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    24 Big GunsDante Spinotti, ASC, AIC arms himself with digitalcameras on Public Enemies

    34 Impressionistic CinemaDarius Khondji, ASC, AFC lends lush, romanticlook to Chri

    44 Risk and ValorBarry Ackroyd, BSC brings tense, handheld aestheticto The Hurt Locker

    52 Terror on the TracksTobias Schliessler, ASC confronts complex logisticson The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

    Departments

    Features

    V i s i t u s o n l i n e a t w w w. t h e a s c . c o m

    On Our Cover: Notorious bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is armed and dangerous in PublicEnemies, shot by Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC. (Photo by Peter Mountain, courtesy of Universal Pictures.)

    8 Editors Note10 Short Takes: Puppy Love14 Production Slate: Moon and Sraphine60 Post Focus: Mega Playgrounds DP Dailies64 New Products & Services

    68 International Marketplace69 Classified Ads70 Ad Index72 In Memoriam:Jack Cardiff, BSC74 Clubhouse News76 ASC Close-Up: Mark Irwin

    52

    J U L Y 2 0 0 9 V O L . 9 0 N O . 7

    The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques

    44

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    J u l y 2 0 0 9 V o l . 9 0 , N o . 7The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques Since 1920

    Visit us online at

    www.theasc.com

    PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter

    EDITORIAL

    EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello

    SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley

    ASSOCIATE EDITORJon D. Witmer

    TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

    CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

    Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard, John Calhoun,

    Bob Davis, Bob Fisher, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben,

    Noah Kadner, Ron Magid, Jean Oppenheimer, John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg,

    Iain Stasukevich, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson, David E. Williams

    ART DEPARTMENT

    CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore

    ADVERTISING

    ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTORAngie Gollmann

    323-936-3769 FAX 323-936-9188

    e-mail: [email protected]

    ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce

    323-908-3114 FAX 323-876-4973

    e-mail: [email protected]

    ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Scott Burnell

    323-936-0672 FAX 323-936-9188

    e-mail: [email protected]

    CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno

    323-908-3124 FAX 323-876-4973

    e-mail: [email protected]

    CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS

    CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina

    CIRCULATION MANAGERAlex Lopez

    SHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal

    ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman

    ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost

    ASC PRESIDENTS ASSISTANT Kim Weston

    ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely

    ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark

    American Cinematographer(ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 89th 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 i nquiries (323) 969-4344.

    Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit internationalMoney 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 toSheridan Reprints at (800) 635-7181 ext. 8065 or by e-mail [email protected].

    Copyright 2007 ASC Holding Corp. (All r ights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CAand at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

    POSTMASTER: Send address change toAmerican Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Hollywood, CA 90078.

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    OFFICERS - 2008/2009

    Daryn OkadaPresident

    Michael GoiVice President

    Richard CrudoVice President

    Owen RoizmanVice President

    Victor J. KemperTreasurer

    Isidore MankofskySecretary

    John HoraSergeant At Arms

    MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

    Curtis ClarkRichard Crudo

    Caleb DeschanelJohn C. Flinn IIIWilliam A. Fraker

    Michael GoiJohn Hora

    Victor J. KemperStephen Lighthill

    Daryn OkadaRobert PrimesOwen RoizmanNancy SchreiberDante Spinotti

    Kees Van Oostrum

    ALTERNATES

    Matthew LeonettiSteven Fierberg

    James ChressanthisMichael D. OShea

    Sol Negrin

    MUSEUM CURATOR

    Steve Gainer

    American Society of Cinematographers

    The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, butan educational, cultural and professionalorganization. Membership is by invitation

    to those who are actively engaged asdirectors of photography and have

    demonstrated outstanding ability. ASCmembership has become one of the highest

    honors that can be bestowed upon aprofessional cinematographer a mark

    of prestige and excellence.

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    With HD cameras becoming more prevalent and more

    sophisticated, the old question Film or digital? is

    taking on a new complexity for cinematographers at

    every level. On Public Enemies, Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC and

    director Michael Mann initially discussed shooting on 35mm

    film, but ultimately chose HD after conducting comparison

    tests geared toward the specific narrative and stylistic

    requirements of the period gangster tale. With digital

    cameras, there arent any steadfast rules, and I believe that

    gives me a huge amount of freedom, Spinotti tells Jay

    Holben (Big Guns, page 24). The medium is romantic,

    interesting and beautiful, but it also looks real. And theres

    so much you can do in post! Film has a certain kind of quality that cannot be matched by

    digital technology, but at times, the advantages digital has over film are important for the

    language and the contents of the story youre telling, and that determines your choice.

    For the romantic drama Chri, Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC adopted a more tradi-

    tional approach, composing in widescreen anamorphic (which he deems wonderful for

    faces, for intimacy) and manipulating three film stocks to create the pictures painterly

    frames. I didnt want the image to be too sharp or the light to be obvious, Khondji notes

    in his interview with European correspondent Benjamin B (Impressionistic Cinema, page

    34). I wanted very, very soft light, as though its filtered through time, like a hazy memory.

    The light was often bounced or going through two layers of diffusion, and it was always

    wrapping around.

    Barry Ackroyd, BSC took an entirely different tack on The Hurt Locker, a tense war

    story that follows a U.S. Army bomb squad through a series of nerve-wracking missions in

    Iraq. To immerse viewers in the hard reality of the soldiers experiences, Ackroyd and his

    operators shouldered 16mm cameras and marched straight into the fray: I said, Lets make

    it physical. I figured the cameras would be handheld 90 percent of the time, and they were.

    Director Kathryn Bigelow further emphasized the films firsthand feel by deploying multiplecameras to capture a variety of perspectives. Thats how we experience reality, by looking

    at the microcosm and the macrocosm simultaneously, she explains to New York corre-

    spondent Pat Thomson (Risk and Valor, page 44). The eye sees differently than the lens,

    but with multiple focal lengths and a muscular editorial style, the lens can give you that

    microcosm/macrocosm perspective, and that contributes to the feeling of total immersion.

    Film was also chosen by Tobias Schliessler, ASC on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,

    a modern update of a memorable thriller from 1974. Tony came in not to remake the movie,

    but to retell the story, and he definitely wanted to put his stamp on it visually, Schliessler

    relates in a detailed account penned by Douglas Bankston (Terror on the Tracks, page 52).

    I love the look Owen Roizman [ASC] gave the original film, but we didnt necessarily refer-

    ence it. Tony wanted to show the energy of the city, and gritty or not, it feels on film like

    New York. Achieving that authenticity involved quite a feat of logistics, according to gafferBill OLeary, who is based in the city: New York has its own set of challenges, and know-

    ing the ropes makes it easier. In a way, its about compromises and playing the hand the city

    deals you. This job took that to a new level, though. The thick bureaucracy of the MTA and

    working in The Hole, as they call the subway tunnels, were especially tough.

    Stephen Pizzello

    Executive Editor

    Editors Note

    8

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    Theres no relationship like the rela-

    tionship between a dog and its

    master, a point made by Puppy Love, a

    comedy series on LStudio.com, an online

    channel sponsored by Lexus. The show

    is about dog lovers and the people wholove them, explains cinematographer

    Jendra Jarnagin. Each episode of the

    show, which is set in New York, follows

    a different cast of characters.

    The series was created by

    writer/producer Amy B. Harris and

    produced by Grace Naughton, who met

    Jarnagin on the set of the HBO series

    Sex and the City, where Jarnagin was

    working as an electrician. Because she

    was shooting projects on the side at the

    time, Jarnagin tried to shadow the cine-matographers with whom she worked.

    I talked to them about their work when-

    ever I could find an appropriate opportu-

    nity, she says.

    Despite Puppy Loves low budget,

    the producers wanted to evoke the look

    of Sex and the City by portraying New

    York in a romanticized way: everything

    and everyone is beautiful, and colors are

    bright and saturated. Although the show

    was conceived for the Web, Harris and

    Naughton planned to enter individual

    episodes in festivals as stand-alone short

    films, so they wanted images that would

    also look good on the big screen. Jarna-

    gin decided the Red One camera would

    be ideal; it offered the cinematic look of

    35mm depth-of-field and an extended

    dynamic range, could yield high-quality

    deliverables in a variety of formats, and

    would work well with Jarnagins

    personal set of Cooke S4 prime lenses.

    In the first episode, a woman

    (Famke Janssen) finds her romantic

    exploits thwarted by her loyal canine

    companion. That episode gave us the

    opportunity to do moody lighting,

    whereas a lot of the other episodes have

    normal day interiors, says Jarnagin.The first episode has a lot of date

    scenes and romantic interiors. And

    Famke is a joy to light.

    The cinematographer notes that

    there are just a few basic differences

    when it comes to lighting men and

    women. People stress the importance of

    lighting women more carefully because

    female beauty is so important in our

    culture, she says. Of course, actors are

    generally conscious of how they look

    because thats directly related to theiremployability. The secret to making

    someone look his or her best is to really

    study the face the way shadows

    penetrate the face, the way light wraps

    around the nose, and so on and notice

    how those things change when the

    person moves.

    For day interiors, if it was a

    broadly lit scene, Jarnagin used a book

    light, bouncing a light (often a 1.2K HMI)

    Shooting Puppy Love With the Red Oneby Iain Stasukevich

    Short Takes

    Above: In thefirst episode of

    Puppy Love,Famke Janssen

    portrays awoman whose

    romanticexploits arethwarted by her

    caninecompanion.

    Below:CinematographerJendra Jarnaginshoots the Webseries with the

    Red One camera.

    10 July 2009

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    She allows me to do my own thing, and

    if she doesnt like it, shell tell me. There

    were very few situations where we

    didnt get what she wanted.

    One thing Jarnagin found herself

    wanting was an optical viewfinder, the

    absence of which is inherent to most

    digital cameras. Even at 720p, the Reds

    monitoring output is only a fraction of the

    resolution of the 4K image, which makes

    judging the image quality difficult. This

    led to a few surprises at the color-correc-

    tion stage, when Jarnagin noticed that

    the image tended toward the sharp side.

    I think it plays into the level of detail

    youre capturing, she says. With film,

    you get random, organic grain patterns

    that average together for a smooth look.

    With digital, you have very precise points

    of light and color that are repeated frame

    by frame, leading to a harsher and

    sharper look.

    To counteract this, she used a

    Tiffen Soft FX filter in front of the lens for

    close-ups. Soft FX filters look natural

    they dont give themselves away, she

    observes. They dont diffuse the light as

    much as the detail.

    Puppy Love was graded on a

    Scratch system at Offhollywood Digital

    in Manhattan. With colorist Robbie

    Renfrow at the controls, Jarnagin super-

    vised the color-correction of the entireseries. We took a pretty straightforward

    approach, she says. Our main goal was

    to use Power Windows to finesse the

    things that were rushed on set. We

    never put a heavy hand on things. The

    look is supposed to feel natural but

    bright and happy.

    The series was shot at 4K in 16x9

    using the Redcode 28 setting. Even

    though the Redcode 36 codec is less

    compressed, Jarnagin decided 28 would

    be more flexible. At the time we shotthe series, you couldnt shoot 4K in the

    16x9 aspect ratio to compact flash cards

    at 36. If you wanted that, you had to

    shoot directly to the Red Drives.

    Every camera and format has its

    strengths and weaknesses there is

    no such thing as a perfect camera, she

    adds. But in terms of the evolution of

    digital cinema, Red is on the right track.

    I

    12 July 2009

    into a beadboard and through a diffu-

    sion frame between the bounce and the

    actor. For low-key night interiors, she

    used 4-by-4 Kino Flos and Fresnels with

    Lee 250 or light grid diffusion in front of

    them to give the light more directional-

    ity. Famke can take directional light

    very well, she notes, and I like using

    light grid because it diffuses the most

    with the least loss of light.

    She recalls that the Red Ones

    extended dynamic range really came in

    handy for shooting outdoors during the

    day; she shot these scenes in the protec-

    tive shade of trees and buildings, or

    backlit her actors and exposed for the

    highlights. The Reds range meant Icould bring up the shadow areas. I asked

    our Red technician, Sam Kretchmar, to

    do a curve in the RedAlert software that

    would bring up the faces, so in the

    QuickTime dailies, we could see the

    image the way we intended it to look.

    We didnt always have the guns

    to match the exteriors, adds gaffer

    Meg Schrock. We tried to augment

    sunlight rather than try to beat it. Wed

    soften it up with a 1.2K HMI and light

    grid. Sometimes, the only way to get

    light into an actors eyes was to walk

    next to the actor with a bounceboard.

    The core production crew on the

    series comprised Jarnagin, Kretchmar,

    Schrock, key grip John Shim, two best

    boys and two camera assistants. Jarna-

    gin often did her own operating and

    came to rely on Shrocks ability to antic-

    ipate the next lighting setup. Meg and

    I had a good understanding of eachothers taste, says the cinematogra-

    pher. Most of the time, Id outline what

    I was looking for and trust her to figure

    out how to do it. Schrock adds, Jendra

    is really good about communicating.

    Right: Jarnaginstrove to keepthe actors in

    backlight andexpose for the

    highlightswhenever day

    exteriors couldntbe staged in

    the shade.

    Below: Jarnagin(standing on

    dolly) anddirector Amy B.Harris (center)

    plan theirnext move.

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    14 July 2009

    Clones in Spaceby Patricia Thomson

    On Moon, his first theatricalfeature as a director of photography,Gary Shaw confronted challenges thatwould make most first-timers blanch. Forstarters, the set, built at Englands Shep-perton Studios, was a white box builtwith fixed walls and 8' ceilings. Even

    more daunting was the overall mission:shoot a science-fiction film featuringmotion-control, CGI and miniatures for$5 million in 33 days.

    Fortunately, both Shaw and thedirector, Duncan Jones, had years ofexperience with visual-effects work they had met on a Carling beer commer-cial that presented CG robots kickingback in a practical pub. Jones had made

    a name for himself as a commercialsdirector, and Shaw had a long trackrecord as a commercials cinematogra-pher, with stints at The Mill MotionControl Studio and Geoff Axtell Associ-ates in London.

    Jones wrote Moon with a cost-saving premise in mind: The story isabout clones, so one actor would playmultiple roles. In the film, which is set inthe near future, Lunar Industries is

    mining the moon for Helium 3, whichhas become Earths primary source ofenergy. Manning the base is a loneastronaut on a three-year contract, SamBell (Sam Rockwell), who is assisted bya robot named Gerty. After an accidentstrands the astronaut in his lunar Rover,another Sam Bell is activated andrescues him. Back at the base, there istension between Sams 1 and 2, whowere previously unaware they were

    Cerebral Sci-Fi and Painterly Drama

    Production Slate

    M o o n p h o t o s b y M a r k T i l l i e c o u r t e s y o f S o n y P i c t u r e s C l a s s i c s S p r o g p h o t o c o u r t e s y

    o f C i n e s i t e

    Right:Astronaut Sam

    Bell (SamRockwell) useshis lunar Rover

    to investigate amission

    problem inMoon, shot by

    Gary Shaw.Below: Model

    photographysupervised by

    miniaturesspecialist Mark

    Talbotproduced

    convincingshots of the

    moons surface.

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    clones. Ultimately, they form an alliance

    to change their fate.

    In developing a look for the

    picture, Jones sought a retro aesthetic

    that would recall films such as 2001: A

    Spacey Odyssey, Silent Running and

    Outland. Production design centered

    upon a sturdy, concrete look rather thanthe sleek touch-screen technology of

    today. We decided to shoot most of the

    movie on the most readily available but

    soon-to-be-discontinued film stock we

    could find, which was Kodak [Vision

    200T] 5274, because we wanted the

    image to have that older look, says

    Shaw.

    Jones wanted a widescreen

    aspect ratio to provide an epic feel, so

    Shaw shot 3-perf Super 35mm. That

    gave us a feel that was as close toanamorphic as we could get without

    spending the money to shoot anamor-

    phic, says the cinematographer. A

    Panaflex Millennium XL was the main

    camera; an Arricam Lite facilitated

    handheld work; and an Arri 435 was

    used for high-speed work. The lenses

    comprised Primo primes and Primo 4:1

    (17.575mm) and 11:1 (24275mm)

    zooms.

    To give the white set a wide vari-

    ety of looks, Shaw used colored gels,

    perforated metal grills, layers of light

    and dark in adjoining work-bays, and

    practical lighting accents. His more

    specialized skills came into play in the

    creation of multiple Sams. In addition to

    sharing the screen, Sams 1 and 2 phys-ically interact playing Ping-Pong,

    fighting and so forth. We wanted it to

    look believable, not tricksy, says Shaw.

    Some shots were accomplished with a

    double and clever camera angles;

    others required frame-accurate motion-

    control. However, because the budget

    allowed only five days with a motion-

    control rig, the filmmakers devised a

    poor mans motion-control for the rest

    of that work, which required very

    precise camera operating from Shaw.

    The tight quarters called for thesmallest mo-co rig possible, and visual-

    effects supervisors Gavin Rothery and

    Simon Stanley Clamp brought in a new,

    portable model, the Sprog. Shaw had

    previously worked with the portable

    American Cinematographe

    Left: The steretro aesthe

    the moon baemphasizes isolation. BeShaw eyebasetup.

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    16 July 2009

    Milo system, and he found the Sprog to

    be even handier. Because its based on

    a Panther dolly central column, its pretty

    unique and very quick to use, he notes.

    Operationally, the Sprog

    seemed very intuitive, says Clamp.

    Gary was able to drive the unit using

    hand wheels to control the remote

    pan/tilt/roll head, with the grip perform-

    ing tracking dolly moves all recorded

    for consistent repeat action for themultiple passes necessary for the clone

    and Gerty shots. The servos made a

    really cool sound when the unit reset to

    its start position, so much so that the

    sound department recorded it to use as

    an element for the Gerty robot traveling

    around the moon base.

    In scenes with the two Sams,

    Rockwell would first perform whichever

    character drove the action. An improvi-

    sational actor, he was given a loose

    leash on this first pass. Then, Rockwell

    would change his makeup, rehearse to

    playback on a video iPod, and perform

    the other Sam utilizing marks and

    precise eyelines. Clamp used Apple

    Shake on his laptop to create simple,

    temporary composites for editorial.

    For the poor mans motion-

    control, Shaw would mimic the earlier

    passes manually, looking at a monitor

    and concentrating on the background

    rather than the actor when doing the

    moves. We had to be very strict about

    how we moved the cameras, knowing

    what the consequences might be, he

    says. We didnt want the effects team

    to have to do any zooms or changes of

    perspective. Clamp notes, Although

    [zooms] arent impossible to deal with

    as software improves, it adds huge

    overheads to postproduction.

    To help facilitate visual-effects

    work, Shaw always shot clean plates.

    It takes me a minute to do it, and it can

    keep [the effects team] from spending

    days trying to fix something, he says.

    You just need to get everyone off the

    set for 10 to 15 seconds to shoot a clean

    plate. You might also shoot an overex-

    posed pass and an underexposed pass,

    or some light movements. Its simple to

    do and can save serious time andmoney.

    Gary is always thinking ahead,

    says Clamp. He knows Ill always want

    a clean pass under exactly the same

    lighting conditions as the principal

    plates, and that tiles of the scene are

    useful. Its so hard to go back and repli-

    cate the lighting at a later stage. Also,

    we shot HDRI [High Dynamic Range

    Imaging] and chrome-sphere plates for

    lighting reference, and Gary never struck

    the lighting until they had been shot. Healso shot lens grids for all the lenses,

    which helped us put distortion into our

    CG and helped with tracking calcula-

    tions.

    Several scenes in Moonoccur on

    the moons surface, when Bell exits the

    base to check on the helium harvesters,

    and the filmmakers used greenscreen

    and miniatures to realize them. The

    most important lighting reference for

    Top: Rockwelland director

    Duncan Jonesparse the script.

    Middle: Bellexamines thechurch from aneighborhoodmodel he haspainstakingly

    constructed inhis spare time.Bottom: As his

    three-yearlifespan winds

    down, Sam 1begins to

    deterioratephysically.

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    these scenes was Michael Lights book

    Full Moon, which features NASA photos

    from Apollo missions. To re-create the

    stark light that is unfiltered by atmos-

    phere and surrounded by darkness, we

    used a single 20K lamp, says Shaw. It

    had to look unrelenting, quite hard and

    nasty. There were a few supplementary

    pieces and quite a few practicals inside

    the Rover; we used flashing lights, a very

    small Kino here and there to fill in, and

    the odd bit of poly to bounce it back.

    Shaws biggest challenge with

    the greenscreen work was not losing

    Rockwell in his reflective helmet. It

    was like a chrome bowl covering his

    entire head, and it took a lot of flagging

    to keep the green off it, says the cine-

    matographer. We brought in big blacks

    and isolated the area where Sam was.

    That was the only way to do it.

    Miniatures specialist Peter

    Talbot was brought in for five days of

    model photography, and for that work,

    too, harsh light was paramount.

    Having studied just about every photo

    and footage of the moons surface, I

    knew Id have to achieve long, hard,

    deep shadows to emphasize the clarity

    created by the lack of atmosphere and

    the sheer distance of the sun, says

    Talbot. Naturally, thats the hardest

    thing to create in a studio. Standard

    Fresnel studio lamps dont give the hard,

    sharp light, especially at close-up

    inspection. In lunar photography, there is

    no atmosphere to create fill, so the suns

    light is the dominant source, and any fill

    comes from the moons surface. Thehigh contrast ratio was a very delicate

    balance.

    When lunar vehicles drive to the

    dark side of the moon, that balance

    shifted. There, I used a soft, overhead

    key light with a slightly higher-than-

    normal fill ratio to bring out the subtle

    tones and deep shadows, says Talbot.

    Although a soft light was used, it had

    the appearance of a hard light source, so

    visually, the moons surface was slightly

    darker than the millions of stars andgalaxies visible in the sky. Scenarios like

    that are where Kodak [Vision3 500T]

    5219 comes into its own. Talbot

    photographed all the miniatures work on

    the new 500-speed stock. The moons

    surface, having a monotone texture,

    needs a film stock that has an incredibly

    clean tonal range, from the deepest

    black to the brightest highlight, without

    contaminating the scene with colored

    18 July 2009

    Above left: Bellbegins to

    question hissanity as eventsaboard the ship

    take a mysteriousturn. Above right:

    The astronautsonly companion

    on the mission isa robot, Gerty.

    Below: Toachieve shots of

    the two Samclones interacting

    in the relatively

    cramped set,visual-effects

    supervisors GavinRothery and

    Simon StanleyClamp employedthe Sprog, a new

    motion-controlrig.

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    grain artifacts, explains Talbot. By

    adding subtle colors of occasional sun

    flares on the camera lens, we delivered

    a very realistic visual experience.

    Talbot also devised a solution

    for visually conveying the moons grav-

    ity, which is 16 that of Earths. Because

    all miniature photography relies on a

    scale film speed to neutralize and bring

    the scale size back to full size, a new

    mathematical formula had to be

    devised, he explains. I came up with

    a formula utilizing 16 gravity and

    combining it with the regular

    scalespeed formula. This new formula

    could be altered, depending on which

    scale model we were using. Of course,

    the effect resulted in a considerably

    higher-than-normal shooting stop, even

    for miniatures. As a consequence, all

    the vehicles were fitted with high-

    powered LED technology; that was the

    only way the vehicle headlights would

    expose comfortably with the lunar

    sunlight. The space-station building

    was fitted with low-voltage dichroics,

    which scaled well to industrial practi-

    cal-lamp fittings. Both LEDs and

    dichroics have a unique color tempera-

    ture and are a perfect match to vehicle

    lights and interior light fittings, elimi-

    nating the need for any color-correcting

    filter.Shaw says Moonprompted him

    to take his career in a new direction.

    Before we did the movie, I wondered

    if I really wanted to spend 33 days

    working on one thing, he recalls. I

    thought it might feel like working in a

    factory, going in there every day. But at

    the end, I was sorry it was over! I was

    a changed person.

    TECHNICAL SPECS

    2.40:1Super 35mm (3-perf)

    Panaflex Millennium XL;Arricam Lite; Arri 435

    Primo lensesKodak Vision 200T 5274,

    Vision3 500T 5219Digital Intermediate

    Printed on Kodak Vision 2383

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    Above:Sraphine

    (YolandeMoureau)

    brings one ofher new

    paintings toGerman

    expatriate artdealer William

    Uhde (UlrichTukur). Below:After the war,

    Uhde tracksSraphine

    down to see ifshe is still

    painting.

    Outsider Art in Franceby Jean Oppenheimer

    The drama Sraphinewas unlike

    any project Laurent Brunet, AFC had ever

    undertaken. It was really an experiment

    for me, he confesses, speaking with ACby phone via a translator. Despite an

    extensive list of credits, including La

    Belle Personne(2008), Le Fils de lpicier

    (2007) and five films with Raphal

    Nadjari, Brunet had never worked on a

    period piece. Trying to feel and re-

    create another time period [forced me]

    to think about lighting in a way I never

    had before, he says.

    Based on the life of an obscure

    20th-century French painter who spent

    the last decade of her life in a mental

    institution, Sraphinewon seven Csars

    last year, including Best Picture and

    Best Cinematography. On one level,

    the film was quite easy technically,

    notes Brunet, explaining that he used

    one camera, a few lenses, a single film

    stock and a modest lighting package,

    and finished the picture photochemi-

    cally. Budgetary constraints definitely

    influenced creative decisions but rarely

    compromised them, he adds.

    The film begins shortly before

    World War I, when Sraphine (Yolande

    Moureau), a devout Catholic, begins

    housecleaning for William Uhde (Ulrich

    Tukur), a German migr and art dealer.

    At first, Uhde is unaware that Sraphine

    is an artist she claims to have taken

    up painting at the behest of her

    guardian angel and when he sees

    her canvases, bursting with colorful but

    disturbing images of fruit, flowers and

    plants, he is stunned by their primitive

    beauty. He offers to pay her living

    expenses so that she might devote

    herself full-time to her art, but war inter-venes, and although Sraphine eventu-

    ally enjoys some success as a painter,

    her deteriorating mental state soon

    gains the upper hand.

    Sraphinehas a painterly qual-

    ity, with darkness often dominating the

    frame. Brunet says this was not a

    conscious attempt to imitate a particular

    artist, and director Martin Provost, in a

    separate interview, concurs. People

    didnt have electricity back then, so they

    used sources with a limited range, like

    candles and oil lamps, and I wanted to

    remain true to that, says the director.

    Brunets lighting package

    comprised 6Ks, Jokers and Lucioles,

    which are lighting cubes made by

    Maluna. Although they have yet to

    penetrate the American market, Luci-

    oles have become increasingly popular

    in Europe, according to the cinematogra-

    pher. I chose the smaller sizes in order

    to avoid spilling light all over the place,

    says Brunet, but getting the right level

    of warmth was very important. I went

    with 250-watt bulbs.

    He points to a late-night scene

    that shows Sraphine climbing the

    stairs in her rooming house. Its pitch-

    black except for a small oil lamp she

    carries that provides the faintest outline

    of her. The scene was shot on a practi-

    cal staircase, with two Lucioles

    suspended above the actress. The

    cubes were on boom sticks held by two

    electricians, and the 250-watt bulbs

    were on dimmers, recalls Brunet,

    adding that he often shot wide open.At that time, people made do

    with whatever natural light came

    through windows and doors during the

    day; as a result, day interiors could be

    quite dark. Similarly, Brunet relied on the

    light coming through the windows,

    always exposing for the outdoors. That

    was one of our guiding principles, and

    with 500-ASA film, you can manage a

    lot of shots with natural light, he notes.

    An example of this is a late-afternoon

    scene that shows Sraphine riflingthrough papers on Uhdes desk. The

    scene plays out in one shot. The desk is

    right in front of a window, and I relied

    solely on the light coming through it,

    says Brunet. She is opening his note-

    books and entering his world for the first

    time, and I wanted to suggest a certain

    intimacy. Exposing for the outdoors put

    Sraphine in silhouette, creating just the

    ambience I wanted.

    20 July 2009

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    22 July 2009

    One daytime sequence that takes

    place inside Uhdes living room covers

    several hours and is intercut with other

    material. Uhde is seated at the piano in

    the foreground while a friend stands to

    the right of the piano. Further inside the

    room is Uhdes sister, Anne-Marie (Anne

    Bennent). Natural light coming through

    French doors illuminates the room; the

    doors are not visible in the shot, butwhen we revisit the scene a short time

    later, we see that one of the French

    doors has been opened. There was a

    lot of sun that day, and I worked with

    reflectors set up on the lawn, says

    Brunet. I considered supplementing

    with a 6K, but it wasnt practical or, in

    the end, necessary. Whatever fill light

    there was came from natural light

    hitting the reflectors and bouncing into

    the room. We simply moved the reflec-

    tors to suggest the passage of time.

    Martin wanted a very simple

    mise en scne, and he was reluctant to

    use too many close-ups, continues

    Brunet. Most of the close-ups show

    Sraphine as she paints, and these

    scenes presented some challenges,

    given that she usually placed her

    canvases on the floor and painted on her

    knees. One of the most complex scenes

    of her painting was conceived and

    filmed as one shot, but was later cut in

    editing. In her tiny room, which was a

    practical location, we had two Lucioles

    provide backlight. The camera is

    suspended from a mini jib arm I washolding. We start on her back, then

    swing around slowly to reveal the shrine

    she maintains for her guardian angel.

    The camera turns back toward her and

    goes over her shoulder, settling on her

    hand as she paints. At that point, the

    film cuts to a close-up of her face that

    pushes in ever so slightly. We really get

    into her emotions in those tight shots.

    Aside from these intimate

    moments, the camera maintains a

    somewhat observational distance fromits subject. Provost explains that he

    wanted to emphasize Sraphines piety,

    not her hysteria. I didnt want to exac-

    erbate the tragedy, and I certainly didnt

    want her ever to look pathetic, he says.

    I was trying to show that this woman is

    reaching for something thats just escap-

    ing her. Her inner world is expressed

    most directly through her artwork, which

    features deep reds, blues and oranges

    the only bold colors that appear in

    the film.

    Brunet shot the picture on Fuji

    Eterna 500T 8573. I knew [I needed a

    fast stock because] we wouldnt have

    many lights, and we would be shooting

    all day and into dusk, usually in very

    small spaces, he explains. He tested

    several stocks but liked Fujis color the

    best, particularly as rendered by Cooke

    S4 prime lenses. The S4 series has a

    kind of softness and gentleness but still

    remains sharp, he observes. He did his

    own operating, usually using a 32mm or

    40mm lens.

    The only visual reference Provost

    gave Brunet during prep was a book of

    contemporary Russian photographs

    taken by a man who took his camerathrough the most impoverished areas of

    his country. Martin said, This is what I

    want the film to feel like, recalls

    Brunet. Provost adds, I wanted to avoid

    the beautiful historical reproduction

    that so many period films have. There

    was something about Laurents previous

    work that was a bit on the rough side,

    and that corresponded exactly to what I

    wanted.

    TECHNICAL SPECS1.85:135mm

    Arricam LiteCooke S4 lenses

    Fuji Eterna 500T 8573Printed on Kodak Vision 2383

    I

    Top left: Theartist at work in

    her home. Topright: Sraphinestops in to pick

    up some artsupplies. Below:

    Csar Award-winning

    cinematographerLaurent Brunet,

    AFC (left) and

    director MartinProvost on

    location.

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    24 July 2009

    Projects such asMiami Vice (ACAug. 06), Collateral(ACAug.

    04) and televisions Robbery

    Homicide Division have

    cemented Michael Mannsreputation as an advocate for digital

    capture, but when he begandiscussing his latest picture, Public

    Enemies, with cinematographer

    Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC, the direc-

    tor was inclined to shoot 35mm. Inour early discussions, Michael

    mentioned several times that he wasthinking of going back to film,

    recalls Spinotti. He was consideringit, I think, because he initially envi-

    sioned classical, more set-in-stone

    kind of imagery. We spent a lot of

    time discussing the pros and cons.Spinotti had recently used

    high-definition video (via thePanavision Genesis) on the features

    Deception (ACMay 08) and Flash of

    Genius, but his previous feature

    Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC captures period action digitally forMichael Manns Public Enemies.

    by Jay Holben

    Unit photography by Peter Mountain

    Big

    GunsBig

    Guns

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    collaborations with Mann TheInsider(ACJune 00), Heat(ACJan.96), The Last of the Mohicans (ACDec. 92) andManhunter were all35mm productions. Just prior to

    Public Enemies, Spinotti and Mannshot a commercial on HD using

    Sonys CineAlta F23, a 23" 3-CCD1920x1080 camera that records 4:4:4

    RGB or 4:2:2 Y/Cb/Cr to HDCam-SR tape. (The camera has a 23" bayo-

    net lens mount, and the SRW-1 deck

    can be mounted directly to thecamera, like a film magazine.)

    Michael likes images to be sharp,and he likes shooting with smaller

    chips because he likes the deep depthof field, so we became fans of the F23

    American Cinematographer

    on that commercial, says Spinotti.

    For Public Enemies, Spinottidecided to shoot side-by-side

    comparison tests of HD and Super35mm, using an F23 for the digital

    work and Kodak Vision3 500T 5219in the film camera. He set the two

    cameras up in the parking lot behindManns office and started shooting in

    the early afternoon, using stand-insattired in period wardrobe and

    several period cars; the testing

    continued through twilight intonight. The digital and film footage

    were taken all the way through post,with Stefan Sonnenfeld handling the

    color-correction at Company 3. The35mm material was scanned at 2K,

    color-corrected and recorded back

    out to film; the filmmakers dialed inlook-up tables to match the final

    filmout to what they were seeing onthe monitor.

    They decided to compose thefilm in 2.40:1, which meant the F23s

    1920x1080 resolution had to becropped to 1920x800, costing a little

    over 25 percent of the vertical imageinformation. Despite that slight loss

    of resolution, the footage from the

    F23 was very, very sharp, saysSpinotti. It didnt have the full tonal

    range of film, but its response to thenight material was very interesting.

    Digital cameras read into the shad-ows very differently; theres an

    Clockwise fropposite pagFederal agenMelvin Purv(Christian Bapulls the trigduring a gunbattle withgangsters;Americas mwanted, JoDillinger (JoDepp), takesfrom the run

    board of anautomobile;Dante SpinoASC, AICbrandishes hweapon ofchoice whileharnessing tsuns rays.

    Photosan

    dframegra

    bscourtesyo

    fUniversa

    lPictures.

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    Right: Dillingersgang piles into a

    getaway carduring their

    bank-robberyspree in the

    Midwest. Below:The outlaw

    spares some

    time for romancewith Billie

    Frechette(Marion

    Cotillard).

    26 July 2009

    incredible elasticity there that youdont have with film you can

    adjust gamma curves and gain andreally gain incredible control over

    the image. In the end, the F23srendering of night scenes sealed the

    deal. This movie has a lot of night

    action, including a lot of gunfightson city streets, so the digital cameras

    higher sensitivity and ability to seeinto shadows was a major benefit,

    says Spinotti. Also, we believed digi-tal would facilitate a more dynamic

    use of film grammar while giving us

    a hyper-realistic look. (Ed. Note:Some visual-effects work, supervised

    by Robert Stadd, was shot on35mm.)

    Set in the 1930s, Public

    Enemies follows charismatic bank

    robber John Herbert Dillinger

    (Johnny Depp) and his gang as theyrob banks all over the Midwest and

    try to evade the authorities, who areled by federal agent Melvin Purvis

    (Christian Bale). We wanted thelook ofPublic Enemies to have a high

    level of realism, not an overt period

    feel, notes Spinotti. Among thehistorical aspects are a lot of action,

    romance and drama, and Michaeland I talked about achieving an

    immediate feel.One thing you can do with a

    digital camera that you cant do with

    film is shoot with a 360-degree, orno, shutter, he adds. We tested that

    with gun-muzzle flashes from themachine guns and some flares that

    we planned to use to light a fewscenes, and the 360-degree shutter

    had a really great look in those situa-tions.

    The filmmakers also foundthat shooting digitally enabled them

    to make the most of zoom lenses,which they used for most of the

    picture. There are a number ofzoom lenses for digital cameras

    that are around a T2 but alsocompact enough for handheld

    camerawork, says Spinotti. Theproductions camera package, rented

    at Fletcher Camera in Chicago,included two sets of Zeiss DigiPrime

    lenses, but Spinotti was so impressed

    with the capabilities of the FujinonHAe10x10 10:1 (T1.8) zoom that it

    became his main lens. Its sharpnesswas unbelievable, he attests. Ive

    found that when shooting digitally, Irarely have to go to primes because

    Big Guns

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    the digital zoom lenses are so sharp,fast and compact. We had some very

    complicated handheld momentswhere wed be following the gang in

    an action sequence, and the opera-tors would have to jump on the side-

    board of a car and drive away withthem. These cameras and lenses were

    great for that.We shot most of the picture

    using three F23s, but we also had a

    Sony F950, which we used with theT950 adapter, and a Sony EX1; we

    used those as D cameras for actionpieces and in tight spaces the EX1

    was especially great for car interiors,he continues. In terms of image

    quality, the cameras were very, veryclose. There was a little difference in

    dynamic range, but we could easilysmooth that out in post. Once the

    images were colored, the exposurewas enhanced, the grain was mini-

    mized, and the details wereenhanced, the images were indistin-

    guishable from each other, and thefootage intercut perfectly. (The

    projects final DI workflow, carriedout at 2K, comprised the scanning of

    35mm material at LaserPacific, adigital grade at Company 3, and a

    filmout at EFilm. Release prints were

    made at Technicolor.)Mann chose to stay in the Rec

    709 (ITU-R BT.709) color space asopposed to shooting in a film rec.

    We prefer shooting in video colorspace because we can always see on

    set exactly what were going to get,says Public Enemies co-producer

    Bryan H. Carroll, a longtime collabo-rator of Manns. The monitor shows

    us the final image, and that allows usto bulletproof the system more easily.

    Being able to see the final image onset means you can push the medium

    further than you would otherwise,because you can see exactly when

    certain image characteristics start to

    become undesirable.The filmmakers decided to

    establish the storys period primarilythrough the use of practical loca-

    tions. In addition to periodwardrobe, vehicles and props, practi-

    cal locations add heavily to theatmosphere, says Spinotti. By

    shooting digitally, we were able towork with the existing lighting at

    many locations and maintain a levelof realism that is very hard to achieve

    with movie lighting. Very few thingssuggest an atmosphere better than a

    real location; the way things arepainted, the relationship between

    interior and exterior, and all of theother physical details tend to estab-

    lish visual truth in a very tangibleway. Shooting digitally, you see loca-

    tions in a different way. When you

    walk into a location and know youregoing to shoot film, you have to set

    little rules for example, youllneed to get an exposure herethats at

    least T2.8 at 500 ISO but not sowith digital.

    The production traveled tomany of the actual sites where

    Dillinger and his gang had theirexploits, including the Little

    American Cinematographer

    A road flareilluminatesDillingersarrival at anairport after is captured b

    the authoriti a major nevent that dr

    a media throSpinottiexplains, Oprop master,Peck, found 1933 newsreabout Dillinggang and broit down framby-frame, anwe discover

    that they litsome of thenews scenewith large fl road flare

    basically. Ouspecial-effecoordinator,Bruno VanZeebroeck,

    tracked dowsome very bmilitary flare

    that createdlight that waquite beautif

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    28 July 2009

    Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin, where

    they hid out for a period of time.Purvis planned to ambush the gang

    at the lodge but lost the element ofsurprise when some of his agents

    opened fire prematurely. A brief but

    fierce gun battle broke out, and theoutlaws managed to escape.

    Re-creating the famous battleat the actual location posed a

    number of logistical challenges forSpinotti and his crew. Most of the

    gun battle takes place outside atnight, and it is followed by a car

    chase that covers nearly 2 miles offorested road. It was a very challeng-

    ing scene, says Spinotti. For thelighting along the main stretch of the

    road, Bob Krattiger, my gaffer,suggested the Bebee Night Light,

    which I hadnt used before; its veryversatile and has a huge amount of

    power. We put it on a nearby hilltopand allowed the light to filter

    through the trees to cover 200-300yards of road. When we initially

    scouted the location, in late February

    or early March, the foliage was prettysparse, but when we arrived a couple

    of weeks later to shoot, it was shock-ing to see how much the trees had

    grown in! I was afraid we wouldnthave enough light to punch through

    the leaves, but the Bebee has a lot offlexibility. We turned the camera

    shutter to 360 degrees and increasedthe gain to +3dB, and it worked

    fantastically. You really dont need alot of light to get the right density on

    your waveform with these cameras.Spinottis crew positioned a

    second Bebee Night Light about halfa mile down the road, but instead of

    aiming the fixtures at the ground,they pointed them at the night sky.

    The existing cloud cover and humid-ity enabled them to achieve a soft,

    ambient glow over the entire area.

    We actually didnt do much lightingof the road I called it black-hole

    lighting, laughs Spinotti. To lightthe actors, I really wanted the muzzle

    flashes and car headlights to do mostof the work.

    Top to bottom:Purvis strides

    into action witha supreme sense

    of purpose;Purvis consults

    with FBI directorJ. Edgar Hoover

    (Billy Crudup) onthe steps of a

    courthouse;crew members

    capture twoangles of the

    scene, one witha handheld

    camera andanother with a

    Steadicam.

    Big Guns

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    The escape sequence required

    coverage both inside and outside thecars, as several of Dillingers gang

    members stood on the cars side-boards, firing back at the federal

    agents as they made their escape.

    Taking a page from the playbookASC members Paul Cameron and

    Dion Beebe used on Manns

    Collateral, which features many

    scenes inside a taxicab, Spinotti usedRosco LitePads, thin squares and

    rectangles of plastic with hundredsof dimmable, color-corrected LED

    lights, inside the car. The ELDpanels they used on Collateralcreated really beautiful light, but theyrequired a lot of equipment,

    converters and extra car batteries,notes Spinotti. The Rosco LitePads

    did the job in a very interesting waywith precise dimmers, and they were

    easy to gel and didnt require addi-tional power sources. We could tape

    them up anywhere.For shots looking back at

    the drivers of the cars or the men

    riding on the sideboards, Krattigermounted Kino Flo Diva-Lites to the

    car bumpers as a bit of augmenta-tion. We mounted the Divas hori-

    zontally to just lift the levels enoughto get details in the actors faces and

    eyes, says Spinotti. We kept themlow to play them as the car head-

    lights reflecting off the road.Krattiger replaced the headlights on

    many of the cars with stronger,dimmable lamps that were

    controlled from inside the vehicles;most of the main cars were rigged

    with these stronger lamps, and whenthe camera was inside the car and

    shooting through the windshield,the electricians ramped the head-

    lamps up to full to light the roadahead. When the camera was look-

    ing at the headlights directly, the

    crew dialed them way down so theywould read realistically.

    Spinotti used some less-orthodox lighting techniques as well.

    He recalls, Our prop master, KrisPeck, found a 1933 newsreel about

    American Cinematographer

    Top to bottomsharpshootehas Dillingercrew in hissights; therobbers retufire; the gunm

    take coverbehind humashields.

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    30 July 2009

    Dillingers gang and broke it downframe-by-frame, and we discovered

    that they lit some of the news sceneswith large flares road flares, basi-

    cally. Our special-effects coordina-tor, Bruno Van Zeebroeck, tracked

    down some very bright militaryflares that created a light that was

    quite beautiful. They threw off a lotof smoke, and we had to stop down

    quite a bit so you could actually seethe flare, but the look is really beauti-

    ful. We used them for the scene whenDillinger lands at an airport and

    runs into a large group of journalistswaiting for him. Its a spectacular

    scene; the flare light is dynamic andvery dramatic, which really adds

    energy to the story.Spinotti and Krattiger worked

    with production designer NathanCrowley and set decorator Rosemary

    Brandenburg to select practical

    lighting fixtures for each locationthat could serve double-duty as

    decoration and principal lighting.Rosemary did an incredible

    amount of research on period light-ing fixtures, and we collaborated to

    see what worked best, recallsSpinotti. Bob and I did a lot of work

    on the practicals to make sure theyhad the ideal intensity, shape and

    Big Guns

    Top left: A 360-degree shutter

    was used to lend

    a dynamic lookto gun-muzzleflashes. Top

    right: Baby FaceNelson (Stephen

    Graham) bitesthe dust during a

    shootout at theLittle Bohemia

    Lodge. Right:Purvis briefs his

    men beforeattempting to

    ambush Dillingerat the Biograph

    Theater inChicago.

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    Fletcher and PACE

    Congratulate

    Michael Mann, Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC

    Bryan Carroll, Julie Herrin

    and the rest of the production team.

    Thank you for allowing us

    to support your camera production needs.

  • 7/29/2019 AC iul 2009

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    control. We used them as keylightson main players and for filling in the

    darker areas [of the scene]. Wewanted to massage the practicals so

    that we could keep our Hollywoodlighting absolutely minimal. We

    designed some practicals to haveopen tops that would spill a certain

    amount of light onto the ceiling; thatlight would then bounce into the

    room and add just the right detail in

    the shadow areas. We did as much as

    we could with practicals and thenadded a little extra to make the scene,

    but not so much that we were over-powering the real atmosphere.

    The cinematographer used a

    number of classic sources at eachlocation, and for fill light, he repeated

    a technique he devised on Deception:stringing tiny Christmas lights across

    empty 8'x8' and 12'x12' frames. Wemight have bought out all the

    Christmas lights in town, but theresult is an amazing, golden fill light

    sometimes even a key that hasa wonderful energy to it, he says. Its

    not just a soft light because there arehundreds of tiny, sparkling bulbs,

    and it has an organic feel. I triedusing them for some of our night

    exteriors, but the cars gave us somany reflective surfaces we couldnt

    keep the reflections out of the cars!They are really wonderful, light-

    weight sources that you can tuck in a

    corner or even shoot through for a

    great effect.For a scene in which

    Dillingers girlfriend, Billie Frechette(Marion Cotillard), visits him in jail,

    Spinottis initial plan was to use a

    soft toplight. To keep up with thedemanding schedule, the produc-

    tion was leap-frogging sets, with apre-lighting crew working ahead of

    the principal unit and then strikingthe previous location when the

    production moved forward. Spinottiand Krattiger often led the pre-light-

    ing crew, and when they arrived atthe jail-scene location, Spinotti real-

    ized that soft toplight wasnt theright choice. It just didnt work

    the scene is very emotional, and thetoplight felt boring to me, he recalls.

    The location was very small andhad blue tiles on the walls, and it was

    difficult to come up with an alterna-tive lighting scenario.

    After some experimenting,

    Big Guns

    2

    DirectorMichael Mann

    grabs a piece ofthe action.

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    Spinotti pulled out a Source Four

    HMI ERS and bounced it into thetiled wall. Suddenly, the light was

    very interesting. It bounced off thetiles and felt like light coming

    through the door; it was crisp but

    also somehow soft. It played great onthe actors faces and was extremely

    effective. Michael really loved it, andwe ended up shooting the scene with

    that single source. As we movedaround for coverage, Bob [Krattiger]

    would adjust the light right and left,according to the angles.

    The scene in which Dillingerand Frechette meet was shot at

    Chicagos historic Steuben Club.Unfortunately, the location is so

    historic we couldnt mount anythingto the walls or alter the existing light-

    ing, and the camera was lookingeverywhere, laments Spinotti. It was

    a very tricky situation, but Bob and Icame up with a solution. They hid

    an 8'x8' frame of full gridcloth and an

    LCD crate behind a pillar in the loca-

    tion, then placed a Source Four(warmed up to match the practicals)

    behind another pillar, projecting thelight across the room into the diffu-

    sion. That gave us a very thin piece

    of equipment that could be hidden,and by using the Source Four from a

    distance, we could keep all the hard-ware out of the shots, says Spinotti.

    With digital cameras, therearent any steadfast rules, and I

    believe that gives me a huge amountof freedom, he concludes. The

    medium is romantic, interesting andbeautiful, but it also looks real. And

    theres so much you can do in post!Film has a certain kind of quality

    that cannot be matched by digitaltechnology, but at times, the advan-

    tages digital has over film are impor-tant for the language and the

    contents of the story youre telling,and that determines your choice.

    I always emphasize to

    students that the technology is only a

    minor part of the job and its theeasy side, really. The hard part is the

    art of storytelling. Once you work outhow to tell your story, the rest is just

    putting that plan into action. I

    TECHNICAL SPECS

    2.40:1

    High-Definition Video andSuper 35mm

    HD:Sony CineAlta F23, HDC-F950,

    PMW-EX1Fujinon and Zeiss lenses

    Super 35mm:Arri 435, 235

    Cooke S4 lenses

    Kodak Vision3 500T 5219

    Digital Intermediate

  • 7/29/2019 AC iul 2009

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    34 July 2009

    A doomed love affair takes center stage in Chri,directed by Stephen Frears and photographed by

    Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC.

    by Benjamin B

    Impressionistic

    Cinema

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    Chri begins with a humorous

    voiceover by its director,Stephen Frears, who describes

    famous French courtesans asthe Parisian celebrities of the

    early 1900s. During a phone inter-

    view, Frears laughs and admits, Iam, as it were, Maurice Chevalier in

    Gigi, referring to the lighthearted1958 musical set in the world of

    Parisian courtesans. But Chri is noGigi, and Frears deceptively breezy

    introduction leads into a nuancedfilm about an impossible love

    between a middle-aged woman(Michelle Pfeiffer) and a man

    (Rupert Friend) roughly 30 yearsyounger than she.

    La de Lonval (Pfeiffer) is acourtesan in the waning days of her

    career, and Chri (Friend) is the dis-solute son of a friend and retired

    courtesan, Charlotte Peloux (KathyBates). The story, based on two nov-

    els by Colette, begins with Chrisseduction of La, and the couple

    continues to live together happily for

    six years, until Charlotte arranges aprofitable marriage between her son

    and the teenaged Edmee (FelicityJones). The film intercuts between

    the lovers after their painful separa-tion, with Chri setting off on a hon-

    American Cinematographe

    Opposite: Ch(Rupert Frienmakes his mon longtimefamily friend(MichellePfeiffer). Thipage, top: Thframe grab,showing LaCharlotte (KBates) entera garden, is

    the mostimpressionishot in the fiand for me, creates a wworld ofimagery, saDarius KhonASC, AFC.Middle: In thunit-photogrshot of a latemoment in thsame sceneCharlotteexplains tha

    has arrangemarriage forChri. Botto(left to rightKhondji, direStephen Freand cameraoperator AlaRae discussapproach.

    PhotosbyBrunoCalvo.Framegrabsan

    dphotoscourtesyofMiramaxFilms.

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    36 July 2009

    Impressionistic Cinema

    eymoon and returning to dissatisfy-

    ing married life, and La trying tobanish her sorrow with a young

    suitor in Biarritz. When La returnsto Paris, it looks as though she and

    Chri might renew their relation-

    ship, but Chri cannot hide his new-found sensitivity about their age dif-

    ference.Frears previously worked

    with Pfeiffer and Chri screen-writer Christopher Hampton on

    Dangerous Liaisons (shot byPhilippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC; ACMay 89), and although that filmand Chri are both period love sto-

    ries that play out in opulent settings,Frears succinctly differentiates the

    two: Liaisons is a melodrama; Chriisnt. Colette was an impressionist.He describes choosing Darius

    Khondji, ASC, AFC for Chri aspure instinct. The challenge of

    filming this story, he continues, lay

    in finding the right nuances of light-ness and gravitas. A lot of the film

    has to do with tone because it dealswith someone who is frivolous and,

    as it were, tragic underneath. I wasconstantly trying to get the tone

    right.Explaining Chris richly tex-

    tured look, Khondji says the ideawas to have an impressionistic

    touch. I didnt want the image to betoo sharp or the light to be obvious.

    I wanted very, very soft light, as

    though its filtered through time, likea hazy memory. The light was often

    bounced or going through two lay-ers of diffusion, and it was always

    wrapping around.

    Khondji combined and var-ied lighting, lenses, film stocks and

    processing to modulate the picturessubdued look, which he developed

    in concert with production designerAlan MacDonald and costume

    designer Consolata Boyle. With fewexceptions, the soft lighting of the

    interiors has a limited range of tonalvalues from dark gray to muted

    whites. Khondji shot principallywith Cooke anamorphic prime lens-

    es, which he chose in part for theirrendering of faces, and for their soft-

    ness. He opted for Fuji negatives,using mainly Eterna 250T 8553,

    which he sometimes pull-processedfor additional softness. He used

    Eterna 400T 8583 when he wantedto reduce the contrast in day exteri-

    ors or heavy-backlight situations,

    and occasionally used Eterna 500T8573, which he sometimes pull-

    processed for additional softness.1st AC Vincent Gallot tested

    three sets of anamorphic lenses pro-vided by Panavision Alga Techno in

    Paris: Technovision/Cooke Classic,Cooke Xtal Express and Kowa.

    Gallot laughs as he recalls tellingKhondji about the loss of definition

    when the lenses were wide open.Darius said, Thats what I want.

    Thats when I realized it was allabout the imperfections. I was try-

    ing to find matching lenses, butDarius actually wanted to have dif-

    ferent looks. Khondji ended upusing a mix of lenses but favored the

    Classics, which, he notes, are steepedin cinema history, housing 40-year-

    old glass that was used by Italian

    directors Visconti and Antonioni intheir later films.

    Frears readily acceptedKhondjis suggestion to shoot in the

    anamorphic format. Im quiteinexperienced with it, but when I

    Above: La andChri enjoy

    another happymorning

    together. Below:Chri and hisyoung bride,

    Edmee (FelicityJones), pose for

    a wedding photowith guests.

    Both of theseshots are unit

    photography.

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    look at the film, Im thrilled, says

    the director. Khondji notes thatanamorphic is wonderful for faces,

    for intimacy. He accentuated thelenses shallower depth of field by

    shooting between T2.8 and T4,

    thereby isolating the characters evenmore from the backgrounds. I

    wanted to observe the main charac-ters like fish in an aquarium and

    make the background watery andsubdued, says the cinematographer.

    I felt their psychology changedbetween the beginning and end of

    the film, the way light and colorchange on fish as they move around

    in the water. And the anamorphicframe was like a long, horizontal

    aquarium.For Khondji, the anamorphic

    format is often more powerfulthan spherical ones. You can open

    up the frame with a landscape, oryou can close it with people in the

    foreground or elements in the set.You can make the frame intimate

    and close it with two characters

    together. You can carry that fromscene to scene, and then suddenly

    open the frame into a vista of Parisor a cliff by the sea. Then you can go

    back into a room with faces andthe aquarium.

    Charlottesconservator

    the setting ffew key scein the film, twhich aredepicted in

    top and midphotos. Top:unit-photogshot of one films firstscenes, wheChri interruLas visit whis mother.Middle: A frgrab of a latscene depica strange teparty. BottomDinos througwhite silkprovideconsistentlighting in thconservator

    American Cinematographe

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    to ask how we did it. I told him it was

    just an old 75mm Kowa! Khondjienhanced the softness of the image

    by shooting at a wide-open stop withan ND.9 filter on the lens.

    The difficulty with lightingMaxims restaurant was that the

    camera moves freely about, turning360 degrees in a room full of mir-

    rors. Khondji and his gaffer, Franck

    Barrault, decided to create toplightwith dozens of household bulbs

    strung on wires overhead. Its theprinciple of the Dino or the Wendy

    Light: shadows dont exist becausethere are too many sources, explains

    Barrault. The bare bulbs weredimmed down, providing a soft,

    warm light that was supplementedby the practicals on the tables.

    Chris seduction of La takes

    place in Charlottes glass-enclosedwinter garden, or conservatory,

    which is also the setting for a bizarretea party later in the movie. The chal-

    lenge for Khondji was to provideconsistent lighting in the conservato-

    ry throughout the lengthy dialoguescenes, and to handle varying back-

    light. He had the offscreen part of the

    conservatory covered with a whitesilk through which he shone several

    Dinos gelled with CTB, providingsoft, slightly warm daylight that was

    partially compensated for with anLLD filter on the 75mm Classic lens.

    The outside lights could be dimmedor increased to follow the weather.

    The seduction scene also has a fewstrokes of bright sunlight on the

    Khondji acknowledges many

    painterly influences on the pictorialstyle of Chri, and a couple of

    sequences readily evoke painters ofColettes era. A brightly colored

    sequence with world-weary Chriseated in the famous Maxims

    restaurant reminds one of Renoir,and when Charlotte and La walk in

    a lush garden, it looks like a Monet.

    That shot in the garden was foundby Alastair Rae, our camera opera-

    tor, recalls Khondji. He wentscouting with his finder, and when

    he showed it to me, it was wonder-ful! It is the most impressionistic

    shot in the film. For me, it creates awhole world of imagery. Gallot

    adds, That shot was so beautifuland so strange that the lab called me

    38 July 2009

    Impressionistic CinemaThese framegrabs of two

    different scenes Charlottes

    lunch with La(top) and Chris

    breakfast withhis mother afterhis honeymoon

    (bottom) illustrateKhondjis

    approach toCharlottes home,

    where the goalwas a gaudy

    and dark interior,slightly on the

    cool side,says the

    cinematographer.Relying on hues

    a bit warmer anda bit cooler thanthe 3200K rating

    for his Fuji filmstock, Khondji

    used amberbackground

    practicals tocomplete the

    color range. Inthe top frame,

    note the gleam ofsunlight on thewall at right

    the only touch ofhard sunlight in

    the room.

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    couch and plants; these were created

    with MoleBeams and Xenons.Khondji comments that the

    second conservatory scene, the teaparty, reminds me a little bit of

    Visconti theres a richness, almosta decadence. I was happy to film it

    with the lenses he actually used in his

    later films. To reinforce the strangemood, he created no spots of bright

    sunlight and added a bit of smoke fordepth. He shot both conservatory

    scenes on the 400-speed Eternabecause he found its lower contrast

    could better handle variations in theweather. Stephen uses anamorphic

    to its full advantage he fills theframe up without a problem, he

    adds.For a scene showing La enter-

    ing the hotel dining room in Biarritz,Khondji had to contend with a bank

    of large windows. He opted to put upa wall of Dinos to provide direction-

    less fill. I didnt want to make it low-key, he notes. I like coming back to

    an era when the lighting was a littleflatter. He had some of the windows

    fitted with hard ND gels to bring

    down the outside when the sun gotbright. He also added a touch of

    smoke to give the restaurant a three-dimensional quality.

    The films dominant mood isdefined by the subdued interiors:

    dining rooms, bedrooms and

    boudoirs. MacDonalds productiondesign favors cool pastels in Leas

    house and gaudy hues at Charlottes.When La comes to Charlottes for

    lunch, the contrast of the frame islimited. 4K open-faced Goya HMIs

    with Lee 129 Heavy Frost diffusion

    shine through the windows to evokegloomy northern light; Kino Flos,

    also through Lee 129 diffusion, pro-vide a soft, underexposed key on

    Bates; a touch of orange is providedby a practical on a dimmer; and a

    MoleBeam creates a single gleam ofhard sunlight on the wall. Khondji

    describes his goal as a gaudy anddark interior, slightly on the cool

    side, slightly purple.After La learns of Chris

    engagement, she shares a meal with

    him at her house, a scene dominated

    by pastel, silvery colors. There issomething very sad, very faded

    there, notes Khondji. Its the sad-ness you have in middle of day, with

    a dying sun behind clouds. Its notcontrasty a little timeless. In

    lighting the interiors, Khondji and

    Barrault always began by imaginingwhere the sun was, and for this

    scene, they settled on cool northernlight, says Khondji. The soft light

    falling on La is without direction,and she doesnt seem lit, which

    Khondji attributes to both the levelof the lighting and its diffusion. At a

    certain balance, we found thatMichelles skin was delivering the

    glow, he notes. If wed overpow-ered the light, she would have looked

    lit.

    American Cinematographe

    Above: A fragrab showinLas visit toBiarritz, wheshe searchea new suitowho can heher forget CBelow: Khonand Frearsprepare to fianother balcscene at theseaside reso

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    40 July 2009

    Khondji favors Lee 129 HeavyFrost diffusion, which he believes is

    close to the 1000H tracing paper heused on Seven (ACOct. 95). My

    favorite is real tracing paper youget really soft light and the subject

    doesnt feel lit but gaffers dont

    want to use it because its too flam-mable, he says.

    Sometimes I put a little softtungsten light with the direction of

    the practical, a little rim that is veryunderexposed, because I cant stand

    when its too backlit, he continues.It feels like its from the lamp, but

    the lamp doesnt give it to you unlessyou shoot really wide open. With

    anamorphic, you have to create thesekinds of subtleties.

    Upon returning from hishoneymoon, Chri has breakfast at

    his mothers, and the soft daylightfrom the windows is brighter and

    slightly cool. Khondji explains thathis color scheme for the movie often

    involved hues slightly warmer andslightly cooler than the 3200K rat-

    ing for the film stocks. Daylight was

    4000-4500K, rarely more, and thelamps were generally 2800-3000K.

    He likes to tint daylight slightly, andfeels it helps the negative. Film neg-

    ative is a little weak on blue, so Ialways add some blue, he says. He

    completes the color range byputting a touch of amber from a

    bulb in a practical.Toward the end of the film,

    when La sits in a chair and consolesChri at her feet, the morning effect

    is much brighter. The scene was shot

    on a soundstage in Cologne,Germany. Outside the windows,

    there was a big truss with a row ofunderslung tungsten lights that were

    extremely diffused, recalls Khondji.Barely visible outside the window is a

    giant TransLite that required a lot oflight. Pfeiffer is lit by a softbox that

    gives gentle direction to the fore-ground light. Orange practicals in

    the background add a touch of colorcontrast. Khondji notes that in this

    scene, as in others, he added a subtlecolor contrast to the image in the

    digital grade, which he carried out atDeluxe in London with colorist

    Adam Inglis. I put a little bronzegold in the highlights and a bit of

    blue in the midtones and darks tocreate a more 3-D effect with color,

    says the cinematographer. Adam

    had what I was looking for: a sensi-tivity to nuance and the desire to

    make a work of cinema, not a prettyfilm with boosted contrast and

    video-like saturation.Stephen and I decided to do a

    DI because a lot of effects shots wererequired around Las house in order

    to re-create the atmosphere of Paris atthat time, continues Khondji. But

    the truth is that even with a 4K DI, theimage quality never really matched

    the quality of the pure anamorphic

    image we saw in the dailies. My adviceis to avoid doing a DI on an anamor-

    phic picture unless you really have to,and we had to on Chri.

    One striking scene breaks withthe subdued quality of the films over-

    all look. In it, Chri comes home andcarries his young wife to bed through

    a bright, sunlit corridor. When scout-ing the location, Khondji noticed the

    timing of the morning shafts of sun-light, and he asked Frears if the shoot

    could be scheduled according to theweather. We did it on a sunny morn-

    ing, and we had to be very light onour feet, says Khondji. The only

    lighting he added to the scene was agold sconce in the background for a

    color contrast.The film is punctuated by a few

    bright exteriors, including Las gar-

    den in Normandy, a dazzling helicop-ter shot of her car on a country road,

    and the seaside hotel in Biarritz. Buteven some exteriors feature limited

    contrast, as when La looks over thebalcony at the beach in Biarritz and

    This framegrab, showing

    Chris return tohis young wife,

    illustrates arare departure

    from thesubdued look

    thatcharacterizes

    the rest of thepicture. Able totime the shoot

    to take

    advantage of asunny morning,Khondji added

    only the goldsconce in thebackground.

    Impressionistic Cinema

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    the overcast image reflects her sad-ness. Barrault notes that Khondji

    almost always shaded the main char-acters in exteriors. To add fill, the

    crew often used Gaffair balloons,which could be moved on booms to

    follow the characters. Instead of thecustomary 85 filter, Khondji some-

    times uses an LLD or 812 filterbecause they barely correct day-

    light, giving a day exterior a slight

    blue tone.Arguably, the films most

    striking cinematographic accom-plishment is its portraiture. In many

    ways, the faces define the movie,Pfeiffers more than any other.

    Khondji believed the film shouldhave very few close-ups. I feel that

    anamorphic close-ups sometimesmagnify too much. You have to be

    careful with them. Its a rule with all

    formats in general, but with anamor-

    phic, the close-up is especially power-ful, and you have to hold the power

    back. You shouldnt go into a strong,tight close-up unless you need to.

    With a chuckle, Rae recalls,

    Darius and I decided early on thatwhen Stephen asked for a close-up, it

    would be a shot from the waist up,and we would only do two or three

    shots that were closer we reallysaved them. Stephen would say, Cant

    I have a close-up? and wed say, Thisis a close-up. And hed say, Oh, is it?

    He generously allowed us to do that.The rare close-ups were filmed with

    an Xtal Express 152mm without anydiffusion filters.

    Khondji and Barrault devised aspecial Michelle light for some early

    scenes in the film. Inspired by thesequence at Maxims, Barrault con-

    structed a lightbox comprising a rec-tangle of 20 150-watt household

    bulbs arranged in an arc that focused

    Impressionistic Cinema

    For the diningroom in Biarritz,

    depicted inthis frame

    grab, Khondjisgoal was

    directionless fill.I like comingback to an era

    when the lightingwas a bit flatter,he says. I didntwant to make it

    low-key.

  • 7/29/2019 AC iul 2009

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    soft light on Pfeiffer, giving her a

    unique glow that retained thepiquant of the bare bulb, says the

    gaffer. This arrangement could not beused easily on the soundstage in

    Cologne, where scenes in Las bed-

    room, bathroom and boudoir wereshot. For those sequences, a similar

    arc of soft light was often created withKino Flo units and Lee 129. We had

    to be careful not to come too closeand not to be too sharp on the skin,

    notes Khondji.When the broken-hearted La

    returns from Biarritz, the lightingbecomes less soft and the camera

    comes closer to her, revealing a fewwrinkles here and there from side-

    light. When Chri comes back to seeLa, he kisses her on the floor. After so

    many wider shots, the softly lit dualclose-up is powerful. The highlight

    with a liner on Rupert is almost overthe top, says Khondji, adding that the

    difficulty lay in flagging Friend while

    keeping a soft light from diffused

    Kino Flos on Pfeiffer. He remarks,Green can be sexy on the skin. I use

    underexposed green all the time.Toward the end of the film,

    La comes to see herself as an old

    woman, in a one-shot sequence infront of the mirror. Khondji explains

    that the remarkable transition wasachieved very simply with a gradual

    shift from frontal light to toplight; ablack cloth covered white gridcloth

    lit by a distant, frontal Wendy Light,while at the same time, flags were

    moved to unveil an eight-tube KinoFlo Wall-o-Lite above. The seamless

    transition makes La subtly agebefore our eyes.

    Chris subject is age, and thefilm could not have worked without

    an older actress willing to show herage rather than hide it. I take my hat

    off to Michelle, Frears says of hisstar. He adds that the film only real-

    ly came to life once all the elements

    had been added: images, editing and

    Alexandre Desplats music. Khondjihad a similar epiphany when he saw

    the film recently. You dont really doit all intentionally, he muses. Its

    only when you see the finished film

    that you realize what you have creat-ed together as a group. I

    Save the Date:

    September 17, 2009

    The New Yorker, New York, NY

    November 4-5, 2009

    Burbank Marriott, Burbank, CA

    A world where entertainment technology and creative vision converge.

    the future in hand | createasphere.com

    TECHNICAL SPECS

    2.40:1

    Anamorphic 35mm

    Arricam Studio, Lite

    Technovision/Cooke Classic,Cooke Xtal Express and

    Kowa lenses

    Fuji Eterna250T 8553, 400T 8583, 500T 8573

    Digital Intermediate

    Printed on Kodak Vision 2383

  • 7/29/2019 AC iul 2009

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    44 July 2009

    Veterans frequently describecombat as the most vivid, fully

    lived experience of their lives.Some get hooked on it. As for-

    merNew York Times war corre-spondent Chris Hedges writes in his

    book War Is a Force That Gives Us

    Meaning,The rush of battle is often

    a potent and lethal addiction, forwar is a drug.Those are the opening

    lines of The Hurt Locker, a dramaabout U.S. Army specialists who dis-

    mantle improvised explosive devices

    in Iraq. Directed by KathrynBigelow, the film follows members

    of the Bravo Company in 2004, anearly and particularly bloody stage

    of the war. Often called in to defuseIEDs 10 or 20 times a day, soldiers in

    the Explosive Ordnance Disposalsquads endure lives of unrelenting

    intensity.

    The Hurt Locker focuses on

    three characters: newly arrived StaffSgt. William James (Jeremy

    Renner), whose impressive record ofdisarming 873 bombs is offset by a

    reckless bravado; Sgt. J.T. Sanborn(Anthony Mackie), a seasoned sol-

    dier who worked in ArmyIntelligence for seven years; and Spc.

    Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty),

    who is looking for a role model. Thefilm moves through seven missions

    that are interspersed with momentsof downtime back on the base.

    Visually, it combines the jaggededges of war reportage with inti-

    RiskandValor

    Barry Ackroyd, BSCuses Super 16mm

    and handheldcameras to lend

    intensity to The Hurt

    Locker, which followsa U.S. Army bomb

    squad at workin Iraq.

    by Patricia Thoms


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