operator Peter Robertson, who also worked with Wright on Atonement ( AC Dec. ’07) and Hanna ( AC April ’11). “When we set up a dolly, he’ll say, ‘Take me down the track,’ and look through the lens. He is also very adept at plotting Steadicam moves. The conception of the shot is easy, though the actual execution might require a lot of effort.” Robertson points to an uninterrupted shot of Anna and Vronsky dancing at the ball amid a crowd of dancers and onlookers. As the couple swirls around the floor, Vronsky lifts Anna above him, and the camera follows her as she twirls around and then comes down in a dark, empty ballroom. “There was an ease about the shot — the only hard thing was clearing the extras out of the set in time!” recalls Robertson. The complex camera moves are intercut with dialogues shot in static, classically composed close-ups. Wright explains, “I didn’t want the theatrical concept to overwhelm the emotional story. In fact, the theatrical conceit came out of a desire to focus on the performances. I knew that wherever we were, a close-up would take us to the heart of the drama and put the setting in soft focus. I love playful camera choreography, but really, a close-up projected 16 December 2012
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Ravishing Romance
In these frame grabs from an opulent ball, Kitty (Alicia Vikander) makes her entrance and is distressed to see her beloved Vronsky dancing with Anna.
feet tall on a cinema screen is the thing that gives me most joy. I’m interested in people’s faces, and I want to see them big on a screen.” McGarvey adds, “What Joe has achieved here is that 52
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lovely merger of classicism and creative abandonment. We wanted to use classical modes because on one hand, we’re trying to evoke period, and one way to do that is to use compositions and techAmerican Cinematographer
niques from the 1930s and 1940s.” Panavision London supplied the production with Panaflex Millennium XLs and an array of anamorphic lenses: a set of G-Series primes, E-Series 135mm and 180mm primes, and AWZ2 40-80mm and ATZ 70200mm zooms. (Robertson recalls that the 40mm was usually employed for wide shots, and the 75mm or 100mm was favored for closer shots.) McGarvey shot the entire picture on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, usually at around T4, which he describes as “a healthy stop, although my first ACs, Iain Struthers, Leigh Gold and Jennie Paddon, might dispute that! “The 2.40:1 aspect ratio offers so many possibilities for meaningful compositions,” he continues. “You can play with the space between two people, bringing them close together or separating them. We sometimes used shallow focus with close-ups. That’s a beautiful thing about anamorphic: it can be unequivocal about where your eye goes.” Wright adds, “Because we were setting it all in one location, it was vital to have anamorphic give the film a kind of epic quality.” As an example of the creative use of shallow focus, Robertson points to the shot of Vronsky appearing behind Anna to ask her to dance at the ball. “At that point in the story, there’s still a
Top: Two cameras capture Anna and Vronsky’s dance. At the A camera in the foreground are (left to right) operator Peter Robertson, 1st AC Iain Struthers and grip Gary Hutchings. At the B camera are (right to left) operator Simon Finney, 1st AC Leigh Gold and grip Dean Morris. Bottom: Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC checks the light on Vikander.
distance between Vronsky and Anna, and when he walks up to her, you can’t see him clearly. With anamorphic, Joe likes to use focus almost as an emotional tool.” The picture has a soft, glowing texture that was created in part by the use of black nets on the back of the lenses. “We used Christian Dior 10 denier black silk stockings to give the image an out-of-time, out-of-step feel,” explains McGarvey. “That kind of filtration is not in vogue; it’s a little askew. Joe liked to quote Milan Kundera’s definition of kitsch: ‘Ripe to the point of rotten.’ It’s such a pronounced look, but you do get used to it. Look at The Double Life of Veronique , where initially you think, ‘Wow, what’s going on with those find that it creates an atmosphere of filters?’ but eventually, you’re drawn into excitement. It means that sometimes that world. Our vision was to make a things happen by accident, and those bold filtration statement to help lure you serendipitous moments are caught.” into a different realm.” McGarvey’s basic tungsten light Wright often shot scenes in long ing package was simple: a complement takes, even though some parts of the of 10Ks, 5Ks and 2K Blondes, space take ended up on the cutting-room lights, some programmable Mac 2000s, floor. “I enjoy the performance of a long Lowel Rifa lights, Jem Balls and directake, the way it helps the actors forget tional “Rockettes,” a.k.a. 2K Par cans. about the camera, in a way,” he says. “I There were also some HMIs for day
www.theasc.com
exteriors, and tungsten balloons and ¼ Wendy Lights for night exteriors. McGarvey expected an intense production schedule. “I know how Joe works. I had the most brilliant gaffer, Chuck Finch, who works with his brother, Tommy, as best boy. With the briefest of discussions, we were working at full tilt. The set was effervescent, and we were able to work incredibly fast. Sometimes we were working on two December 2012
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Ravishing Romance stages side by side, and we could run next door, set up a shot, pre-plan a dimming move, and then run back. There was a hive of ongoing activity, which was tremendously exciting.” Chuck Finch recalls the fevered pitch: “We had lights rigged up above the set. We’d talk about things the night before, I’d rough it in, Seamus would come in and do his bit of magic, and we’d be away. Then Joe came in and set the shots up, and we lit it shot by shot. Seamus knows exactly the results he wants, and he achieves them as simply as possible. Others may spend half an hour getting a result that Seamus can get in five minutes. He’s quite brilliant at what he does.” Wright’s freewheeling directorial style sometimes required that the
“Seamus knows exactly the results he wants, and he achieves them as simply as possible.”
The top three images are frame grabs showing Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) at work on his farm and Kitty arriving to make amends. Bottom: An 18K ArriMax softened by a 4'x4' frame provides eyelight for Gleeson’s close-up.
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camera be able to move 360 degrees. This mandated lighting some sets uniquely from above, and also moving quickly. The ball scene in Moscow provides a good example of this. The scene opens with a 30'-Technocrane move (supervised by key grip Gary Hutchings) that reveals the entire theater from the stage. The wide shot is beautifully speckled with dozens of practicals, the extras move in pools of light on the floor, and the balcony, where the orchestra sits, is defined by light from below. “The practicals on the balcony were significantly dimmed so that they were points of light, not sources,” notes McGarvey. “It was the same with the footlights — they only needed a glow.”
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Ravishing Romance The orc orches hestra tra was lit fro from m bel below ow by batten strips comprising six to 12 Photofloods. “I love working with very simple sources, and I often use battens, which whi ch can be clamped clamped [to somethi something] ng] or laid on the floor, like they were here.” The ove overhe rhead ad lig lights hts,, he con contin tin-ues, “were quite high. They were on the reds 30 or 40 feet above, which gives a distinctive look. We had 5Ks and 10Ks above the stage, and Alicia is backlit by a 10K when she makes her entrance.” Some toplights were shone from a “boat,” a platform positioned several feet below the reds; McGarvey used this to position 10Ks on the orchestra and Mac 2000s to highlight elements of the set. The boa boatt was als alsoo use used d to pla place ce the camera for overhead shots, or to hang lighting balloons. The hot pools of light
“I’m typically very sparing with close-ups, but this was different.”
In these frame grabs, Vronsky (Aaron Johnson) approaches Anna at a soirée after the ball but fades into the background when her husband, Karenin (Jude Law), interrupts the encounter.
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on the guests were created by a dozen Par can Rockettes, which also “enhanced the movement of the background dancers,” he notes. Other sequences, like an intimate soirée where Anna encounters Vronsky after the ball, had camera moves that allowed McGarvey to use large soft sources on the floor. “We had one big wedge wed ge sou source rce for wid widee sho shots: ts: a doze dozen n 2K Blondes banging into a 12-by-12 UltraBounce and a 12-by-12 silk in front of it,” he says. “Space lights with black skirts were also playing, as we lowered them down a little bit.” McGarvey explains that a wedge, also known as a book light, involves bouncing sources before diffusing them. “It’s great because you can use very high firepower, up to a 20K bounce, and get a lovely spread.” Comparing silk and Grid Cloth diffusion, he notes, “Silk is nice if
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Ravishing Romance you need more projection. Sometimes Grid diffuses so much that it can feel like plastic on skin. Also, silk allows you to maintain a truer color temperature, whereas Grid takes on a warmer hue.” He notes that he and his collaborators embraced the warming of color temperature that resulted from dimming the tungsten lights. The proscenium footlights were fitted with Photofloods when out of frame, or switched to pygmy bulbs with gauze stockings when in frame, giving the feeling of gas lamps. McGarvey used hard lighting both to convey the theatrical setting and as a period homage to Visconti’s The Leopard and the work of Max Ophüls. “We looked at those films
“In any scene with Karenin and Anna, I lit her with soft light.”
When Anna finally returns home, Karenin calls her into his study and warns her about her behavior.
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particularly for the dance sequences, but for the lighting style as well,” he says. “We used hard lights in the background, but we also didn’t shy away from hard light on the actors. Keira looks extraordinary when she’s hit with a hard light with no diffusion. There’s one shot where she looks into camera and lowers her veil, and there’s a 20K hitting her face from 20 feet away. There was no other light.” The best way to shoot a veil, he adds, “is to send a light straight into the face.” Another example of hard light is the sex scene between Anna and Vronsky, a montage of extreme closeups that were lit very simply with a 10K overhead. “I overexposed that by 3 or 4 stops, and the look was helped a lot by the net, which creates an opalescence that I love,” says McGarvey. “The light is shifting and molding around them as their bodies move because it’s bouncing
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Ravishing Romance
Top: The filmmakers prepare for a wintry night exterior set at a train station. Bottom: Anna disembarks in this frame grab from the scene.
off their flesh. They’re creating their own fill; as a hand or a face moves, light bounces back on them.” McGarvey returns to the importance of close-ups in the film’s visual language: “We wanted to evoke operatic richness, but there was a risk of tipping over into pure spectacle. The story had to be told emotionally, and we recognized that the emotion could be depicted most effectively in the closeup. I’m typically very sparing with the use of close-ups, but this was different; we had to see the dilemmas and the changes of the characters through their faces. So we made sure that there were these key moments with the human 60
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face. That was most important.” Many of the dialogues between Anna and Vronsky play out in static angle and reverse over-the-shoulder shots. Wright muses, “Seamus is very modern in his lighting, but I think he’s quite classical in his framing. I probably am, too.” The director contrasts the composition of the lovers with the isolated shots of Anna and her husband: “If they ain’t in the frame together, they ain’t in the moment together! There’s a lot more use of profile close-ups and close-ups in the relationship between Anna and Karenin.” Robertson recalls that the filmmakers sometimes put the protagonists American Cinematographer
in the center of the frame for emphasis, “to focus on their emotion at that moment. We’re always taught not to target the actor with the crosshair, but sometimes it really does work.” The relationship between Anna and Vronsky is traced throughout the film by a progression of lush close-ups that are suffused by the glow of soft light. “Looking down camera at Seamus’ work is one of the pleasures of my job,” observes Robertson. “It’s great to be able to frame such beautiful lighting. You can see the opportunities you have in the frame — everything is considered. It’s all so brilliantly conceived from a lighting point of view.” The simplest close-ups occur when Vronsky and Anna exchange fleeting glances as he comes calling at her brother’s house, after Anna capti vates him on the train. Both characters are lit by single sources against a dark background. Knightley is lit by a wedge light with a 5K bounced off an 8'x8' with double diffusion frames of 216 and ½ Grid Cloth, and she moves behind a post to slide into darkness. She is shot from below, and McGarvey jokes that Knightley “is the only actor that I know that you can either light or shoot Bela
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Ravishing Romance
Top: McGarvey (far left) and director Joe Wright (far right) survey the action as the production preps a train-station scene. Bottom: Wright joins Robertso Robertson n at the camera as the team prepares a dolly shot.
At the soi soirée rée,, Vron ronsky sky tel tells ls Ann Annaa their love is fated, and then they are interrupted by Karenin, who has arrived to take Anna home. The drama unfolds in four close-ups, playing with soft focus as Vronsky comes into sharpness when he approaches Anna, then recedes into a soft background when Karenin appears. On Anna’s first closeup, McGarvey used a double-framed wedgee light wedg light wit with h a 5K 5K bounc bounced ed into into an an 8'x8'. Throughout the sequence, he also dangled pieces of crystal in front of the lens to evoke the feel of the set’s chandeliers. McGarvey used a similar technique for a shot late in the film, a moody close-up of Anna’s face with a bottle of morphine in the foreground. Lugosi style, and she still looks because I think it flattens the face. The He gave a druggy feel to the shot by gorgeous.” Johnson is lit in reverse with actors in this film have the most incred- holding a split diopter in one hand and a 2K Blonde bounced into a 4'x4' poly ibly reflective eyes; wherever we put the shining a Maglite [flashlight] gelled with wit h a 250 fra frame me wit with h it. The act actor or lamp, their eyes sparkled, and the bigger wit with h CTB CTB into into the the lens lens wit with h the the other other.. looks away from the light. “A gaffer the source, the better. The small light When Ann Annaa ret return urnss fro from m the friend of mine in Los Angeles calls this people put above the matte box only soirée, Karenin summons her to his ‘lighting from the dumb side,’” chuckles gives you a tiny pinprick of light, and I dark study and warns her of a possible McGarvey. find that gives a sinister look. What scandal. Seated at a desk, Law was lit by He explains the importance of a gives eyes sparkle is a big soft source a 1K from above with a custom 2'x3' big eye reflection: “Some cameramen very close close to the sub subjec ject. t. It giv gives es the eye eyess diffusion frame, and the actor played add a little eyelight, but I usually don’t a more romantic feel.” with wit h the the ligh lightt as as he he perfo performe rmed, d, at tim times es 62
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Ravishing Romance
McGarvey fine-tunes the light on his leading lady.
allowing it to create an unflattering look. “That’s the wonderful thing about working with actors of Jude’s caliber — they can feel how the light is wrapping
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around their faces and they know when to make the light expressive,” says McGarvey. “I was sitting by the camera and going, ‘Yes!’”
Knightley, who is standing in the doorway during the scene, was lit with a Rifa. “In any scene with Karenin and Anna, I lit her with a soft light,” says McGarvey. He notes that although Anna’s light is soft, it comes from a low angle, “so there’s a slightly threatening element to it.” Another key meeting between Vronsky and Anna occurs at night at a train station. The scene was shot at a train museum in Didcot, and Greenwood’s team covered the train with wax to give it the appearance of ice. McGarvey lit the station from a 30' tower with a 20K, a ½ Wendy Light and an 8K tungsten balloon. The overall cyan tone was created with ¼ Plus Green and ½ CTB gels. 1K Redheads inside the carriages gave the windows a glow. The close-ups were lit by Rifa lights diffused with Depron, a technique Finch says he “stole” from Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC. The Rifa on Vronsky was more of a sidelight, “just
enough to catch his right eye, but not crew, many of whom he had worked interested in the intellect and the heart. enough to fill his cheek, whereas with with previously. “I think some people I’m interested in engaging a broad audi Anna, the Rifa was more three-quarter- overestimate the importance of the ence in a critical dialogue. I think it’s front.” McGarvey created passive fill on camera. It’s a portal through which all important to talk about our emotions. Knightley’s face with an 8'x4' poly. the different elements in the frame Anna Karenina is about people trying to One striking exterior in the film come together. There has to be that think their way through love, and the shows Levin on a haystack at dawn as symbiosis with the other departments point that’s made at the very end of the he watches Kitty’s coach in the and the other elements in the frame; movie is that you can’t.” ● distance. The scene was lit with natural there has to be thoughtful collaboration light and an 18K Arrimax through a for cinematography to come into its 4'x4' frame to give an eyelight. Real own. On Anna Karenina , I felt very mist was supplemented with long tubes much that I was part of a troupe of of smoke. McGarvey says that the film- collaborators who knew each other’s makers “embraced” the yellow flare frailties and strengths. There was a lot TECHNICAL SPECS from the rising sun. “This shot bene- of urging each other to do better, to be 2.40:1 fited greatly from [colorist] Adam more creative.” Glasman’s work in the DI at Company Wright concludes by sharing his Anamorphic 35mm 3 in London,” he adds. hope that audiences will be fully Looking back at his work on the engaged by Anna Karenina. “Engaging Panaflex Millennium XL picture, McGarvey observes, “It’s a rare the critical faculties of a commercial privilege to work with somebody as audience is regarded as a taboo today. I Panavision G Series, inventive and creative as Joe. He’s the often hear this refrain from executives E Series, ATZ, AWZ2 best director any cinematographer when they don’t like a moment in a Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 could hope to work for.” He goes on to film: ‘I’ve just been taken out of the salute his collaborators in the cast and emotion.’ As if that’s a cardinal sin! I’m Digital Intermediate
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Janusz Kaminski and Steven Spielberg reteam on Lincoln, which follows the legendary president’s battle to abolish slavery. By Jay Holben
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. x o F y r u t n e C h t 0 2 d n a s e r u t c i P s k r o W m a e r D f o y s e t r u o c s e g a m I . s e m a J d i v a D y b y h p a r g o t o h p t i n U
incoln focuses on the latter months of Abraham Lincoln’s tumultuous presidency, when he had to exercise all of his diplomatic skill to convince Congress to pass the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Adapted from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by playwright Tony Kushner, the film stars Daniel DayLewis and marks director Steven Spielberg’s 14th collaboration with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. “This is a unique story about how President Lincoln convinced Congress to follow his vision and change the course of American history forever,” offers Kaminski. “[His success] involved all sorts of motivational stimulations — inspirations here, a little bribery there. It took a lot of work to get the vote passed, and Lincoln takes place mostly during this political battle.” The production shot primarily at practical locations in two Virginia towns, Richmond and Petersburg, where Civil War-era architecture, including many complete buildings, still survives. “That really helped to give our picture authenticity,” notes Kaminski. “I like shooting locations because their limitations often force you to improvise.” The cinematographer recalls that in prep, he and Spielberg considered creating a period look in a variety of ways, including doing various levels of desaturation in the DI suite. “We did several tests, but we ultimately realized
Opposite: President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) inspects a Civil War battleground in a scene from Lincoln. This page, top: Lincoln exhorts his cabinet to support the 13th Amendment. Middle: The president confers with Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn, right) and Ohio Rep. James Ashley (David Costabile). Bottom: Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (left) and director Steven Spielberg take a break on the set.
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Freedom Fighter the sets, the locations, the wardrobe and the acting would do such a strong job of conveying the period that there was little need to add to that. I just focused on creating interesting light that would support the story and the elements that were already there. “In post, we did desaturate the image slightly, but that was mostly because the colors were so vibrant and beautiful that they seemed a little too much,” he continues. “[Production designer] Rick Carter and [costume designer] Joanna Johnston did very thorough research. Although all of the photos from that period are black-and white, the colors of the time were actu-
Top: Lincoln’s wife, Mary (Sally Field), tries to interpret one of his dreams. Middle: Mary is distraught that their eldest son intends to join the Union Army. Bottom: Lincoln and Gen. U.S. Grant (Jared Harris) confer (at right) as Union troops move on to their next battle.
“I just focused on creating interesting light that would support the story and the elements that were already there.”
ally very bright, and Rick and Joanna’s work was true to that. Even though [the color] was period accurate, I felt I needed to pull back on that a little. If we’d done a photochemical finish, I probably would have done some light silver retention [processing] to bring some of the bright colors down, and that’s the look I matched in the DI. I would describe it as slightly desaturated, maybe 20 percent.” He describes the overall visual approach to Lincoln as “very restrained,” noting, “Steven didn’t want to do a lot of razzle-dazzle through the camera. The approach was very much like what we did on Amistad [ AC Jan. ’98] — no 68
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Top: Pennsylvania Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones), a Republican Party leader, listens to his fellow politicians hold forth in the House of Representatives. Middle: Democratic Congressman Fernando Wood (Lee Pace) of New York takes Stevens to task. Bottom: A crane is employed for a close-up of Wood.
crane shots, no dolly shots, just pans and tilts. There were very rare exceptions. The real power of the film comes from the performances, so my work was about photographing the scene without 70
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any embellishments. We took a classical photographic approach: beautiful silhouettes, beautiful light on people’s faces. There are no big battle scenes in the movie. The drama comes from the American Cinematographer
script and the actors. It was a lot like photographing a play, only with closeups.” Kaminski attributes the quick pace of the 60-day shoot to the skill and efficiency of his longtime crew, which includes chief lighting technician David Devlin, A-camera operator Mitch Dubin, key grip Jim Kwiatkowski and A-camera 1st AC Mark Spath. “We were able to get everyone on our team back on this show, which was great,” says Kaminski. “On my last movie with Steven, War Horse [ AC Jan. ’12], I had my keys with me in the U.K., but the crew was local, and although they were good, they weren’t familiar with how Steven and I work. That can slow things down even when everyone is doing their best. Even if you lose just 15 minutes a day, that can add up to three or four days over a 60-day schedule. With our normal team, we become a well-oiled machine; we don’t lose any time.” Shooting Super 1.85:1 with Panaflex Millennium cameras, Kaminski filmed most of Lincoln on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, augmenting with Vision3 250D 5207. “I used a little diffusion here and there, a little Classic Soft, but nothing too heavy,” he says. “I tried to take a minimalistic, natural approach to my lighting as well,” he adds. “I motivated it mostly with natural sources, using some augmentation for dramatic effect to help tell the story. We used a lot of gas lamps in the frame, as well as large windows with shafts of sunlight coming in. I wasn’t particularly lighting the sets; it was more about lighting the people. This is a beautiful script, with beautiful language, and the biggest challenge for me was to just photograph the performances in a way that was honest. It’s a realistic look in classical Hollywood terms.” An aspect of Kaminski’s approach that was unusual, especially for a Spielberg film, was that Lincoln’s eyes were not always made visible. “The aim was to not show his eyes very often, especially in wider shots,” says Kaminski. “We tried to create deep shadows that gave him a sense of
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windows, but it was only about 10' away because of limited space in the factory. “It certainly wasn’t the best situation for a TransLite,” says Devlin. “In fact, with the TransLite that close and actors often standing right at the window, it was about the worst situation possible! It wasn’t very colorful, either, so we used Lumapanel Ultras behind it that we could dim and program in different color ranges. When the art department added a little frost to the windows, I found a very realistic winter look by making the bottom of the TransLite slightly warmer than the top ‘sky’ area, and the overall effect was actually very beautiful. There’s a scene where David Strathairn [portraying Secretary of State William Seward] is standing by the window that came out especially well — it’s one of those magical moments that’s really just stunning.” The ceilings in the factory were very low, which gave Devlin and his crew little room above the TransLite to get daylight into the office. Rigging gaffer Jay Kemp solved the problem by removing the bulb pods from Dino lights and putting them into custom frames that allowed them to be mounted flat against the ceiling. By positioning them in a row moving away from the windows, the crew could aim each set of lamps into the window to mimic the feel of a beam of sunlight. “The top of the set windows were probably 2 feet away from the factory ceiling, which had the kind of triangular truss that’s typical for factories,” explains Top: Grant (left) tells two Confederate officials, Vice President Alexander Stephens (Jackie Earle Haley, center) and Asst. Secretary of War John Campbell (Gregory Itzin, right), that the North demands Devlin. “The Dino couldn’t pan far the South’s surrender. Bottom: Robert Lincoln (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is sobered by a visit to a enough to give us the right angle of military hospital. light, so Jay built several frames that mystery. When we moved in for a close- of toplight to put Lincoln’s eyes in deep would hold 10 or 12 Dino pods with up, I would bring in a small, handheld shadow, and to make his face look simple angle-iron and put the Dino light that was just bright enough to longer and thinner.” four-bulb Par 64 lamps [1,000 watts bring out some detail in his eyes. When Much of the action takes place in each] into them. We panned them into we are close, we finally see into his eyes.” the Oval Office set, one of several the window so that it appeared to be a “Steven is usually adamant about White House interiors that the produc- continuous beam of light.” seeing an actor’s eyes,” notes Devlin. “He tion built within a former factory in Lincoln’s struggle to get Congress likes light in both eyes and rarely, if ever, Mechanicsville, Va. For daytime to pass the 13th Amendment took place shoots in profile. He feels that the audi- sequences, the lighting was motivated in the winter of 1864. Spielberg wanted ence connects better with the actor when only by the feel of natural daylight the season to look harsh, so Kaminski they can see both eyes, and rightly so. coming through the windows. A often shot those day exteriors on 5219 ➣ For this movie, though, he wanted a lot TransLite was positioned outside the without 85 correction. 72
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Top: In the film’s opening scene, Lincoln visits with Union soldiers. Middle: The president considers his options in the Oval Office. Bottom: Lincoln reads to his son Tad (Gulliver McGrath).
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Scenes set in Congress were shot in the Virginia State Capitol building, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson. The filmmakers needed to be able to shoot throughout the day and into the night while maintaining a consistent daylight look outside the building’s eight large windows. Outside the windows, Kaminski’s crew positioned eight Condors that each held two 18K HMI Fresnels through Hampshire Frost, “but there was very little we could do inside because it’s a historic structure,” says the cinematographer. “The chairs couldn’t be moved or removed, for example. We had to be very careful.” “If you light everything through the windows, you can seldom make a wrong choice,” Devlin observes. “You get natural-looking contrast in the scene, and you can move a lot faster. We worked closely with Rick Carter to get the right kinds of drapery on the windows — nothing too dense, and nothing too white. Rick chose a kind of shark’s-tooth material that wouldn’t bloom too much.” Inside, Kaminski used Lumapanel Ultras through large frames of ¼ Grid Cloth to shape the light around the performers. “I still shoot mostly around a T2.8/T4,” he says. “I don’t like going below T2.8; the shot becomes about focus at that point, and it can fall apart very quickly. T2.8/T4 seems to me to be the right exposure. The focus puller doesn’t have to kill
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Kaminski checks the light on location in Virginia.
himself to get the shot, and it works out well for everyone.” For night interiors, which were motivated mainly by candles and gas lamps, the filmmakers found that butane lamps served well as practicals, providing the natural flicker of flame and more light than oil lamps or candles. Lincoln was said to be an insomniac who paced the halls of the White House at all hours. For scenes showing him alone, lit mainly by candlelight as he makes his way through the White House, Devlin turned to an LED fixture from LiteGear. He explains, “LiteGear brought us a battery-operated candle base with a wireless receiver that we could connect to our dimmer board. It has a little LED at the top, near where a flame sits on a real candle, and it adds just a little more light to the 76
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practical flame. We could program in a little flicker chase in the dimmer board, and the effect was incredibly realistic. It was very important that we had a wireless, battery-operated fixture, because Daniel [Day-Lewis] would not have been comfortable with a wire running down his sleeve. Using that super-smart candle fixture really helped those sequences quite a bit.” Over the course of the story, Lincoln consults many times with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (Jared Harris) to coordinate the Union’s efforts to win the war. In one of these scenes, the two talk on a porch as the sun sets, and a company of soldiers marches past the building. Positioning an 18K ArriMax fitted with a narrow reflector about 150' away, Kaminski projected the shadow of the marching soldiers onto them, underscoring the gravity of the discusAmerican Cinematographer
sion. “With the narrow-spot reflector installed on the ArriMax, it’s a lot like bouncing direct sunlight off a mirror,” says Devlin. “The effect was a low, setting sun that created these soft shadows of the moving troops across Lincoln and Grant’s faces.” Other key meetings take place on a steamboat, The River Queen, which Grant uses as his private dispatch. The boat set was also built within the Mechanicsville factory. “That was a really beautiful set, and my approach to it was very simple — no tricks,” says Kaminski. “We lit through the windows and used very little fill inside.” “We positioned single Par cans with Narrow Spot bulbs about 15 feet from the boat windows,” explains Devlin. “That created a very convincing beam of ‘sunlight’ that wasn’t too harsh on the actors’ faces. The Par can fell off very nicely and created a good shaft in the [cigar] smoke, but not so much that it felt overt.” Assessing his two-decade collaboration with Spielberg, which commenced with Schindler’s List ( AC Jan. ’94), Kaminski muses, “We like each other — that’s a big part of it. I always make sure I’m available to work with Steven because I think he’s the best director. It’s always nice to be on a set where you know who the filmmaker is! Also, I think we see the same movie in our heads as we’re making it; we see the same story in the same way, and we know how to create it. We’re always on the same page, which makes for a pretty powerful working relationship.” ● TECHNICAL SPECS
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Event
The Polish film festival Plus Camerimage marks 20 years of celebrating cinematography. By David Heuring
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elebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Plus is remote, but attendees liked to say that the long journey Camerimage International Festival of the Art of meant that those who attended were dedicated lovers of cineCinematography in Poland has become one of the matography. world’s most important gatherings of cinematographers Asked in 1994 why he helped to start Camerimage, and aspiring cinematographers. In fact, it might be easy to Zydowicz said, “Cinematography is an important visual art forget how humble the event’s beginnings were. In 1993, a that is ignored at other [film] festivals. This festival is small group of cinephiles with very little money but a strong designed to give cinematographers the artistic recognition appreciation for the visual arts invited ASC members Sven they deserve, and to restore the creation of moving pictures to Nykvist and Vittorio Storaro to attend a festival in Torun, its primary place in cinema storytelling. We also want it to Poland, that was devoted to the art and craft of cinematogra- become a forum where cinematographers and students from phy. The Torun Foundation, a private organization dedicated around the world can meet and discuss their art.” to supporting the arts, played a key early role. Festival orga The jury for the second Camerimage Festival included nizers now say that the idea became reality the moment ASC members John Bailey, Adam Holender and Vilmos Nykvist agreed to attend. Zsigmond. Storaro and Witold Sobocinski were feted with That year, 42 films were screened, and jurors included lifetime-achievement awards. The Gold Frog was a tie, going Storaro and fellow ASC member Victor J. Kemper, as well as to Tibor Mathe for Woyzeck and Arthur Reinhart for Crows. PSC members Witold Sobocinski and Slawomir Idziak, (Piotr Sobocinski won the Silver Frog for Three Colors: Red , among others. The Gold Frog, wryly named for a local version and Conrad Hall, ASC won the Bronze Frog for Searching for of the Pied Piper fable in which a boy violinist delivers the Bobby Fischer .) Arthur Hiller, president of the Directors Guild town from a plague of frogs, was awarded to future ASC of America, kicked off the proceedings that year with a member Stuart Dryburgh for The Piano. Festival co-founders screening of a restored print of Robert Flaherty’s White Kazimierz Partuki and Marek Zydowicz likened the festival’s Shadows in the South Seas (1928), for which Clyde DeVinna, early years to “staging an opera in the middle of a desert.” It is ASC won the second Oscar ever given for cinematography. true that Torun, the site of the festival for its first seven years, Roughly 60 cinematographers attended, along with more
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than 1,000 other filmmakers, film lovers and students. Hall is credited with suggesting that the festival expand its awards to include recognition for directors who understand, value and facilitate great cinematography. That year also saw the inaugural World Panorama Review, which presents worthy films that do not make the competition slate. Internationally renowned Polish filmmakers, including Krzysztof Kiezlowski, were on hand to present many of the awards. Presiding over the jury for the third Camerimage Festival, Hall said, “I hope we can make wise decisions in the name of the art of cinematography. We shouldn’t be influenced by nationalities or our own mundane tastes. We are here to learn and understand more about this wonderful language. Cinematography is meaningless unless it captures the soul of the story; that should be our sole consideration.” Juror Jost Vacano, ASC, BVK said this during deliberations: “It is important that we make the right decisions, because people who care will look at what we do here as an indication of cinematographers’ ideas about artistic excellence.” Accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award that year, Hall might have been speaking for all the attendees when he said, “This great art form is still in its infancy. I have studied and worked in the cinema for half of its 100-year history, yet I still have much to learn about this marvelous language of film.” Clearly, the festival was gaining momentum. More sponsors began to see the benefit of associating their brands with the event. The unique forum eschewed movie stars (although they were welcome to attend) and focused instead on visual artists. Jurors found that language barriers were eased by their common love and appreciation for the language of cinema. Word began to spread throughout film schools that here was a chance to rub shoulders with world-class cinematographers in a relaxed atmosphere. Unaccustomed to being treated like celebrities, cinematog
Opposite page: The Opera Nova in Bydgodszcz, Poland, the current home of Plus Camerimage. This page, top: Festival director Marek Zydowicz addresses a gathering at the 2011 event. Middle: Luminaries who made the trek in 2010 included Andrzej Bartkowiak, ASC; Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC; Wally Pfister, ASC; Christian Berger, AAC; Matthew Libatique, ASC; Phil Meheux, BSC; and Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC. Bottom: The Gold Frog is the festival’s grand prize.
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Left, top to bottom: The Grand Theater in Lödz served as main headquarters for the 2008 festival; iconic photos of accomplished filmmakers serve as the backdrop for a seminar; renowned cinematographers speak at a 2011 Panalux seminar. Top right: John Seale, ASC, ACS leads a Panavision workshop at the 2011 festival.
raphers were delighted by the warm appreciation of attendees. They also took advantage of the opportunity to share war stories with their colleagues and reunite with mentors and friends. In its fifth year, Camerimage inaugurated the student competition, which awards Gold, Silver and Bronze Tadpoles. Eventually, the list of Lifetime Achievement laureates grew to include Laszlo Kovacs, ASC; Billy Williams, BSC; Owen Roizman, ASC; Freddie Francis, BSC; William A. Fraker, ASC, BSC; and Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC. Retrospectives of their films, usually screened at midnight, became a highlight of the fest. The after-parties raged until dawn. Workshops and seminars proliferated, packed with eager students. A music-video competition was added to the program. In year seven, attendees included Dean Cundey, ASC; Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC; Pawel Edelman, PSC; Robby Müller, BVK; and Oliver Stapleton, BSC. Directors present included Agnieszka Holland, Norman Jewison, Roland Joffe, Emir Kusturica, Mike Leigh, Marta Meszaros, Paul Schrader and Peter Weir. Organizations such as the BSC and Imago began to plan their gatherings to coincide with Camerimage, adding gravitas to the event. Artists’ rights and the prerogatives 80
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of the cinematographer were discussed in earnest. In 2000, Camerimage made a big move to Lödz, the home of Poland’s renowned film school. The Grand Theater in the festival center seated 1,270, and there were often many more sitting in the aisles. Students from around the world made the trek, often staying with locals who volunteered to open their homes to guests, adding to the convivial atmosphere. In 2007, Polish mobile-telephone-network provider Plus came aboard the festival as a major sponsor, and the event became known as Plus Camerimage. In 2003, when Fraker was feted with the Lifetime Achievement Award, the theater was packed for midnight screenings of his work each night. In an emotional acceptance speech at the end of the week, Fraker said, “It’s a memory I’ll keep with me forever of the spirit that brings us all together to celebrate with our peers the act of making movies. The recognition this festival brings to our craft cannot be overstated. And so, I give a special thanks to all of you responsible for making it happen …. In some magic way, film touches all of us. It unites us as a people in a way that’s universal. It goes beyond the country where we were born and the language that we speak. So when we join together this way, we all become part of a creative process, contributors to an art form that has become its own international language, one that we all understand. It is a privilege to be recognized as a member of this international community. For that, and for so much more, I thank you.” After a decade in Lödz, Plus Camerimage opened a new chapter by moving to Bydgoszcz. This year, the festival is honoring Russian cinematographer Vadim Yusov, who shot Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev and Solaris. Also, director David Lynch, a longtime supporter and attendee, will receive a lifetime-achievement award. “Looking back over 20 years of Camerimage, I can hardly believe my
Top to bottom: At the 1997 festival, Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC makes a handheld shot with Haskell Wexler, ASC as his extra set of eyes; Laszlo Kovacs, ASC with Sven Nykvist, ASC in 1998; Edward Lachman, ASC and Slawomir Idziak, PSC.
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Clockwise from top left: Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC expounds on the art form; Christopher Doyle, HKSC becomes a living statue; director Agnieszka Holland (left) with actress Diane Kruger.
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memories,” says Zydowicz. “We started with an idea, but the worldwide community of cinematographers made this festival what it has become: a warm, welcoming gathering of cinema lovers who celebrate the human, emotional connections that cinematographers forge with their images across cultures. The festival bonds different generations of filmmakers, from students to experienced and renowned artists. We also celebrate the evolution and revolution of new technologies that make every cinematographer’s work more challenging day by day — hoping that advancing technology will not overshadow the human aspect of our work. My gratitude is beyond words to all of our honorees, jurors and tireless staff and volunteers. We miss all of those who are no longer with us. My thanks are inadequate but sincere. Here’s to 20 more years!”
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“Camerimage has shined a spotlight on our art and craft for two decades. It’s fitting that this unique event takes place in Poland, the home of so many visual and poetic films and so many wonderful cinematographers. We are grateful to the festival for fostering international recognition of our work and so many of our beloved members over the years, and for annually gathering the warm community of professionals and students who celebrate our common passion. Thanks, Camerimage, and here’s to the next 20 years!” — ASC President Stephen Lighthill �
“The Camerimage gathering has always had a special attraction for me because of where it is, who is there, and because the films shown there are usually not just about good photography. They also show that cinematographers are proud of using their art to say something with some heart, something that may resonate internationally to the brothers and sisters who come to Poland from all over the world. The fact that the festival takes place in Poland, a country that has been devastated by wars from both sides, is important. There is an air of possibility of artists functioning in a peaceful world, a world where we can flourish and make good pictures. So much of the emphasis in cinematography is technological now, devoid of the intimate connection between what we do and how we do it. Talking with others at Camerimage, we find that we are from very different cultures, but our sensibilities are similar. We can learn from each other.” — Haskell Wexler, ASC, Lifetime Achievement Honoree
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“It was a great idea to bring us all together, and the international aspect makes it so nice. The films, the categories of competition, the seminars and
Top to bottom: Jury members Ryszard Horowitz, Witold Sobocinski, PSC and Slawomir Idziak, PSC at the 1993 festival; Phedon Papamichael, ASC (left) shares his knowledge at the 2000 event; Zydowicz with Polish director Andrzej Wajda in 2011.
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workshops — it’s wonderful. I’m full of admiration for Marek and his team because they’re so welcoming and hospitable, and everything is done with style. Marek has made a great contribution, I think, to the art of cinema. At the festival, I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting up with cinematographers I’ve known but hadn’t seen for 30 years, and of meeting people whose work I’ve admired for so many years. It’s such a wonderful gathering. It’s a cinematographer’s Mecca, a pilgrimage, because everyone is there.” — Billy Williams, BSC, Lifetime Achievement Honoree �
“As the only annual festival devoted to the craft of cinematography, Camerimage has upheld the value of visual storytelling through its screenings, seminars and conversations with prominent practitioners of the art. It’s also important to note that documentary cinematography has not been overlooked. My time at Camerimage was filled with personal and fulfilling conversations with my counterparts from around the world, incredible artists whom I had only previously known from their work and printed interviews. One aspect of the festival that few speak of is the parties, not the ‘official’ ones, but the alcohol-fueled bashes that happen every night at one of the main hotels involved with the festival. As the drinks flow and inhibitions drop, the passion for all aspects of the cinematographic craft becomes evident. It is at these times that the best war stories emerge, the most vivid and honest recollections of how serendipity contributed to the creation of iconic images, how inspiration struck at just the right moment. I wish I had recorded just one of those inspiring allnighters, but what happens at Camerimage stays at Camerimage! ” — Michael Goi, ASC ➣ Many world-class directors have also attended Camerimage to honor cinematographers and share their filmmaking wisdom. From top: Mike Figgis, longtime festival friend and supporter David Lynch, and Joel Schumacher.
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CINEMATOGRAPHERS PAINT T HE MOOD FOR MOR E T H A N 5 0 Y E A R S , P A N AV I S I O N H AS P RO VI DE D T H E BR U SH
artistically inspired technically advanced
An A-Plus Event
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Clockwise from top left: Director Andrzej Zulawski, actor Bill Murray, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, ASC and director Volker Schlöndorff enjoy the festivities in 2009; actor Viggo Mortensen receives a Gold Frog — and a rose; actor Willem Dafoe gets expressive during a panel discussion. �
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“Cinematography is a global and inspiring. We at the BSC praise language, but if you asked a Danish and give warm congratulations to the cinematographer, an American cine- organizers of Camerimage for having matographer, a British cinematogra- the foresight and skill to make this festipher, a French cinematographer, a val happen for the last 20 years. Japanese cinematographer and a Polish Bringing experienced cinematographers cinematographer to shoot the same in to rub shoulders with aspiring ones in scene, they would all look completely an always-convivial atmosphere has different. So to be in a festival that been an example to us all.” brings all the varied approaches from all — BSC President the countries of the world together in John de Borman one place for two weeks is so refreshing 86
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“The International Cinematographers Guild and Camerimage share many values and goals, beginning with increased respect and appreciation for cinematographers and their crews. ICG and its members first became aware of the fest when some of our most beloved and revered members were honored there, beginning with Sven Nykvist. But the most appealing part of Camerimage may be the camaraderie and passion of the aspiring filmmakers who attend. Like the ICG Emerging Cinematographer Award-winning films, which will screen again this year in Poland, Camerimage gives us confi-
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dence in the future of cinematography. We congratulate the fest on reaching the 20-year milestone, and offer best wishes for a bright future. Solidarnosc!” — ICG Local 600 President Steven B. Poster, ASC �
“I was all of a sudden thrust onto the biggest stage in the world for a cinematographer, one full of amazing artists whose work I admire and respect. Once I was there, however, I was surprised by how casual everyone was. There’s something great about being so far away from Hollywood and all of the other major production hubs; it’s a great filter for anyone who comes with an ego or an agenda. Everyone who travels to Camerimage is really excited to be there to celebrate great cinematography and discuss our craft, so everyone is very open and approachable. Ideas are exchanged between cinematographers from all over the world; we screen phenomenal films that we’d never get to see anywhere else; and we have the chance to meet with some of the finest cinematographers in the world who rarely, if ever, make it to the States. I’m sure many people think it’s nuts to travel to a small town in the Polish countryside in December, when the sun sets around 3 p.m., to watch movies and talk about cameras. But I can tell you that my time at Camerimage was one of the warmest experiences of my career so far.” — Craig Kief, nominee in the 2011 Music Video Competition �
“I think I can say that as a group, we cinematographers have never experienced the love and passion for our craft that we feel at Camerimage. What makes the festival unique and magical is the opportunity to meet cinematographers from other parts of the world whom we would not otherwise meet, and to form relationships that last for years afterwards. The blend of established cinematographers and students doesn’t happen elsewhere. Being able to sit and have drinks with Volker
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Schlöndorff, whom I have admired since childhood, is the kind of thrill that makes the fest so special. Students come from all over the world, so you get a sense of the future and where things are going. The cross-pollination of cultures is fascinating. You can identify certain countries where fresh, extraordinary work is being done. And, of course, the Polish are always strong in that regard. Marek is the ultimate source of all this passion, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his relentless determination to keep the festival going forward. I tell every young cinematographer, ‘You’ve gotta go to Poland!’” — Phedon Papamichael, ASC �
“Whoever goes to Camerimage wants to go again. The spirit reminds any of us who are professionals why we got into this damn business in the first place. You are amongst people who really understand what cinematography is and what it can do. It’s a practical celebration of everyone’s careers, and everything they have experienced and thought and felt. It’s an opportunity to give back to young people and show them that we struggle. It is just fascinating, and it lifts my spirits. Cinematography is not going through an easy time. There are so many pressures — commercial, budgetary, political — and Camerimage cuts through that so we can get to the real stuff.” — Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC, Lifetime Achievement Laureate �
Conrad Hall, ASC takes a peek behind the scenes at Camerimage, which is also famous for its all-night dance parties. More than a few cinematographers have been heard to joke, “What happens at Camerimage stays at Camerimage!”
“Camerimage is the highlight of the year for me. I have had some of the greatest fun of my professional life serving on the festival’s juries and watching amazing work, both big and small, from all over the world. I treasure all the time spent discussing films and realizing that I am in the company of such a variety of experience and knowledge. At Camerimage, the cinematographer is truly sought out and appreciated.” — Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC ●
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New Products & Services
Hollywood Film Co. Unveils BriteShot Hollywood Film Co. has introduced the BriteShot Luminator system of LED fixtures designed for stage, movie and television productions. The BriteShot Luminator family comprises two models, both of which consist of 168 individual LEDs mounted on a newly designed heat sink. One model features white LEDs, and the other features red, blue, green, amber and white for variable color temperature and different color effects. The BriteShot Luminator features an interchangeable plastic lens, enabling the unit to project either a crisp flood or precise spot beam. The spot has a 15-degree beam spread and the flood yields a 30-degree beam spread. The fixture incorporates a newly designed pattern sequence to take full advantage of the 168 light sources and produce an even field. Power input is automatically switched from 100 to 240 volts (50/60 Hz), and the fixture draws 440 watts at full brightness. The BriteShot Luminator is equipped with a self-contained electronic control system, and the fixture can also be DMX controlled from a laptop, iPhone or other device. Custom cases for transit and storage are also available. For additional information, visit www.hollywoodfilmco.com. Lowel Spotlights Handheld GL-1 Lowel Light, a division of The Tiffen Co., has introduced the GL-1 Power LED light. Designed in conjunction with wedding/event photographers Brian Marcus and John Solano, the GL-1 Power LED offers a 90
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complement to DLSR cameras, allowing users to harness the creative potential of high-ISO shoots. The unit is a battery-powered, focusable, dimmable, tungsten-balanced (3,000°K with a CRI of 90) LED light. Users can control the diameter of the beam, focusing from a tight spot to a wide flood. The beam is even from edge to edge, with no hot spots. Additionally, the GL-1’s dimming ability lets users vary the amount of light output from 5-100 percent without any shift in color temperature, allowing them to match the atmosphere of the available location lighting. The power of the GL-1, combined with its portability, allows users to move freely, selectively using the warm nature of the tungsten color as key, fill or accent. A ¼-20 screw thread on the GL-1’s base also provides an option for tripod or stand mounting for longer lighting setups. Silent diaphragm cooling eliminates distraction while shooting quiet moments. “The GL-1 is exciting because it presents a new way of lighting for the shooter on the go,” says ASC associate Steve Tiffen, president and CEO of The Tiffen Co. “Totally self-contained, with powerful spot-to-flood output, it lets you put the light right where you want it from a distance or up close.” The Lowel GL-1 Power LED sells for $800. For more information, visit www.lowel.com and www.tiffen.com. Nila Illuminates Varsa Nila has introduced the portable, durable Varsa LED fixture, which provides a high output from a small form factor. Available in daylight and tungsten configurations, the Varsa is also Nila’s first fixture to accept both AC and DC input; users can plug into any DC source between 10-18 volts, or any AC source between 90-250 volts. They can also power the unit with Gold or V-mount camera batteries on Nila’s yoke-mountable battery plates. The Varsa is designed for use on location and in a studio. The unit draws 75 watts while providing a punch equivalent to a 400-watt HMI, but without the heat, maintenance or warmup times associated with HMIs. Nila’s holographic, quick-change lenses allow the user to easily select a precise beam angle with no hot spots across the entire beam. Additionally, the Varsa Deluxe Kit includes a drop-in set of rotating barn doors to provide more flexibility while shaping the light; lenses
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Film & Digital and gels can be easily changed with the barn doors in place. The fixture also includes built-in mounts for a standard or extra-small Chimera soft box. The DMX-controllable Varsa also features firmware that facilitates flicker-free operation at any dim level from 0-1,500 fps and total freedom to shoot at any speed when the light output is set at 100 percent. For additional information, visit www.nila.tv. Gates Houses C300, C500 Gates Underwater Products has introduced the C300/C500 Housing, designed for use with Canon’s EOS C300 and C500 digital cameras. The C300/C500 Housing supports a variety of Canon EF- and PL-mount lenses and features comprehensive camera and lens control, giving operators full access to camera menus; focus, zoom and iris controls; white balance; shot playback; ND filter; and assignable buttons. The Housing also features fully adjustable buoyancy and trim, Gates Precision Ports for uncompromised image quality without vignetting, and an optional HD-SDI surface feed for topside filmmakers. A Convergent Design Gemini Raw recorder can be fitted into the
Housing for true 4K raw recording, and an optional EM43 external monitor provides a big view for framing and focus. Additionally, the Housing features an included Seal Check to assure housing integrity before entering the water. “The C300/C500 Housing is surprisingly small, yet can be balanced just the way professionals like for smooth, stable shots,” says John Ellerbrock, president of Gates Underwater Products. “Access to every camera control [enables] on-the-fly adjustments to achieve perfect image quality.”
The Housing is depth rated for 450'. Its basic shell measures 12.2" long, 8.7" high and 8.6" wide. Additionally, Gates offers two port options: the Standard Port SP80, a field-replaceable optical dome available in acrylic and A/R coated glass versions, and the Flat Port FP80, a field-replaceable flat element suitable for macro work. The Housing features precisionmachined aluminum shells with a black Type III “hard” anodized finish sealed with a nickel-acetate process, as well as stainlesssteel hardware, reliable fingertip mechanical controls and a two-year renewable warranty. For additional information, visit www.gateshousings.com.
3Deep Takes Red Beneath the Surface Following the launch of his DeepX underwater camera housing, inventor/filmmaker Pawel Achtel has introduced the 3Deep underwater 3-D housing system. Like the DeepX, the 3Deep does away with ports and instead uses Nikonos lenses that have been designed for underwater use with no extra plastic or glass in front of them. The lenses mount directly to the front of the underwater housing. The 3Deep is designed for use with Red Digital Cinema’s camera systems. The 3Deep housing is available in the U.S. and Europe through Band Pro. For more information, visit www.bandpro.com. Converging Concepts Rigs 3-D Converging Concepts 3D has introduced the Gen 2 3-D rig, which provides robust, precise support for any camera and lens combination. The Gen 2’s open architecture accommodates large cameras and enables versatile accessory mounting. Internal
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motors and electronics for pitch, roll, height, interaxial and convergence adjustments, and an illuminated target make alignment quick and easy from the remote hand unit. The rig can also memorize 20 different setups that can be recalled for lens changes. Power for cameras and accessories comes directly from the rig. The Gen 2’s hand unit has damped concentric knobs for accurate interaxial and convergence settings, either linked or separate, and operates wired or wireless. The Gen 2 has automatic CG compensation for Steadicam, allowing interaxial pulls with perfect balance. The rigid mirror box provides distortion-free support of the precision beam splitter and mounting points for filters, lights, and adjustable top and side flags. It can operate in under- or overthrough configurations and has a dozen ¼20 holes and two Arri rosettes for accessory mounting. Additionally, the Gen 2 has 4" of interaxial travel and 6.5 degrees of convergence, and weighs just 15 pounds. At press time, the Gen 2 3-D rig was available for rent from Radiant Images in Los Angeles and Daufenbach Camera in Chicago. For more information, visit www.cc3drigs.com. GoPro Unveils HD Hero3 GoPro has introduced the HD Hero3 camera line. Available in White, Silver and Black editions, the camera retains the look of the previous HD Hero cameras, but is only about half their size. It also features built-in Wi-Fi technology.
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At the top end of the lineup, the Black Edition delivers 4K and 2.7K video resolutions. The White, Silver and Black editions sell for $199.99, $299.99 and $399.99, respectively. GoPro has also released a free app that allows users to remotely view and control the HD Hero2 camera from an Apple iOS or Android smart phone or tablet. The app can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store and Google Play. For additional information, visit www.gopro.com.
Solid Grip Systems Revolutionizes Track Folding Solid Grip Systems and Prosup of The Netherlands have developed Centerfold Track, available in 1 meter (3.28'), 1.5 meter (4.92') and 2.3 meter (7.55') lengths. Unlike cross-tied lengths of scissor track, Centerfold Track maintains its length when folded, minimizing space requirements in the grip truck. For additional information, visit www.solidgripsystems.eu. Egripment Goes Universal Egripment has introduced the Universal Dolly and Generic Track System. The Universal Dolly combines the best features of Egripment’s previous dollies (StarTrack, Matador, Focus and Dinky) but is lighter, stronger and more versatile. It folds into a small package for easy transport; it weighs 37 pounds (without wheels); and it accommodates a payload of up to 440 pounds. The Universal Dolly also features a new steering method, allowing two- or four-wheel steering from the back, front or side. It can also be equipped with sideboards (either flat or containing 100mm or 150mm camera bowls) and can be operated with pneumatic wheels, hard-rubber wheels or track wheels. When equipped with track wheels, the dolly runs on standard-width (24.5") straight and curved track. It can also be equipped with most American Cinematographer
Egripment accessories, such as seat supports, columns, bazookas and jib arms. The Universal Dolly features a platform length of 36", an overall length of 45.5" and an overall width of 30" (without side boards). It is manufactured from lightweight aircraft-grade aluminum.
Egripment’s Generic Track System consists of a small G-Track dolly with smooth track wheels based on narrow, high-speed steel track in any length required. The system is fully computer controlled, allowing users to precisely repeat dolly moves. The Generic Track System is suitable for live applications and fully automated applications within virtualreality studios. For additional information, visit www.egripment.com. Glidetrack Moves with Mobislyder Glidetrack has introduced the Mobislyder, a portable dolly system designed for smart phones and compact cameras. “For years, sophisticated-looking camera moves were only available to
Glidecam Stabilizes Handheld Operating Glidecam Industries has introduced the Glidecam XR-Series of camera stabilizers, designed to bring versatility and affordability to handheld-camera stabilization. The series comprises the XR-1000, the XR-2000 and the XR-4000. With the Glidecam XR-Series, the operator’s camcorder is always balanced and isolated from the hand’s undesired motions, enabling panning, tilting, booming and running without instability or shake. Each XR-Series stabilizer’s offset, foam-cushioned handle grip is attached to a proprietary, freefloating three-axis gimbal, which incorporates several adjustable axis-convergence controls that allow all three axes to intersect for proper operational alignment. Additionally, the camera-mounting platform can be adjusted back-and-forth and side-to-side to
enable quick adjustment of the camera’s horizontal balance. The operator can also adjust the vertical balance by varying the amount of counterweight disks on the base platform, or by changing the length of the no-tools telescoping central post. The XR-1000 can extend from 12" tall to 16" tall and is designed for cameras weighing 0.5-4 pounds. The XR-2000 can extend from 15" tall to 22" tall and can support cameras of 2-6 pounds. The XR4000 extends from 20" tall to 28" tall and can support cameras of 4-10 pounds. All three models are made with precision aluminum (anodized studio black) and feature precision bearings at all vital points and rubber feet under the base platform. All XR-Series stabilizers are made in the United States. For additional information, visit www.glidecam.com.
professionals with big budgets and truckloads of gear,” says Alastair Brown, the company’s founder. “But now, with most camera devices being capable of shooting HD video, Mobislyder allows operators to take smooth tracking shots fit for the big screen, all with the sweep of a finger. “The days of shaky video being posted online are gone,” Brown continues. “People are becoming more demanding about what they watch, which means companies or individuals need to improve the quality of their videos, and Mobislyder can help them do that.” The Mobislyder is available for $175. For more information, visit www.mobislyder.com.
OptiTrack Launches Prime Series OptiTrack has introduced the Prime 41 4.1 megapixel motion-capture camera, the first in the company’s new Prime Series of cameras tailored to large-volume motion capture. Offering capture volumes that extend up to 75'x150' with precise pixelfor-pixel tracking, the Prime 41 provides visual-effects studios, game developers and more with the tracking technology necessary for ambitious motion-tracking and motion–capture applications. Features of the Prime 41 include an 80'-plus camera-to-marker range; infrared strobes that are usable with other film, video or still cameras; a 180 fps capture rate; a global shutter; GigE and PoE+; simul-
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taneous body and finger tracking; outdoor functionality; an aim-assist button for simple, rapid, single-user setup; and Genlock, SMPTE time code and external sync. The Prime 41 is available for $4,999. For additional information, visit www.optitrack.com. Glue Tools Communicates with Phantom Glue Tools, LLC, has updated its Macbased Séance control package, which provides control for Vision Research’s line of Phantom high-speed digital cameras. The updated Séance v1.1 improves upon the previous release to provide a better Phantom Camera workflow for Mac users. “This new version has been built to improve the DIT’s ability to work with Phantom cameras and the Cinestation,” says Bob Monaghan, CEO of Glue Tools. “We have added a number of features to make the Phantom a first-class citizen in the production facility.” Improvements to Séance include the addition of Cine Preview for live visualization of footage without the need for an HD-SDI monitor, full control over Color and Image processing settings in the camera’s hardware and full compatibility with Vision Research PCC 2.1 Cine file format. Additionally, v1.1 features an improved user interface when saving to multiple destinations and an improved Demo mode for testing purposes. Séance for Mac is priced at $1,599 with an annual support license of $599; the Séance/Phantom Cine Toolkit bundle is $2,099. For more information, visit www.gluetools.com.
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DFT, 1o1Media Streamline Dailies Digital Film Technology, a provider of high-end film and digital post solutions, and cloud-based video-platform provider 1o1Media have integrated their solutions to create Flexxity + 1o1, a software application (for both Mac and Linux platforms) that optimizes a fully end-to-end finished dailies solution with secure, online content management and distribution. Flexxity + 1o1 was designed to save filmmakers time and money. Users can create and securely share color-corrected dailies immediately, on set and through post, worldwide and around the clock. The solution simplifies all aspects of a digital file-based production, including sound syncing, color grading, data backups, transcoding and distribution. It provides native support for ProRes, QuickTime, MXF and DPX files, as well as most digital-cinematography camera formats. The solution also supports parallel workflows for higher throughput and efficiency, and it supports stereoscopic 3-D workflows. For additional information, visit www.dft-film.com and www.1o1media.com. Fujifilm Updates OptCal App Fujifilm Optical Devices has released version 4.1 of its OptCal Select-a-Lens calculator, which was developed in 2005 to take the guesswork out of lens selection. Version 4.1 can be used on iPhones, iPads and Android devices, and adds support for a number of languages, including German,
American Cinematographer
French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. OptCal helps users calculate various lens formulas — such as field of view, angle of view and depth-of-field — and it can compare those values when switching between lens formats and camera image sizes. OptCal allows users to calculate formulas for 2 ⁄ 3", 1 ⁄ 2", 1 ⁄ 3", and PL-mount and C-mount lenses. OptCal v4.1 is available for free through the Apple App Store and Google Play. For more information, visit www.fujifilmusa.com. Red Giant Rolls Out Knoll Light Factory 3 Red Giant has released Knoll Light Factory 3. Co-developed with Academy Award-winning visual-effects supervisor John Knoll, Light Factory 3 delivers an intuitive interface, realistic flare elements, beautifully designed presets and time-saving animated behaviors.
“This is the biggest advance to Light Factory in many years,” says Knoll. “Version 3 delivers a great new editor to make flare creation faster, and new and updated elements for the flare engine for better accuracy at high resolution. The library includes a collection of realistic cinematic and distant flares that I’ve built to help with your next production.” Central to Knoll Light Factory 3 is its redesigned and intuitive interface. Designing flares is now simple, thanks to newly organized controls and a Lens Designer preview that has been rebuilt. The software offers 28 Elements and 56 Sprites that let users quickly create a light design. Additionally, Light Factory 3 ships with more than 100 Lens Flare Presets (including new ones designed by Knoll) that emulate realworld lenses and lights, and are equally
adaptive intelligence to infer interpolated interior points in the cube. This saves a phenomenal amount of time, adding significant efficiencies during the review cycle. CalMan Studio goes back and checks each reference point iteratively, as many times as necessary, until we achieve complete accuracy.” Once the characterization cube is finished, CalMan Studio can store the result in any of a number of industry-standard image processors, including the Cine-tal Davio and the HDLink Pro from Blackmagic Design. SpectraCal has also announced its own image processor, the SpectraCal ColorBox. CalMan Studio supports more than 30 colorimeters and nearly as many video test-pattern generators. A free evaluation version can be downloaded from the SpectraCal website: www.spectracal.com. Avid Introduces DS 11 Avid has released DS 11, the latest version of its full-featured editing, graphicscreation, color-correction and compositing solution. With new features such as handson color correction with Avid Artist Color integration, expanded file format and hardware support, 16 channels of embedded audio, and total conform to Media Composer 6 and Symphony 6, DS 11 enables customers to maximize creativity and enhance productivity through more integrated, flexible workflows. Artist Color and Artist Transport integration offers hands-on precision and the ability to speed up color correcting, grading, editing and navigation with support for Artist Color and Artist Transport control surfaces, which are now supported across all Avid professional video-editing products. DS 11’s resolution-independent canvas allows editors to customize the size for source generators and visual effects, saving time and improving quality for high-resolution graphics creation. Workflows are further accelerated by the ability to blend operations directly on the timeline to single or multiple clips or containers. DS 11 enables editors to connect to and play Long-GOP MXF essence (such as from XDCam) when conforming from Media Composer or Symphony, eliminating transcoding time. Users can also edit high96
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resolution media in real time and in master quality using the high quality, compressed Avid DNxHD 444 codec. HDR file support enables the use of HDR imagery in projects with support for Open EXR and TIFF DCDM format, and DS 11 also boasts enhanced flexibility with support for Red Epic and Scarlet camera footage. Additionally, 16 channels of embedded SDI audio enable bigger, richer audio mixes. DS 11 further accelerates workflows with the ability to send high-resolution 2-D sequences to Avid DS directly from Media Composer 6 or Symphony 6. It also integrates with the latest version of Avid Interplay and Avid Isis shared-storage systems to simultaneously access and share media. Avid DS 11 also supports AJA Kona 3G hardware and any third-party hardware supported by Media Composer and Symphony. For additional information, visit www.avid.com. Sony Upgrades Vegas Pro Sony Creative Software has announced an upgrade to its Vegas editing technology. Vegas Pro 12 adds dozens of substantial feature enhancements, performance improvements and workflow innovations, significantly expanding the creative toolkit for editors and content creators at every level of the postproduction market. The NLE platform combines a familiar trackbased editing interface with a fluid, interactive approach to media production. Workflow improvements in Vegas Pro 12 include Project Interchange with popular editing platforms such as Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Avid Pro Tools 10 and Apple Final Cut Pro 7; an Expanded Edit mode for fine-tuning the timing of a project using an interactive A-B roll paradigm; Color Match, for quickly matching the color characteristics of different video clips; and Smart Proxy editing, which automatically and dynamically replaces clips on the timeline with high-quality, edit-friendly HD proxies. On the format front, Vegas Pro 12 can ingest Panasonic P2 DVCPro and AVCIntra content, and encode to the versatile HDCam SR mastering format at bit rates up to 880 Mb/s. Additionally, Vegas Pro 12 features Masking Tools, including Effects American Cinematographer
Masking for quickly obscuring a face or logo. Updates to the Vegas Pro Explorer and Project Media windows improve the ability to find and organize content thanks to a redesigned Thumbnail View, as well as optimized Media Tagging capabilities and automated Smart Bin search tools. For Sony PMW-F3, F23, F35 and F65 users looking to maintain the full dynamic range of their images in post, Vegas Pro 12 uses OpenColorIO technology from Sony Pictures Imageworks and the Academy Color Encoding Specification (ACES) colorspace standard to build a comprehensive SLog workflow solution. Vegas Pro 12 editors can apply the appropriate LUT to the S-Log source material from a list of built-in templates. The finished project can be encoded to a wide range of formats using ACES as well as other popular non-ACES standards. “Many cinematographers are acquiring in S-Log to maximize the dynamic range and tonal reproduction of their images, but up until now their postproduction options have been limited,” says David Chaimson, vice president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. “Vegas Pro 12 opens the door for content creators to enjoy the benefits and flexibility of an integrated, end-toend S-Log production pipeline with minimal effort and no additional plug-ins to purchase.” To meet the needs of the broadest range of customers, Vegas Pro 12 will be available in two configurations. The Vegas Pro 12 Collection follows previous versions by including the Vegas Pro 12 editing application along with DVD Architect Pro 5.2 and Dolby Digital Professional Encoder for DVD and Blu-ray authoring. Vegas Pro 12 Edit is a lower-cost package that features all of the editing capabilities of Vegas Pro 12 without the DVD Architect and Dolby Encoder software. The Vegas Pro 12 Collection is available for $699. Vegas Pro Edit is available for $499. Upgrades from previous versions of Vegas Pro to Vegas Pro 12 are available for $199. For additional information, visit ● www.sonycreativesoftware.com.
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Advertiser’s Index 16x9, Inc. 98 AC 89 Adorama 25, 47 AJA Video Systems, Inc. 31 Alan Gordon Enterprises 99 Arri 43 Astrodesign, Inc. 73 AZGrip 98 Backstage Equipment, Inc. 95 Barger-Lite 99 Birns & Sawyer 98 Blackmagic Design, Inc. 45 Brain Emo 99
Cavision Enterprises 61 Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 77 Chemical Wedding 97 Cinematography Electronics 6 Cinekinetic 98 Codex Digital Ltd. 59 Convergent Design 75 Cooke Optics 23
Deluxe 19 Denecke 98 Eastman Kodak 80a-l, C4 EFD USA, Inc. 29 Film Gear 87 Filmotechnic USA 65 Filmtools 93 Focus Features C2-1, 5 Fox Searchlight Pictures 13, 17 General Dynamics Global Imaging Technology 27 Glidecam Industries 57 Hertz Corporation 63 Kino Flo 49 Lights! Action! Co. 99 Manfrotto Distribution C3 Manios Optical 98 M. M. Mukhi & Sons 99 Movie Tech AG 98, 99 NBC/Universal Media Works 55 NBC/Universal Pictures 15 New York Film Academy 71 Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 91, 98
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P+S Technik 99 Panavision, Inc. 85 Panther Gmbh 93 Paramount Pictures 7 Pille Film Gmbh 98 Polecam Ltd. 95 Powermills 98 Pro8mm 98 Red Digital Cinema 32-33 Schneider Optics 2 Sony Electronics, Inc. 11 Sony Pictures 11 Super16 Inc. 98 VF Gadgets, Inc. 99 Visual Products 6 Walt Disney Studios 9 Willy’s Widgets 99 www.theasc.com 4, 6, 48 64, 87, 100, 107
2012 American Cinematographer Index by Cinematographer, Project Title, Format, Subject and Author Compiled by Christopher Probst 3-D Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , Aug. p. 68 Amazing Spider-Man, The , Aug. p. 46 Avengers, The , June p. 34 Men in Black III , June p. 74 ParaNorman , Sept. p. 62 Prometheus , July p. 30 4:44 Last Day on Earth , April p. 24 5 Broken Cameras , April p. 76 8 , Sept. p. 12 16MM (SUPER 16MM LISTED SEPARATELY) Beasts of the Southern Wild , April p. 65 Blinding , Oct. p. 86 35MM (SUPER 35MM LISTED SEPARATELY) Master, The , Nov. p. 32 Two and a Half Men , July p. 22 Wuthering Heights , May p. 42 65MM Master, The , Nov. p. 32 Samsara , Sept. p. 46 Snow White and the Huntsman , June p. 52 65MM IMAX Dark Knight Rises, The , Aug. p. 30 , Aug. p. 18 360 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , Aug. p. 68 Ackroyd, BSC, Barry, Jan. p. 62 Act of Valor , Feb. p. 24 Adams, ASC, Marshall, June p. 106 Aexis , Oct. p. 12 Aguilar, Ignacio, Sept. p. 12 Aguirresarobe, ASC, AEC, Javier, July p. 86 Alpert, ASC, CSC, Herbert S., May p. 96 Amazing Spider-Man, The , Aug. p. 46 American Horror Story: Asylum , Nov. p. 76 ANAMORPHIC Anna Karenina , Dec. p. 50 Argo , Nov. p. 52
Boogie Nights , May p. 52 Dark Knight Rises, The , Aug. p. 30 Detention , April p. 44 Ghastly Love of Johnny X, The , March p. 18 Keane, “Silenced by the Night,” July p. 10 Killing Them Softly , Oct. p. 34 Looper , Oct. p. 64 Magnolia , May p. 52 Savages , July p. 42 Snow White and the Huntsman , June p. 52 Total Recall , Aug. p. 58 Anna Karenina , Dec. p. 50 Arbitrage , Oct. p. 26 Argo , Nov. p. 52 ASC CLOSE-UP Boyd, David, Aug. p. 92 Collister, Peter Lyons, July p. 88 Deming, Peter, Nov. p. 100 Khondji, Darius, May p. 100 Kivilo, Alar, April p. 108 Newby, John, Sept. p. 112 Nicholson, Sam, June p. 108 Prieto, Rodrigo, Jan. p. 104 Primes, Robert, Oct. p. 100 Schaefer, Roberto, Feb. p. 88 Taylor, Jonathan, March p. 84 Zielinski, Jerzy, Dec. p. 112 Avengers, The , June p. 34 Bailey, ASC, John, Feb. pp. 30, 87 Ballhaus, ASC, Florian, Nov. p. 98 Bazelli, ASC, Bojan, July p. 54 Beasts of the Southern Wild , April p. 65 Big Miracle , Feb. p. 30 BLACK-AND-WHITE Blinding , Oct. p. 86 Ghastly Love of Johnny X, The , March p. 18 Savages , July p. 42 Bleibtreu, ASC, Josh, Aug. p. 90
Blinding , Oct. p. 86 Bokelberg, ASC, BVK, Oliver, June p. 106 Boogie Nights , May p. 52 Borgias , The , April p. 32 Bourne Legacy , The , Sept. p. 32 Boyd, ASC, David, March p. 33, Aug. p. 92 Braier, ADF, Natasha, Dec. p. 12 Bukowski, Bobby, Feb. p. 54 Bulgarelli, Francisco, March p. 18 Burnat, Emad, April p. 76 Cady, ASC, Patrick, Jan. p. 102 Cameron, ASC, Paul, Aug. p. 58 Cassidy, Chris, Sept. p. 18 Charters, ASC, CSC, Rodney, July p. 64 Chasing Ice , Oct. p. 20 Chemetoff, Andre, May p. 12 Chronicle , March p. 42 Clark, ASC, Curtis, Sept. p. 88 Collister, ASC, Peter Lyons, July p. 88 COMMERCIALS Polaris 2012, “Terrain Domination,” April p. 12 Coriolanus , Jan. p. 62 Cragg III, Nelson, March p. 36 Cronenweth, ASC, Jeff, Jan. p. 32, May p. 98 Crossan, BSC, Denis, Sept. p. 24 Cunningham, Jeffrey, April p. 12 Dallas , July p. 64 Dark Knight Rises, The , Aug. p. 30 Dark Shadows , June p. 62 Davis, BSC, Ben, Nov. p. 66 De Paula, Vincent, March p. 68 Deakins, ASC, BSC, Roger, Dec. p. 34 Delbonnel, ASC, AFC, Bruno, June p. 62 Deming, ASC, Peter, Nov. p. 100 Descendants, The , Jan. p. 20
www.theasc.com
Deschanel, ASC, Caleb, Aug. p. 68 Detention , April p. 44 DIGITAL ACQUISITION 4:44 Last Day on Earth , April p. 24 5 Broken Cameras , April p. 76 8 , Sept. p. 12 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , Aug. p. 68 Act of Valor , Feb. p. 24 Aexis , Oct. p. 12 Amazing Spider-Man, The , Aug. p. 46 Avengers, The , June p. 34 Borgias, The , April p. 32 Bourne Legacy, The , Sept. p. 32 Chasing Ice , Oct. p. 20 Chronicle , March p. 42 Dallas , July p. 64 Detention , April p. 44 Downton Abbey , March p. 30 Eldorado , Sept. p. 88 End of Watch , Oct. p. 50 Extremely Loud & Incredi- bly Close , Feb. p. 18 Game of Thrones , May p. 32 Girl, The , Oct. p. 76 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The , Jan. p. 32 Hemingway & Gellhorn , June p. 26 Homeland , March p. 36 Husbands , Nov. p. 26 It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!, Dec. p. 24 Josephine and the Roach , Oct. p. 12 Keane, “Silenced by the Night,” July p. 10 Kick Start Theft , Nov. p. 12 Killing Them Softly , Oct. p. 34 Language of the Unheard , Oct. p. 12 Luck , Feb. p. 42 M.I.A, “Bad Girls,” May p. 12 Man, Chicks Are Just Different , Aug. p. 76 Men in Black III , June p. 74 Middle of Nowhere , Nov. p. 20 December 2012
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My Brother the Devil , April p. 70 NASA Time-Lapse Videos, Feb. p. 12 New York Story , Aug. p. 12 ParaNorman , Sept. p. 62 Person of Interest , May p. 18 Polaris 2012, “Terrain Domination,” April p. 12 Project X , March p. 24 Prometheus , July p. 30 Rampart , Feb. p. 54 Rock of Ages , July p. 54 Rust and Bone , Dec. p. 18 Side by Side , Sept. p. 18 Skyfall , Dec. p. 34 String Theory , Jan. p. 12 Total Recall , Aug. p. 58 Trishna , July p. 16 Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, The , June p. 10 When You Find Me , March p. 12 World Without End , Sept. p. 24 Dillon, P.J., May p. 32 DIRECTORS INTERVIEWED Anderson, Paul Thomas, Nov. p. 36 Arnold, Andrea, May. p. 42 Bunnell, Paul, March p. 18 Burnat, Emad, April p. 76 Burton, Tim, June p. 62 Caton-Jones, Michael, Sept. p. 24 Davidi, Guy, April p. 76 Dominik, Andrew, Oct. p. 34 El Hosaini, Sally, April p. 70 Ferrara, Abel, April p. 24 Fiennes, Ralph, Jan. p. 62 Fincher, David, Jan. p. 32 Fricke, Ron, Sept. p. 46 Gavras, Romain, May p. 12 Gilroy, Tony, Sept. p. 32 Goodich, ASC, Frederic, Nov. p. 12 Johnson, Rian, Oct. p. 64 Jordan, Neil, April p. 32 Kahn, Joseph, April p. 44 Kenneally, Christopher, Sept. p. 18 Kwapis, Ken, Feb. p. 36 Mann, Michael, Feb. p. 42 McDonagh, Martin, Nov. p. 66 Mendes, Sam, Dec. p. 34 Nolan, Christopher, Aug. p. 30
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Nourizadeh, Nima, March p. 24 Orlowski, Jeff, Oct. p. 20 Sanguedolce, Steve, Oct. p. 86 Scott, Ridley, July p. 30 Sonnenfeld, Barry, June p. 74 Walker, Lucy, June p. 10 Webb, Marc, Aug. p. 46 Whedon, Joss, June p. 34 Wright, Joe, Dec. p. 50 Zeitlin, Benh, April p. 65 Zsigmond, ASC, Vilmos, Nov. p. 12 DOCUMENTARIES 5 Broken Cameras , April p. 76 Chasing Ice , Oct. p. 20 Haskell’s Notes: Interna- tional Cinematography Summit Conference 2011, April p. 82 Language of the Unheard , Oct. p. 12 NASA Time-Lapse Videos, Feb. p. 12 New York Story , Aug. p. 12 Samsara , Sept. p. 46 Side by Side , Sept. p. 18 Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, Th e, June p. 10 Downton Abbey , March p. 30 Dryburgh, ASC, Stuart, Feb. p. 42 Eldorado , Sept. p. 88 Elswit, ASC, Robert, May p. 52, Sept. p. 32, Oct. p. 99 End of Watch , Oct. p. 50 Extremely Loud & Incred- ibly Close , Feb. p. 18 FILMMAKERS’ FORUM “Documenting the International Cinematography Summit Conference,” April p. 82 “Firsthand Impressions of the Golden Eye Festival,” Feb. p. 72 “Negotiating the Best Shooting Format,” March p. 68 Fine, Russell Lee, Feb. p. 42 Fong, ASC, Larry, Jan. p. 102 Fontaine, AFC, Stéphane, Dec. p. 18 Footnote , April p. 18
Fraser, Greig, June p. 52, Oct. p. 34 Freeman, ASC, Jonathan, May p. 32 Fricke, Ron, Sept. p. 46 Game of Thrones , May p. 32 Gantz, ASC, Robert, March p. 82 Ghastly Love of Johnny X, The , March p. 18 Girl, The , Oct. p. 76 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The , Jan. p. 32 Goi, ASC, Michael, Nov. p. 76 Goldman, ABC, Adriano, Aug. p. 18 Goodich, ASC, Frederic, Nov. p. 12 Grillo, John, Feb. p. 42 Haskell’s Notes: International Cinematography Summit Conference 2011 , April p. 82 Hemingway & Gellhorn , June p. 26 HISTORICALS Boogie Nights , May p. 52 Magnolia , May p. 52 Hofmann, ASC, AMC, Henner, Sept. p. 110 Homeland , March p. 36 Horan, Damian, Oct. p. 12 Hurlbut, ASC, Shane, Feb. p. 24 Husbands , Nov. p. 26 IN MEMORIA Alpert, ASC, CSC, Herbert S., May p. 96 Godfrey, Fred, June p. 106 Johnke, ASC, Torben, March p. 79 Parker, Warren K., Dec. p. 111 Savides, ASC, Harris, Dec. p. 106 Waite, ASC, Ric, May p. 95 It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! , Dec. p. 24 Jensen, Matthew, March p. 42 Johnke, ASC, Torben, March p. 79 Josephine and the Roach , Oct. p. 12 Kaechele, Ralph, Dec. p. 24 Kaminski, Janusz, Jan. p. 48, Dec. p. 66
American Cinematographer
Kantor, Benjamin, Nov. p. 26 Keane, “Silenced by the Night,” July p. 10 Kelsch, ASC, Ken, April p. 24 Kenny, ASC, Francis, Jan. p. 26, March p. 58 Kenzie, Martin, May p. 32 Khondji, ASC, AFC, Darius, May p. 100, Aug. p. 22 Kick Start Theft , Nov. p. 12 Killing Them Softly , Oct. p. 34 Kivilo, ASC, CSC, Alar, April p. 108 Kuras, ASC, Ellen, Jan. p. 102, July p. 87 LaBella, Travis, Oct. p. 12 Lachman, ASC, Ed, March p. 82 Lalinde, Alejandro, July p. 10 Language of the Unheard , Oct. p. 12 Lascaris, Andre, March p. 12 Le Saux, Yorick, Oct. p. 26 LIGHTING DIAGRAMS American Horror Story: Asylum , Nov. p. 76 Avengers, The , June p. 34 Borgias, The , April p. 32 Bourne Legacy, The , Sept. p. 32 Master, The , Nov. p. 32 ParaNorman , Sept. p. 62 Rock of Ages , July p. 54 Total Recall , Aug. p. 58 Lincoln , Dec. p. 66 Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK, Karl Walter, Aug. p. 91 Logan, ASC, Bruce, July p. 87 Looper , Oct. p. 64 Luck , Feb. p. 42 Magnolia , May p. 52 Maibaum, ASC, Paul, Jan. p. 102 Malaimare Jr., Mihai, Nov. p. 32 Man, Chicks Are Just Different , Aug. p. 76 Maniaci, Teodoro, May p. 18 Manley, ASC, Christopher, March p. 36 Marsh, David, March p. 30 Master, The , Nov. p. 32, 36 McCurdy, BSC, Sam, May p. 32 McDonald, H.R., Oct. p. 12 McGarvey, ASC, BSC, Seamus, June p. 34, Oct. p. 98, Dec. pp. 50, 111 Men in Black III , June p. 74
Menges, ASC, BSC, Chris, Feb. p. 18, Oct. p. 98 Metz, ASC, Rexford, Sept. p. 110 M.I.A, “Bad Girls,”
May p. 12 Michos, ASC, Anastas, Jan. p. 102 Middle of Nowhere , Nov. p. 20 Midnight in Paris , Aug. p. 22 Miller, ASC, David, Aug. p. 90 Mindel, ASC, BSC, Dan, July p. 42 Moonrise Kingdom , June p. 18 Mooradian, ASC, George, Dec. p. 111 Morgenthau, ASC, Kramer, May p. 32 MUSIC VIDEOS Keane, “Silenced by the Night,” July p. 10 M.I.A, “Bad Girls,” May p. 12 My Brother the Devil , April p. 70 Negrin, ASC, Sol, May p. 98 NEW ASC ASSOCIATES Baumler, Wolfgang, March p. 82 Broad, Simon, Sept. p. 110 Hatzer, Michael, Sept. p. 110 Kanfer, Mike, Nov. p. 98 Kennel, Glenn, July p. 86 Kirkland, Mark, March p. 82 Lee, Chuck, Feb. p. 86 Manios Jr., Steven, Feb. p. 86 Martin, Peter, March p. 82 Patel, Dhanendra, Feb. p. 86 Priestnall, Sarah, Sept. p. 110 Rose, Frederic, Feb. p. 86 Schulman, Wayne M., Feb. p. 86 Smith, Tim, Oct. p. 98 NEW ASC MEMBERS Adams, Marshall, June p. 106 Aguirresarobe, Javier, July p. 86 Ballhaus, Florian, Nov. p. 98 Bleibtreu, Josh, Aug. p. 90
Bokelberg, Oliver, June p. 106 Cady, Patrick, Jan. p. 102 Fong, Larry, Jan. p. 102 Gantz, Robert, March p. 82 Maibaum, Paul, Jan. p. 102 Miller, David, Aug. p. 90 Pace, Vince, May p. 98 Richmond, Tom, Nov p. 98 Seresin, Ben, Feb. p. 86 Sivan, Santosh, June p. 106 Stockton, David, Feb. p. 86 Newby, ASC, John, Sept. p. 112 New York Story , Aug. p. 12 Nicholson, ASC, Sam, June p. 108 Oliver, Tristan, Sept. p. 62 Orlowski, Jeff, Oct. p. 20 Pace, ASC, Vince, May p. 98 Papamichael, ASC, Phedon, Jan. p. 20, Aug. p. 91 ParaNorman , Sept. p. 62 Pardue, John, Oct. p. 76 Person of Interest , May p. 18 Pfister, ASC, BSC, Wally, Feb. p. 87, Aug. p. 30 Phillips, Aaron, June p. 10 Polaris 2012, “Terrain Domination,” April p. 12
Pope, ASC, Bill, June p. 74 POST FOCUS “ACES Enables Eldorado ’s F65 Workflow,” Sept. p. 88 “Go with the Flow,” Jan. p. 74 “Optimizing DigitalCamera Workflows,” Sept. p. 78 “Technicolor Repairs Paramount’s Wings ,” May p. 82 PRESERVATION /RESTORATION Wings , May p. 82 Prieto, ASC, Rodrigo, Jan. p. 104, Feb. p. 87, Nov. p. 52 Primes, ASC, Robert, Oct. p. 100 Probst, Christopher, April p. 44 Project X , March p. 24 Prometheus , July p. 30 Raedeker, David, April p. 70 Rampart , Feb. p. 54 Raven, The , May p. 22 Richardson, Ben, April p. 65
Richmond, ASC, Tom, Nov. p. 98 Rock of Ages , July p. 54 Romano, Steve, Jan. p. 12 Rousselot, ASC, AFC, Philippe, July p. 87 Ruhlmann, ACS, Danny, May p. 22 Rust and Bone , Dec. p. 18 Ryan, BSC, Robbie, May p. 42 Samsara , Sept. p. 46 Sanguedolce, Steve, Oct. p. 86 Sarossy, BSC, CSC, Paul, April p. 32 Savages , July p. 42 Savides, ASC, Harris, Dec. p. 106 Schaefer, ASC, AIC, Roberto, Feb. p. 88 Scharf, Yaron, April p. 18 Schmidt, Rohn, March p. 33 Schwartzman, ASC, John, Aug. p. 46 Seale, ASC, ACS, John, March p. 82 Seng, Ken, March p. 24 Seresin, ASC, Ben, Feb. p. 86 Seven Psychopaths , Nov. p. 66 Side by Side , Sept. p. 18 Silver, ASC, Steven V., July p. 22 Sivan, ASC, ISC, Santosh, June p. 106 Skyfall , Dec. p. 34 Snow White and the Huntsman , June p. 52 SPECIAL LAB PROCESS Blinding , Oct. p. 86 Savages , July p. 42 SPECIAL VENUE Dark Knight Rises, The , Aug. p. 30 New York Story , Aug. p. 12 SPECIALIZED CINEMATOGRAPHY It’s a SpongeBob Christ- mas! , Dec. p. 24 ParaNorman , Sept. p. 62 Spinotti, ASC, AIC, Dante, Jan. p. 26, Feb. p. 62, July p. 86 Squires, Buddy, Aug. p. 12 Steelberg, ASC, Eric, Dec. p. 110 Stockton, ASC, David, Feb. p. 86 Stoffers, ASC, NSC, Rogier, June p. 26 Storaro, ASC, AIC, Vittorio, Sept. p. 111 Strebel, Lukas, Feb. p. 42
www.theasc.com
String Theory , Jan. p. 12 Struthers, Gavin, March p. 30 SUPER 8MM Argo , Nov. p. 52 SUPER 16MM 360 , Aug. p. 18 Argo , Nov. p. 52 Moonrise Kingdom , June p. 18 Walking Dead, The , March p. 33 SUPER 35MM 360 , Aug. p. 18 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , Aug. p. 68 Act of Valor , Feb. p. 24 American Horror Story: Asylum , Nov. p. 76 Arbitrage , Oct. p. 26 Avengers, The , June p. 34 Big Miracle , Feb. p. 30 Bourne Legacy, The , Sept. p. 32 Coriolanus , Jan. p. 62 Dark Shadows , June p. 62 Descendants, The , Jan. p. 20 Footnote , April p. 18 Girl, The , Oct. p. 76 Lincoln , Dec. p. 66 Luck , Feb. p. 42 Man, Chicks Are Just Different , Aug. p. 76 Men in Black III , June p. 74 Midnight in Paris , Aug. p. 22 Raven, The , May p. 22 Seven Psychopaths , Nov. p. 66 Snow White and the Huntsman , June p. 52 Swimmer , Dec. p. 12 To Rome with Love , Aug. p. 22 War Horse , Jan. p. 48 Swimmer , Dec. p. 12 Taylor, ASC, Jonathan, March p. 84 TELEVISION American Horror Story: Asylum , Nov. p. 76 Borgias, The , April p. 32 Dallas , July p. 64 Downton Abbey , March p. 30 “First-Rate Fare,” Nov. p. 86 Girl, The , Oct. p. 76 Hemingway & Gellhorn , June p. 26 Homeland , March p. 36
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It’s a SpongeBob Christ- mas! , Dec. p. 24 Luck , Feb. p. 42 Person of Interest , May p. 18 Two and a Half Men , July p. 22 Walking Dead, The , March p. 33 To Rome with Love , Aug. p. 22 Total Recall , Aug. p. 58 Tovoli, ASC, AIC, Luciano, Dec. p. 110 Trishna , July p. 16 Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, The , June p. 10 Two and a Half Men , July p. 22 Vasyanov, Roman, Oct. p. 50 VISTAVISION Dark Knight Rises, The , Aug. p. 30 Wages, ASC, William, Jan. p. 26, March p. 50 Waite, ASC, Ric, May p. 95 Walking Dead, The , March p. 33 War Horse , Jan. p. 48 WEB CONTENT Husbands , Nov. p. 26 NASA Time-Lapse Videos, Feb. p. 12 Wexler, ASC, Haskell, April p. 82 When You Find Me , March p. 12 Willoughby, BSC, Nigel, March p. 30 Wolski, ASC, Dariusz, July p. 30 World Without End , Sept. p. 24 Wuthering Heights , May p. 42 Yedlin, Steve, Oct. p. 64 Yoeman, ASC, Robert, June p. 18 Young, Bradford, Nov. p. 20 Zielinski, ASC, PSC, Jerzy, Aug. p. 76, Dec. pp. 110, 112 Zsigmond, ASC, Vilmos, Nov. p. 12 Zyskind, Marcel, July p. 16 Index by Author
Aguilar, Ignacio, “Shooting 8 ,” Sept. p. 12 Anderson, Paul Thomas, “Helming The Master ,” Nov. p. 36 104
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Bergery, Benjamin, “A Rough Road to Romance,” Dec. p. 18 “Ancient Aliens,” July p. 30 “Blood Relatives,” June p. 62 “Dead Man’s Hand,” Oct. p. 34 “Khondji on Allen,” Aug. p. 22 “Ravishing Romance,” Dec. p. 50 Birchard, Robert S., “An Unusual Swan Song for Plus-X,” March p. 18 “Technicolor Repairs Paramount’s Wings ,” May p. 82 Bosley, Rachael K., “Creative Conspiracies,” Nov. p. 52 “Hair-Raising Heroics,” Sept. p. 62 “Sundance Standouts,” April p. 70 Calhoun, John, “A Very Bad Cop,” Feb. p. 54 “Setting a Classic Tragedy in ModernDay India,” July p. 16 De Paula, Vincent, “Negotiating the Best Shooting Format,” March p. 68 Goldman, Michael, “Harsh Realms,” May p. 32 “Natural Bourne Killer,” Sept. p. 32 “Supporting Stereo Capture,” Aug. p. 50 “Web-Slinging in Stereo,” Aug. p. 46 Heuring, David, “ACES Enables Eldorado ’s F65 Workflow,” Sept. p. 88 “An A-Plus Event,” Dec. p. 78 “An Eye for New Forms,” Oct. p. 86 “ASC Honors 3 with Andrew Laszlo Heritage Awards,” Oct. p. 12 “Bedlam’s New Address,” Nov. p. 76 “Blazing Trails,” March p. 50 “Saving the Whales,” Feb. p. 30
“Trouble in Paradise,” Jan. p. 20 Holben, Jay, “A Very Tough Beat,” Oct. p. 50 “Beauty in Battle,” June p. 52 “Cold Case,” Jan. p. 32 “Freedom Fighter,” Dec. p. 66 “Memory Upgrade,” Aug. p. 58 “Optimizing DigitalCamera Workflows,” Sept. p. 78 “Power Trip,” March p. 42 “Top of Their Class,” May p. 62 Hope-Jones, Mark, “9/11’s Impact,” Feb. p. 18 “A Historical Epic Shot in Hungary,” Sept. p. 24 “MI6 Under Siege,” Dec. p. 34 “Varied Visions,” March p. 30 “Vice at the Vatican,” April p. 32 “Warner Bros. Opens London Studio,” July p. 72 Kadner, Noah, “Creating Reality for a Greenscreen Shoot,” Aug. p. 76 Kwapis, Ken, “Kwapis Reflects,” Feb. p. 36 Narita, ASC, Hiro, “Firsthand Impressions of the Golden Eye Festival,” Feb. p. 72 Oppenheimer, Jean, “A Sundance Standout,” Nov. p. 20 “A Tectonic Shift in Imaging Technology,” Sept. p. 18 “A Wholly Justified Honor,” March p. 58 “An Olympic Swimmer ,” Dec. p. 12 “Changing Fortunes,” Oct. p. 26 “Cinema, Italian Style,” Feb. p. 62 “Generation Gap,” April p. 18 “Love and War,” June p. 26 “Poe Tracks a Killer,” May p. 22
American Cinematographer
“Shooting J.R.,” July p. 64 “Traveling Full Circle,” Aug. p. 18 Pizzello, Stephen, “Hitchcock Blonde,” Oct. p. 76 “Scout’s Honor,” June p. 18 Probst, Christopher, “Go with the Flow,” Jan. p. 74 “Back to School,” April p. 44 Silberg, Jon, “Tales of Ordinary Madness,” May p. 52 Silver, ASC, Steven V., “Sitcoms Are Easy? Sure.” July p. 22 Stasukevich, Iain, “A Poetic Portrait of Survival,” June p. 10 “Around the World in 65mm,” Sept. p. 46 “’Bad Girls’ Catches the Drift,” May p. 12 “Batman to the Max,” Aug. p. 30 “Blast from the Past,” June p. 74 “Building a Layered Person of Interest ,” May p. 18 “Capturing a City of Icons,” Aug. p. 12 “High Anxiety,” July p. 42 “Last Rites,” April p. 24 “Lord of War,” Jan. p. 62 “Moving Pictures,” March p. 12 “Otherworldly Views of Earth,” Feb. p. 12 “Payback Time,” Oct. p. 64 “Promoting ‘The Cause,’” Nov. p. 32 “Road-Trip Romance,” July p. 10 “Secret Sleds,” April p. 12 “Through a Glass Brightly,” Jan. p. 12 “Varied Visions,” March p. 33 Thomson, Patricia, “An Award-Winning Document of Climate Change,” Oct. p. 20 “Animal Instincts,” Jan. p. 48 “Deep Shih Tzu,” Nov. p. 66
“Hair-Metal Heroes,” July p. 54 “High Stakes,” Feb. p. 42 “Sundance Standouts,” April pp. 65, 76 “Varied Visions,” March p. 36 “Wild Passion,” May p. 42 Wexler, ASC, Haskell, “Documenting the International Cinematography Summit Conference,” April p. 82 Williams, David E., “Documenting Teen Debauchery,” March p. 24 “Vampire Veto,” Aug. p. 68 Witmer, Jon D., “A Handcrafted Holiday Special,” Dec. p. 24 “All Together Now,” June p. 34 “HPA Celebrates Post Industry, Individuals,” Jan. p. 28 In Memoria, March p. 79; May pp. 95, 96; Dec. p. 106 “Neorealism in Downtown L.A.,” Nov. p. 12 “Redefining Run-andGun,” Feb. p. 24 Wolfe, Jennifer, “Honeymoon Hangover,” Nov. p. 26
STATEMENT OF O WNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION Title of publication: AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER
Publication no. 0002-7928 Date of filing: October 22, 2012 Frequency of issue: Monthly Annual subscription price: $50 Number of issues published annually: 12 Location of known office of publication: 1782 N. Orange Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90028. Location of the headquarters or general business offices of the publishers: Same as above. Names and address of publisher: ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90028; Publisher, Martha Winterhalter, Executive Editor, Stephen Pizzello, 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028. Owner: ASC Holding Corp. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: same as above. Extent and nature of circulation: Total numbers of copies printed (net press run): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 36,052; actual number copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 38,760. Paid and/or requested circulation: Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions stated on Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 26,444; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 27,700. Paid and/or requested circulation: Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution: average number copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 8,141; actual number of copies single issue published nearest to filing date, 8,010. Total paid and/or requested circulation: average number copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 34,585; actual number copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 35,710. Free distribution by mail (samples, complimentary and other free copies): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,143; actual number copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,200. Total free distributions: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,143; actual number copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,200. Total distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 35,728; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 37,910. Copies not distributed (office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 324; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 850. Total: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 36,052; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 38,760. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 96.8%; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 94.2%.
I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. — Martha Winterhalter, Publisher
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In Memoriam
Harris Savides, ASC, 1957-2012
Harris Savides, ASC died Oct. 11 following an extended battle with brain cancer. He was 55. Savides was born on Sept. 28, 1957, in New York City and grew up in the Bronx. He studied film and photography at the School of Visual Arts, and after he graduated, he assisted a number of still photographers in New York. He then spent nearly two years doing fashion photography in Milan and Paris. Upon his return to the States, he landed photography jobs at magazines, advertising agencies and record companies. The latter asked him to shoot album covers, which in turn opened the door to music videos. Savides won consecutive MTV Video Music Awards for his cinematography on R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” and Madonna’s “Rain.” His music-video credits also included Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” The Rolling Stones’ “Like a Rolling Stone” and Michael Jackson’s “Scream,” as well as videos for Lenny Kravitz, David Bowie, Björk, Henry Rollins, Ziggy Marley and Tom Waits. Savides also began shooting commercials, notching credits with such brands as AT&T, Cotton, ESPN, Sega, L’Oreal, Calvin Klein, Evian and Coca-Cola. He won a Clio Award in 1994 for his work on the Miller Genuine Draft spot “Racetrack.” Savides moved into long-form cinematography on the telefilm Lake Consequence, which he followed with Phil Joanou’s feature Heaven’s Prisoners. Then David Fincher, who had worked with Savides on music videos and commercials, asked him to shoot the now-iconic opening titles for Seven. Two years later, Savides served as director of photography on Fincher’s The Game (AC Sept. ’97). When speaking to AC about his next feature, James Gray’s The Yards (AC Nov. ’00), Savides observed, “I don’t think you can be too precious with photography 106
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[because] then it can become a very technical exercise. I prefer to approach the image in a much more instinctual way. If my meter is saying ‘no,’ I just might go there and follow my gut, and sometimes the best work comes out of that. “I try to avoid lighting people,” he
continued. “My philosophy is to light the scene and let the people be in it, because in the world, people aren’t carefully lit.” Savides was perhaps most closely associated with director Gus Van Sant, with whom he first collaborated on a Levi’s commercial in the mid-1990s. Their first feature collaboration was Finding Forrester , but their second, the Sundance standout Gerry (AC April ’02), marked a radical change in style. “I’m very proud of the fact that Gerry is a departure from normal narrative films,” Savides told AC . “I’m proud of the structure, the mise-en-scène, and the way a lot of it works without dialogue. If you can show it without saying it, that’s pure filmmaking, and this film is that attitude on steroids. It really changed the way I think about the entire filmmaking process.” He and Van Sant evolved their approach on Elephant (AC Oct. ’03) and Last Days (AC Aug. ’05). Elephant is distinguished by long, roving Steadicam shots, whereas Last Days is dominated by long takes with a static camera. In discussing the latter picture, Savides said, “Over my career … I’ve come to understand that I should American Cinematographer
not move the camera just for the sake of moving it. [Camera movement] should always come from telling the story and understanding what that story is. It should come not from asking, ‘How do I make it better and more dynamic?’ but from asking, ‘Do we need to make it better and more dynamic?’” He subsequently reteamed with Van Sant on Milk (AC Dec. ’08) and Restless. Savides also reteamed with Fincher on Zodiac (AC April ’07), the cinematographer’s first digitally captured feature. For director Noah Baumbach, he shot the features Margot at the Wedding and Greenberg. Savides’ other feature credits include John Turturro’s Illuminata, Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, Ridley Scott’s American Gang ster ( AC Dec. ’07), Woody Allen’s Whatever Works and Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere. His final feature, Coppola’s The Bling Ring, is slated for release next year. Savides joined the ASC in 1999 after being recommended for membership by Society fellows Dariusz Wolski, Sol Negrin and Steven Poster. He was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. “I don’t feel as if I have a definite style,” Savides told AC in 1999. “I never look at a movie as something I am going to ‘do my thing’ on …. I don’t think photography should draw attention to itself — it’s part of the story.” Savides is survived by his wife, Medine, and daughter, Sophie. — Jon D. Witmer ●
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American Society of Cinematographers Roster OFFICERS – 2012-’13 Stephen Lighthill, President Daryn Okada, Vice President Richard Crudo, Vice President Kees Van Oostrum, Vice President Victor J. Kemper, Treasurer Frederic Goodich, Secretary Steven Fierberg, Sergeant-at-Arms
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD John Bailey Stephen H. Burum Curtis Clark Richard Crudo Dean Cundey Fred Elmes Michael Goi Victor J. Kemper Francis Kenny Matthew Leonetti Stephen Lighthill Michael O'Shea Robert Primes Owen Roizman Kees Van Oostrum ALTERNATES Ron Garcia Julio Macat Kenneth Zunder Steven Fierberg Karl Walter Lindenlaub
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ACTIVE MEMBERS Thomas Ackerman Lance Acord Marshall Adams Javier Aguirresarobe Lloyd Ahern II Russ Alsobrook Howard A. Anderson III Howard A. Anderson Jr. James Anderson Peter Anderson Tony Askins Charles Austin Christopher Baffa James Bagdonas King Baggot John Bailey Florian Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus Andrzej Bartkowiak John Bartley Bojan Bazelli Frank Beascoechea Affonso Beato Mat Beck Dion Beebe Bill Bennett Andres Berenguer Carl Berger Gabriel Beristain Steven Bernstein Ross Berryman Josh Bleibtreu Oliver Bokelberg Michael Bonvillain Richard Bowen David Boyd Russell Boyd Jonathan Brown Don Burgess Stephen H. Burum Bill Butler Frank B. Byers Bobby Byrne Patrick Cady Antonio Calvache Paul Cameron Russell P. Carpenter James L. Carter Alan Caso Michael Chapman Rodney Charters James A. Chressanthis T.C. Christensen Joan Churchill Curtis Clark Peter L. Collister Jack Cooperman Jack Couffer Vincent G. Cox Jeff Cronenweth
Richard Crudo Dean R. Cundey Stefan Czapsky David Darby Allen Daviau Roger Deakins Jan DeBont Thomas Del Ruth Bruno Delbonnel Peter Deming Jim Denault Caleb Deschanel Ron Dexter Craig Di Bona George Spiro Dibie Ernest Dickerson Billy Dickson Bill Dill Anthony Dod Mantle Stuart Dryburgh Bert Dunk Lex DuPont John Dykstra Richard Edlund Eagle Egilsson Frederick Elmes Robert Elswit Geoffrey Erb Scott Farrar Jon Fauer Don E. FauntLeRoy Gerald Feil Steven Fierberg Mauro Fiore John C. Flinn III Anna Foerster Larry Fong Ron Fortunato Jonathan Freeman Tak Fujimoto Alex Funke Steve Gainer Robert Gantz Ron Garcia David Geddes Dejan Georgevich Michael Goi Stephen Goldblatt Paul Goldsmith Frederic Goodich Victor Goss Jack Green Adam Greenberg Robbie Greenberg Xavier Grobet Alexander Gruszynski Changwei Gu Rick Gunter Rob Hahn Gerald Hirschfeld Henner Hofmann
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Adam Holender Ernie Holzman John C. Hora Tom Houghton Gil Hubbs Shane Hurlbut Tom Hurwitz Judy Irola Mark Irwin Levie Isaacks Peter James Johnny E. Jensen Frank Johnson Shelly Johnson Jeffrey Jur Adam Kane Stephen M. Katz Ken Kelsch Victor J. Kemper Wayne Kennan Francis Kenny Glenn Kershaw Darius Khondji Gary Kibbe Jan Kiesser Jeffrey L. Kimball Adam Kimmel Alar Kivilo David Klein Richard Kline George Koblasa Fred J. Koenekamp Lajos Koltai Pete Kozachik Neil Krepela Willy Kurant Ellen M. Kuras George La Fountaine Edward Lachman Ken Lamkin Jacek Laskus Denis Lenoir John R. Leonetti Matthew Leonetti Andrew Lesnie Peter Levy Matthew Libatique Charlie Lieberman Stephen Lighthill Karl Walter Lindenlaub John Lindley Robert F. Liu Walt Lloyd Bruce Logan Gordon Lonsdale Emmanuel Lubezki Julio G. Macat Glen MacPherson Paul Maibaum Constantine Makris Denis Maloney
Isidore Mankofsky Christopher Manley Michael D. Margulies Barry Markowitz Steve Mason Clark Mathis Don McAlpine Don McCuaig Seamus McGarvey Robert McLachlan Geary McLeod Greg McMurry Steve McNutt Terry K. Meade Suki Medencevic Chris Menges Rexford Metz Anastas Michos David Miller Douglas Milsome Dan Mindel Charles Minsky Claudio Miranda George Mooradian Donald A. Morgan Donald M. Morgan Kramer Morgenthau Peter Moss M. David Mullen Dennis Muren Fred Murphy Hiro Narita Guillermo Navarro Michael B. Negrin Sol Negrin Bill Neil Alex Nepomniaschy John Newby Yuri Neyman Sam Nicholson Crescenzo Notarile David B. Nowell Rene Ohashi Daryn Okada Thomas Olgeirsson Woody Omens Miroslav Ondricek Michael D. O’Shea Vince Pace Anthony Palmieri Phedon Papamichael Daniel Pearl Edward J. Pei James Pergola Dave Perkal Lowell Peterson Wally Pfister Bill Pope Steven Poster Tom Priestley Jr. Rodrigo Prieto
D E C E M B E R
Robert Primes Frank Prinzi Richard Quinlan Declan Quinn Earl Rath Richard Rawlings Jr. Frank Raymond Tami Reiker Robert Richardson Anthony B. Richmond Tom Richmond Bill Roe Owen Roizman Pete Romano Charles Rosher Jr. Giuseppe Rotunno Philippe Rousselot Juan Ruiz-Anchia Marvin Rush Paul Ryan Eric Saarinen Alik Sakharov Mikael Salomon Roberto Schaefer Tobias Schliessler Aaron Schneider Nancy Schreiber Fred Schuler John Schwartzman John Seale Christian Sebaldt Dean Semler Ben Seresin Eduardo Serra Steven Shaw Lawrence Sher Richard Shore Newton Thomas Sigel Steven Silver John Simmons Sandi Sissel Santosh Sivan Bradley B. Six Michael Slovis Dennis L. Smith Roland “Ozzie” Smith Reed Smoot Bing Sokolsky Peter Sova Dante Spinotti Terry Stacey Eric Steelberg Ueli Steiger Peter Stein Tom Stern Robert M. Stevens David Stockton Rogier Stoffers Vittorio Storaro Harry Stradling Jr. David Stump
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Tim Suhrstedt Peter Suschitzky Alfred Taylor Jonathan Taylor Rodney Taylor William Taylor Don Thorin Sr. John Toll Mario Tosi Salvatore Totino Luciano Tovoli Jost Vacano Theo Van de Sande Eric Van Haren Noman Kees Van Oostrum Checco Varese Ron Vargas Mark Vargo Amelia Vincent William Wages Roy H. Wagner Mandy Walker Michael Watkins Michael Weaver Jonathan West Haskell Wexler Jack Whitman Gordon Willis Dariusz Wolski Ralph Woolsey Peter Wunstorf Robert Yeoman Richard Yuricich Jerzy Zielinski Vilmos Zsigmond Kenneth Zunder
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Alan Albert Richard Aschman Kay Baker Joseph J. Ball Amnon Band Carly M. Barber Craig Barron Thomas M. Barron Larry Barton Wolfgang Baumler Bob Beitcher Mark Bender Bruce Berke Bob Bianco Steven A. Blakely Mitchell Bogdanowicz Michael Bravin Simon Broad William Brodersen Garrett Brown Ronald D. Burdett Reid Burns Vincent Carabello
Jim Carter Leonard Chapman Mark Chiolis Denny Clairmont Adam Clark Cary Clayton Dave Cole Michael Condon Grover Crisp Peter Crithary Daniel Curry Ross Danielson Carlos D. DeMattos Gary Demos Mato Der Avanessian Kevin Dillon David Dodson Judith Doherty Cyril Drabinsky Jesse Dylan Jonathan Erland Ray Feeney William Feightner Phil Feiner Jimmy Fisher Scott Fleischer Thomas Fletcher Gilles Galerne Salvatore Giarratano Richard B. Glickman John A. Gresch Jim Hannafin William Hansard Bill Hansard Jr. Richard Hart Robert Harvey Michael Hatzer Josh Haynie Charles Herzfeld Larry Hezzelwood Frieder Hochheim Bob Hoffman Vinny Hogan Cliff Hsui Robert C. Hummel Roy Isaia Jim Jannard George Joblove Joel Johnson John Johnston Mike Kanfer Marker Karahadian Frank Kay Debbie Kennard Glenn Kennel Milton Keslow Robert Keslow Douglas Kirkland Mark Kirkland Timothy J. Knapp Karl Kresser www.theasc.com
Chet Kucinski Chuck Lee Doug Leighton Lou Levinson Suzanne Lezotte Grant Loucks Howard Lukk Andy Maltz Steven E. Manios Jr. Steven E. Manios Sr. Peter Martin Robert Mastronardi Joe Matza Albert Mayer Jr. Bill McDonald Karen McHugh Andy McIntyre Stan Miller Walter H. Mills George Milton Mike Mimaki Michael Morelli Dash Morrison Nolan Murdock Dan Muscarella Iain A. Neil Otto Nemenz Ernst Nettmann Tony Ngai Mickel Niehenke Jeff Okun Marty Oppenheimer Walt Ordway Ahmad Ouri Michael Parker Dhanendra Patel Kristin Petrovich Ed Phillips Nick Phillips Joshua Pines Carl Porcello Howard Preston Sarah Priestnall David Pringle Phil Radin David Reisner Christopher Reyna Colin Ritchie Eric G. Rodli Domenic Rom Andy Romanoff Frederic Rose Daniel Rosen Dana Ross Bill Russell Kish Sadhvani David Samuelson Steve Schklair Peter K. Schnitzler Walter Schonfeld Wayne Schulman
Juergen Schwinzer Steven Scott Alec Shapiro Don Shapiro Milton R. Shefter Leon Silverman Garrett Smith Timothy E. Smith Kimberly Snyder Stefan Sonnenfeld John L. Sprung Joseph N. Tawil Ira Tiffen Steve Tiffen Arthur Tostado Jeffrey Treanor Bill Turner Stephan Ukas-Bradley Mark Van Horne Richard Vetter Dedo Weigert Evans Wetmore Franz Wieser Beverly Wood Jan Yarbrough Hoyt Yeatman Irwin M. Young Michael Zacharia Bob Zahn Nazir Zaidi Michael Zakula Les Zellan
HONORARY MEMBERS Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. Col. Michael Collins Bob Fisher David MacDonald Cpt. Bruce McCandless II Larry Parker D. Brian Spruill
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Clubhouse News Zielinski Elected PSC President Jerzy Zielinski, ASC, PSC has been elected president of the Polish Society of Cinematographers. Born in Poland, he graduated from the National Polish Film School in Lödz. He has continued to shoot Polish productions while also working in Hollywood on such films as Galaxy Quest , Dodgeball and Fun with Dick and Jane (2005). As president of the PSC, Zielinski says, he will continue to advance its goals, which include maintaining close relationships with Imago and fellow cinematography societies around the globe.
Eric Steelberg, ASC
Steelberg Joins Society The Society has welcomed Eric Steelberg, ASC to the ranks of active membership. Steelberg was born in Northridge, Calif., where he fell in love with the movies at a young age thanks to video rentals and cable television. His parents’ passion for still photography piqued his curiosity about the photographic process, and he began poring over books about Ansel Adams and issues of National Geographic , Photo and AC . Steelberg began taking film classes in high school, and he began working on shorts and micro-budget productions while attending Santa Monica College. He also attended two Maine Media Workshops. He shot short films and commercials before breaking out with the independent feature Quinceañera, a prizewinner at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, Steelberg has shot three features for director Jason Reitman: Juno, Up in the Air and Young Adult . He has also shot the features (500) Days of Summer , Bandslam and Going the Distance, the pilot for Lone Star , and episodes of the series Eastbound & Down. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 110
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AMPAS, ASC Initiatives Receive Emmys The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) and the ASC Color Decision List (ASC-CDL) were honored with Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards on Oct. 24. Eight awards were presented at the ceremony, which recognizes individuals, companies or organizations for engineering developments that mark such a significant improvement on existing methods, or are so innovative in nature, that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television. Developed by AMPAS in collaboration with motion-imaging and color-science experts, ACES is a SMPTE standards-based color-management architecture designed for the production, mastering and longterm archiving of motion picture and television (non-live broadcast) production content. Developed by the ASC Technology Committee, the ASC-CDL enables primary color-correction data to be passed from the set to dailies and editorial post, as well as interchanged between different colorcorrection systems and applications. Engineering Awards were also presented to Colorfront, for Colorfront OnSet Dailies; FilmLight, for the Truelight OnAmerican Cinematographer
Set and Baselight Transfer look/color management systems; Dolby Laboratories, for the Dolby PRM-4200 Professional Reference Monitor; Sony Electronics, for the BVM E250 OLED Reference Monitor; Netflix, for the streaming of movies and television programs; and Toon Boom Animation, for the Toon Boom Storyboard Pro. Additionally, the Eastman Kodak Co. received the Philo T. Farnsworth Award for its long history of contributions to the television industry; Dr. Richard Green received the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award; and Adobe Systems received an Engineering Plaque for the Adobe Pass Viewer Authentication process. Manaki Brothers Salute Tovoli, Fellow Cinematographers Luciano Tovoli, ASC, AIC was presented with the Golden Camera 300 Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Manaki Brothers International Cinematographers’ Festival. Additionally, a Golden Camera 300 Special Award was presented to cinematographer Christian Berger, AAC in recognition of his outstanding contributions to film art. In the festival’s feature-film cinematography competition, Jolanta Dylewska won the Golden Camera 300 for In Darkness, Alisher Khamidkhadjaev won the Silver Camera 300 for Living, and Luca Bigazzi won the Bronze Camera 300 for This Must Be the Place. Cinematographer David Raedeker won the New Vision Award for My Brother the Devil ( AC April ’12). The Small Golden Camera was presented to cinematographer Vasco Viana for the short film Rafa. The Special Mention Small Camera 300 was awarded to cinematographer Vladimir Samoilovsky for Bardo. The annual festival is organized by the Macedonian Film Professionals’ Association under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Macedonia and with the
. l a v i t s e F t h g i l k r a D f o y s e t r u o c , o ã r u D i u R y b o t o h p y e v r a G c . M . s C S o r A , B i n k a a g n r o a M M . f M o y s d e l t a r n o u o D c o y b t o h g p n i t i l h g o v i l o ; T . C S o C A , n y o k s s f d r o a k h n c a i M R e e l r o o d i s M f I o y y b s e e s t r u u o o h c b u t o l o C h f o p o r e t o k r h a P P
In Memoriam: Warren K. Parker ASC associate member Warren K. Parker died Sept. 30 at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 91. Parker was born on Nov. 18, 1920, in Los Angeles. He graduated from John Marshall High School and the University of Southern California. In 1942, he married Anna Frances Mole, and from 1943-’46, he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Upon his discharge from active duty, Parker began working for his father-in-law, Peter Mole, a co-founder of Mole-Richardson Co. When Mole died in 1960, Parker became president of the company, and he and his wife served as co-chairs of the board after the next generation of Parkers assumed leadership of the company. Parker became an ASC associate on July 7, 1964. He was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club, the San Fernando Valley Pigeon Club and the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Parker is survived by sons Larry (an honorary ASC member), Michael (an ASC associate), Dennis and Peter, and daughters Theresa Knode and Regina Ptolemy. His wife died earlier this year. St. Francis de Sales and Notre Dame High School scholarship funds have been established in Parker’s memory. To donate, e-mail
[email protected] and include “Warren K. Parker Scholarship” in the subject line.
support of the Ministry of Culture and Macedonia Film Fund (in association with Vip Operator). For additional information, visit www.manaki.com.mk. Mooradian Receives Medal of Merit George Mooradian, ASC recently returned to his alma mater, Ohio University, to receive the Medal of Merit Award during the school’s annual Alumni Awards Gala. The awards were presented during OU’s Homecoming Weekend. While on campus, Mooradian also led a master class for graduate students. McGarvey in Conversation at Darklight Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC recently participated in a Q&A and a visualeffects master class at the Darklight Festival in Dublin, Ireland. The Q&A was presented in association with the Irish Film and Television Academy and moderated by Kieron J. Walsh. McGarvey joined visual-effects supervisor Jake Morrison for the master class, which was moderated by cinematographer P.J. Dillon.
Garcia Leads Symposium in Hawaii Pacific New Media at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Outreach College, the Academy for Creative Media, and Canon U.S.A.’s Professional Engineering and Solutions Division recently presented a cinematography symposium that was led by Ron Garcia, ASC. Participants included gaffer John Buckley and ASC cinematographers James L. Carter, Alan Caso, Richard Edlund, Wally Pfister and Robert Primes. The event also offered attendees a hands-on display of Canon’s latest motion-picture cameras. Tiffen Joins Schneider Optics ASC associate Ira Tiffen has joined Schneider Optics as vice president of motion picture filters. In this capacity, Tiffen will have overall responsibility for the division, including production, marketing and product development. He will work out of Schneider’s Hauppauge, N.Y., offices. During his more than 30 years at The Tiffen Co., Tiffen created many filter effects in response to the expressed needs of cameramen. More recently, at his own company, Optefex, he developed the Optefex Blue Streak filter line, a technology that ● he brings with him to Schneider. From top: Luciano Tovoli, ASC, AIC; George Mooradian, ASC; Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC.
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Jerzy Zielinski, ASC, PSC
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impression on you? The very first movie I saw in a theater, the French black-and-white film White Mane (1953). There was very little dialogue, so I didn’t have to distract myself reading subtitles. I was 10. Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire? The ‘usual suspects,’ if I may say: [ASC members] Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Gordon Willis and Owen Roizman. But also Walter Lassally, BSC, for The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , one of my favorite movies from the Sixties; Gianni di Venanzo, for Antonioni’s movies; Jerzy Wojcik, for Ashes and Diamonds; and Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC, for The Insider. What sparked your interest in photography? I don’t really know how it started. I’ve wanted to capture images for as long as I can remember.
Who were your early teachers or mentors? Mieczyslaw Jahoda, my cinematography teacher in film school. He was the first cinematographer to shoot color film in Poland. He had a straightforward approach to solving problems on the set: ‘Just simplify.’ What are some of your key artistic influences? When I was in high school, I shot black-and-white stills and watched movies in a local art house. At the same time, I was fascinated by French Impressionists and Cezanne, Gauguin and Degas. Later, I became more interested in still photographers with very different approaches, from Weegee to Sally Mann. It was mostly black-andwhite photography. How did you get your first break in the business? I was lucky. After film school, I started shooting shorts, mostly on 35mm, and when I was 29, I shot my first feature. Later, I went to London and met producer David Putnam, who gave me the opportunity to shoot my first feature outside Poland: Cal , directed by Pat O’Connor and starring Helen Mirren.
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Have you made any memorable blunders? Shooting on film is always a nerve-wracking process. You look at your light meter on the set and try to position every detail of the photographed scene in the right spot on a curve. You can make it safe, but I was always tempted to go one step further. I was usually lucky, but in some cases it took a bit more work for a color timer to save the scene. What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received? Don’t let yourself become too obsessed with technology. Find a balance with your creativity. What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? Robert K. Massie’s book Catherine the Walter Isaacson’s fascinating biography of Steve Jobs. I’m Great and also rediscovering old noir movies with Humphrey Bogart. Maybe it’s nostalgia knocking at my door.
Where did you train and/or study? I graduated from the National Polish Film School in Lödz.
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What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? It’s hard to say, but it’s still pretty awesome to tell stories in a cinematic way and create images on a big screen. It’s a bit like a drug you’re addicted to!
Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try? Film noir. If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing instead? It would have to be something unreal, perhaps an illusionist or magician. Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership? Roger Deakins, Francis Kenny and Jacek Laskus. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? I’m happy to be part of this group of great people and filmmakers. Sometimes I don’t see them for a long time, but there is always a ● connection.
American Cinematographer
