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Anthony B. Richmond, ASC, BSC hen I was 12 years old, I saw Citizen Kane. The images created by Gregg Toland, ASC were so powerful that all I’ve ever wanted to do since then is photograph films. “My first copy of American Cinematographer came from director John Sturges when we were working on The Eagle Has Landed. I have read the magazine ever since. “In this ever-changing world of new technology and equipment, AC keeps me in touch with what’s available. More importantly, it enables me to see how my fellow cinematographers are applying their art, skill and vision to the projects they’re shooting.”
“W
©photo by Owen Roizman, ASC
— Anthony B. Richmond, ASC, BSC
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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
On Our Cover: U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) searches for a missing patient at a psychiatric penitentiary in Shutter Island, shot by Robert Richardson, ASC. (Photo by Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, courtesy of Paramount Pictures.)
FEATURES 30 46 62 72
Mind Games Robert Richardson, ASC lends hallucinatory edge to Martin Scorsese’s noir thriller
Home-Screen Hits Cinematographers from The Pacific, Glee and CSI: NY detail their work
A Passion for His Craft John C. Flinn, ASC earns the Society’s Career Achievement in Television Award
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Saluting an Industry Stalwart Presidents Award recipient Sol Negrin, ASC reflects on his long and fruitful career
DEPARTMENTS 8 10 12 18 78 82 88 89 90 92 94 96
Editor’s Note President’s Desk Short Takes: La Première Production Slate: A Prophet • NY Export: Opus Jazz Post Focus: EFilm’s Cinemascan System New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Salvatore Totino
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— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES — Friends of the ASC: Society unveils new membership level DVD Playback: The Prisoner • Paris, Texas • Streamers
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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
Visit us online at
www.theasc.com ———————————————————————————————————— PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter ————————————————————————————————————
EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard, John Calhoun, Bob Fisher, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer, John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich, Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson ————————————————————————————————————
ART DEPARTMENT CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Gore ————————————————————————————————————
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[email protected] CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Nepomuceno 323-908-3124 FAX 323-876-4973 e-mail:
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CIRCULATION, BOOKS & PRODUCTS CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez SHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal ———————————————————————————————————— ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman ASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia Armacost ASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Kim Weston ASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Corey Clark ————————————————————————————————————
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 90th 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
[email protected]. Copyright 2007 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA. POSTMASTER: Send address change to American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Hollywood, CA 90078.
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American Society of Cinematographers The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but an educational, cultural and professional organization. Membership is by invitation to those who are actively engaged as directors of photography and have demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC membership has become one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a professional cinematographer — a mark of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS - 2009/2010 Michael Goi President
Richard Crudo Vice President
Owen Roizman Vice President
Victor J. Kemper Vice President
Matthew Leonetti Treasurer
Rodney Taylor Secretary
John C. Flinn III Sergeant At Arms
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Curtis Clark Richard Crudo George Spiro Dibie Richard Edlund John C. Flinn III John Hora Victor J. Kemper Matthew Leonetti Stephen Lighthill Isidore Mankofsky Daryn Okada Owen Roizman Nancy Schreiber Haskell Wexler Vilmos Zsigmond
ALTERNATES Fred Elmes Steven Fierberg Ron Garcia Michael D. O’Shea Michael Negrin MUSEUM CURATOR 6
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The setting of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island is a foreboding psychiatric facility that makes The Shining’s Overlook Hotel look like fun for the whole family. Looming on a rocky, heavily guarded island off Boston Harbor, Ashecliffe Hospital is a penitentiary for the criminally insane. It’s a place that reminds U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) of the German concentration camp Dachau, which he helped liberate as a soldier during World War II. With the help of Robert Richardson, ASC, Scorsese uses this location to physically represent the movie’s nightmarish psychological landscape. In crafting a look for the vivid hallucinations Daniels begins to experience at Ashecliffe, the filmmakers drew inspiration from director/cinematographer George Stevens’ 16mm Kodachrome footage of the liberation of Dachau, material that Richardson describes as “hyper-real.” This style, as well as the film’s brooding “real-world” ambience, was achieved with custom look-up tables; the LUTs were combined with digital grading to augment the eerie images captured by Richardson and his crew, who also created the practical hurricane that pounds the asylum. “The lighting, color and texture all contribute to the blurring of reality and hallucination, raising the question of what is subjective vs. objective,” Richardson tells contributing writer Patricia Thomson (“Mind Games,” page 30). “Marty plays with this blurring of lines throughout the film, I think with great prowess. The film is a journey within one man’s mind, and what you see could be real or imagined.” Teleproduction is this month’s special focus, and we’ve spotlighted several projects you should add to your DVR’s playlist: HBO’s Band of Brothers sequel, The Pacific, which drafted cinematographers Remi Adefarasin, BSC and Steve Windon, ACS for hand-to-hand combat (page 46); Glee, an award-winning series that allows Christopher Baffa, ASC to help choreograph energetic musical interludes (page 52); CSI: NY, the hit forensic procedural that recently required cinematographers Marshall Adams and Feliks Parnell to transition from 35mm film to digital capture (page 58); and NY Export: Opus Jazz, a PBS ballet special shot and co-directed by Jody Lee Lipes that features choreography by the late Jerome Robbins (Production Slate, page 24). This issue also profiles a pair of ASC standouts who were honored at last month’s awards ceremony: John C. Flinn, who received the Society’s Career Achievement in Television Award (“A Passion for His Craft,” page 62), and Sol Negrin, whose long record of service was recognized with the Presidents Award (“Saluting an Industry Stalwart,” page 72). “I put everything I’ve got into every shot I do,” says Flinn, who has lent his talents to such memorable shows as Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O and Magnum, P.I. “When I’m on a series, I make 22 of the best movies I can per season.” Negrin has also made the most of his career, earning five Emmy nominations and then sharing his knowledge with new generations of students. “I worked on commercials, documentaries, industrial films and, eventually, feature films and television,” notes Negrin. “The best advice I was ever given came from [ASC cinematographer] Harry Stradling Sr., who said, ‘Never be afraid to take a chance. It may be the best thing you ever did.’”
Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor 8
Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.
Editor’s Note
Stefan Sonnenfeld
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Colorist. Entrepreneur. Fanatic.
President’s Desk It’s hard to become a member of the ASC. Now, I know that might sound like a brilliant flash of the obvious, but in reflecting on my own path to the hallowed gates of the ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood, I was reminded of just how tough it was. First, you have to be recommended by three active members who write letters explaining why they think you’re qualified. They take into consideration your body of work as well as the integrity of your character. Those three letters are not something that you can solicit; they just have to happen. You and your cinematography have to have made enough of an impression that three of the world’s best cinematographers took notice. Second, you are invited to sit before the Membership Committee. This call comes in a deceptively casual way. Patty Armacost, the Society’s events coordinator, called me on a Tuesday and asked if I was free that Saturday morning. Then she asked if I could come by the Clubhouse to meet some of the members, and bring 10-15 minutes of work to show them. I said sure, no problem. It wasn’t until I hung up the phone that I realized “Oh, my god! This is the ASC Membership meeting!” Ben Toguchi, who had been the Clubhouse caretaker since 1959, greeted me at the door. He knew everyone and everything that went on in that building. He invited me to sit in the library while the committee was preparing to meet me, and he offered me something to drink. He said they would call for me in a few minutes, so I sat and waited. When you walk into the membership meeting, you are warmly greeted by 15-20 of your cinematography heroes. At my meeting, Allen Daviau was the chairman, and sitting at the table were people like Vilmos Zsigmond, Owen Roizman, Laszlo Kovacs, Victor Kemper, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Crudo, Ron Garcia, and on and on. You shake everyone’s hand, and the world goes blank for the rest of the meeting. Seriously. The shock of being in that room with those incredible artists completely numbs you. I know I was asked questions about my work, about the craft of cinematography and about what the ASC stands for, but I can’t honestly say I remember my answers. I know I showed my work to them, but I couldn’t tell whether they liked any of it or not. After a few more questions, they thanked me for coming, and I walked out of the room. Then the Membership Committee discusses your qualifications, and they vote. If you pass that vote, the ASC Board of Governors considers your work and the Membership Committee’s recommendation, and then they vote. If you pass that vote, a letter proposing you for membership is sent to every active member of the ASC, and they have 30 days to write a response if they feel you should not be accepted. If there are no objections, you are then invited to join the Society. It’s tough. Even though we are on a constant search for qualified members, we have only 316 active members as of this writing — and that’s covering the entire world, because the ASC is truly international in scope. We look for potential new members all the time. We discuss work we’ve seen on small films where the cinematography stood out. We keep tabs on student cinematographers who have shown great promise, hoping that one day they will be worthy of ASC membership. And we are excited when we find work that we feel is truly extraordinary. As I walked out of the room after my Membership Committee meeting, old Ben came up to me and asked how it went. I told him I didn’t know. With a smile, he patted me on the back and said, “Don’t worry. I think I’m going to see you here soon. You have the right heart.” Ben passed away two years ago. In the seven years I’ve been in the ASC, I’ve seen many people come up for consideration — shooters on big and small projects, boisterous personalities and reclusive ones. But in the end, Ben’s observation, as indefinable as it was, rings the truest: You gotta have the right heart.
Michael Goi, ASC President
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March 2010
American Cinematographer
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Above: Charting motion pictures’ origins, the short film La Première includes a brief stop at the 1895 Exposition Internationale. The sequence involved a combination of 2-D elements and greenscreen composites to bring Paris’ Grand Palais to life. Right: Brothers Auguste (Henri Lubatti, left) and Louis Lumière (Matthew Wolf) with their invention, the cinematograph.
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Dramatizing Cinema History By Iain Stasukevich
The year is 1895. In the United States, Thomas Edison tinkers with his Kinetoscope as a means of exhibiting short motion pictures. The device is conceived for an audience of one. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière develop a different idea about how moving pictures should be seen, believing they should be experienced communally, and they begin patenting their own film processes while working at their father’s photographic firm in Lyon. The short film La Première, shot by Matt Wise for sibling directors Michael and Nick Regalbuto, tells the story of the Lumières’ struggle to develop the cinematograph — the world’s first motionpicture projector — and present the first public screening of moving images. “As with most history, there are a lot of perspectives, and not a lot of them are definitive,” notes Nick. In their attempts to separate fact from legend, the Regalbutos unearthed contemporaneous articles about the Lumières’ public 12
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screenings, along with a program of the films that were shown. “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat was one of their first films, and we noticed it wasn’t projected at any of the early public screenings, so we tried to figure out why that might have been,” says Michael. The filmmakers turned their attention to the legend that tells of a confused, terrified crowd fleeing a presentation of Arrival of a Train out of fear that the filmed locomotive would come right through the screen. Nick continues, “According to history, the first screening to the paying public took place in Paris in December of 1895, but that’s not the screening in our film. We know from the lineup that they didn’t show Arrival of a Train, and our film suggests that the reason
American Cinematographer
Photos by Erik Hollander and Joffrey Mason. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of the filmmakers.
Short Takes
Top to bottom: Louis inspects a strip of film; the brothers brainstorm with their father, Claude-Antoine (Ronald Guttman); Louis and Auguste prepare the cinematograph for a projection; director of photography Matt Wise finds the frame with a Red One camera.
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American Cinematographer
they were afraid to show it was because of what happened at the earlier screening [seen in La Première], which went horribly awry.” Ironically, to tell the story of two of cinema’s pioneers, Wise found himself working with some of the latest camera technology, a Red One and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. “But filmmaking is more than technology,” he notes. “The point of La Première is that in spite of the technology in the room, those people in the audience really believed there was a train coming at them, and they ran out in a panic.” Wise shot most of La Première with the Red — the 5D was used for a few bicycle-mounted shots — and he found that the system presented a few hurdles of its own. Most notably, the Red doesn’t perform well in low-light situations, and the sensor’s signal-to-noise ratio is negatively impacted by warm light. Therefore, when shooting interiors, Wise shot wide open on Zeiss Super Speed prime lenses, and he used a ¼ CTB filter behind a hot mirror filter. Framed in 16x9, La Première begins with a brief montage that traces cinema’s progression from the magic lantern to the camera obscura, the Daguerreotype, the zoetrope and, finally, Edison’s Kinetoscope. Inspired by the look Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, created with Kardan Swing and Tilt lenses for some shots in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (AC Oct. ’07), Wise chose to apply a selective-focus look for these early moments, suggesting that the lens in use wasn’t yet a precise instrument. “We used a Lensbaby with a PL mount,” the cinematographer explains. “The Kardan lens doesn’t change the focus on the subject or the depth-offield; it just bends the light coming through it to throw a certain portion of the frame out of focus.” The filmmakers considered applying a few other vintage looks to the rest of the picture, and they were particularly inspired by the period industrial tone that Wally Pfister, ASC brought to The Prestige (AC Nov. ’06). “Our film is set in a time before electricity became widespread,” notes Michael. “It’s a story where a lot of the illumination comes from candlelight.” Wise initially considered using windows and practicals as his sole motivators, but the tight shooting
Above: The lighting plot for the café set, where the Lumières first project their moving images. Right: The same overhead source used in the café was also used above the Lumières’ kitchen. Production designer Walter Martinez crouches in the background while directors Michael (at head of table) and Nick Regalbuto (holding book) and 1st AD Jason Allen (far right) prepare the next take.
schedule forced him to instead shoot interiors under one big light. Gaffer Eric Ulbrich and key grip Brandon Alperin designed the large source, a pair of cross-keyed 2Ks and a single lamp from the center of a Maxi-Brute softened through a 12'x8' frame of unbleached muslin. This rig was used for all of the interiors, including the Lumière household, the café where the cinematograph makes its debut, and a turn-of-the-century re-creation of the Grand Palais in Paris. All interior scenes were shot in an industrial space in Northridge, Calif. A Duvatyn skirt was used to keep light off the walls, and all of the lamps on the grid were rigged to Magic Gadgets dimmers on the floor. “I knew that 16
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setup wouldn’t detract from the look of the film,” says Wise. “It was appropriate for the tone, and I could still swing the camera around and only have to tweak the lighting just a little bit. If we went with any other setup, we would have lost a lot of time and shots, and we would have lost the look we wanted.” The interiors have a chiaroscuro look that is aided by a candle, gas lamp or window source in almost every shot. “Adding a backlight for these scenes would have been distracting,” muses Wise. “For the dinner scene [in the Lumières’ home], the only accent I wanted was the 10K in the window. I didn’t want to overstimulate the audience with unnecessary sources.” American Cinematographer
Before the Lumière brothers unveil their cinematograph, their father, ClaudeAntoine, promises the skeptical audience “a brand-new technology … that seems a lot like magic.” The patriarch’s speech inspired Wise to try something different once the screening started. “What was being projected was an alien experience for the audience, and I felt we needed to put the scene in a different context than the rest of the film. I asked my gaffer to turn off all the overhead lights and shoot a Source Four Leko gelled with Half CTB up into the muslin. It created a nice, soft, bluish tone on the audience.” The real cinematograph, which combined a camera, processor and projector in one housing, was less magic than a fusion of rudimentary chemical and clockwork processes. Working from archival blueprints and photographs, the directors cobbled together a non-functional reproduction of the original device. Much of its construction was based on guesswork. “The toughest thing to figure out was the shutter,” notes Nick. “We’d seen a lot of shutters in our research, but they were all different shapes; there would be a frame-shaped cutout in one disc and a wedge-shaped cutout in another. Figuring out how fast the shutter spun and how the rods connected to the crank was also difficult. The original camera seemed so immaculately designed.” In La Première, the first film the Lumières show is Arrival of a Train, which quickly causes the frightened audience to flee. Staring at the upturned chairs littering the café floor, Claude-Antoine offers, “Maybe they weren’t ready for it yet, but they will be soon.” Sure enough, the shaken but curious audience creeps back in, eager to see more. The rest is film history. “Story is what drives us as filmmakers, but the fact is that the Lumières weren’t storytellers — they were innovators,” says Nick. “They were interested in pushing the envelope of what was possible, technologically speaking. As much as we’re telling stories, none of it would be possible without the innovators.” Wise agrees, adding, “It’s a given that technology will change. If people keep coming back, it’s because they’ve been moved by what’s on the screen. That’s the factor that remains the same.” ●
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Production Slate
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A Self-Made Man By Benjamin B
Sitting at a table in Paris’ 19th district, director Jacques Audiard and cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, AFC laugh as they recall the pressure they experienced during the world premiere of A Prophet (Un Prophète) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Because of deadlines, the filmmakers had opted for a 2K digital projection of their movie in the JPEG2000 format. Fontaine says he knew that digital would suit the film, which was shot on 35mm, but Audiard confesses that he was “a doubting Thomas.” The lights went down, and when the picture came up, Audiard was dumbfounded. “I discovered my film!” he recalls. “That’s when I discovered the finesse of Stéphane’s work. It looked like some kind of Caravaggio … the skin tones, the shadows, the resolution. It was incredible.” A Prophet went on to win the festival’s Grand Prize. Reflecting on the quality of the Cannes screening, which was done with a Christie CP2000 DLP projector in a system configured by XDC, Audiard says, “I know less about this than Stéphane does, but I think that the combination of 35mm, the digital intermediate and JPEG2000 is simply miraculous. It’s a miraculous hybrid that magnifies the beauty of 35mm.” Fontaine explains that, after doing numerous comparison tests, the filmmakers chose to shoot 35mm 18
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rather than 16mm or digital because 35mm was less ostentatious than the other formats. “The 16mm was very beautiful, but it brought a false documentary feel, a kind of pose,” he notes. A Prophet, Audiard’s second collaboration with Fontaine (after The Beat My Heart Skipped; AC Sept. ’05), follows the six-year prison sentence of a young Arab-Frenchman, Malik (Tahar Rahim), who transforms from a lowly convict into a respected leader. The story begins with Malik arriving in prison, where he is singled out by the head of the prison’s powerful Corsican clan, César (Niels Arestrup), who gives him an ultimatum: kill a fellow Arab or be killed. In a succession of harrowing scenes, Malik becomes a killer and eventually a member of the privileged Corsican gang, whose members treat him as a servant. Over time, by dint of his intelligence and daring, Malik makes a place for himself in the prison’s milieu, where, as one convict tells him, “the idea is to come out a little less stupid than you went in.” When Malik finally leaves the prison, he is truly a self-made man. Audiard considered shooting on location in a European prison but quickly decided that he needed the freedom of a set. A Prophet was shot in an abandoned factory, with an entire cellblock built on a floor some 30' above a courtyard, another important setting. Production designer Michel Barthélémy began by building a “model cell” as a set with thin removable walls and an open ceil-
American Cinematographer
A Prophet photos by Roger Arpajou, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Malik (Tahar Rahim) is a petty criminal who arrives at a French prison poor, illiterate and without family or friends in A Prophet, which was nominated for an Academny Award for Best ForeignLanguage Film.
After murdering a fellow Arab (Hichem Yacoubi), who poses a threat to the Corsicans that rule prison society, Malik is haunted by visions of his victim.
ing. Audiard recalls that it “sounded wrong, looked wrong and felt wrong,” and he subsequently decided to build the cells with thick walls and real ceilings. This confined interior defined the lighting and framing possibilities for Fontaine, who found that there were spots in each cell where the camera “fit.” Most of the light sources had to be built into the set. The main interior light source was true to the institutional setting: fluorescent tubes on the ceilings and walls. Fontaine notes that the tube choice also yielded a more diffuse lighting quality than bulbs would have. Each row of cells has windows that look out onto the courtyard below, a vantage point that is a leitmotif of the film, as Malik often looks out his window at the courtyard society. Thus, a combination of tubes and daylight defined Fontaine’s lighting scheme for the prison. To accommodate changing daylight through the cell windows, the cinematographer had sets of identical windows made with different neutral-density values, so changing density involved a quick change of the entire window. Fontaine would sometimes supplement weak daylight from the cell windows with an 18K HMI on a Condor outside the window, complemented by two 6Ks through a bleached-muslin frame to add softer light. “But by the time we get to the window,” he notes, “there isn’t that much light.” When shooting inside cells, Fontaine would start with fluorescent tubes on the ceiling and sometimes on the wall as well. To provide variety to the look of day 20
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and night interiors, he would change the diffusion or sometimes add two-tube or four-tube Kino Flo sources. He felt free to vary the quality and color of light because “this was not a documentary.” Audiard notes that these variations helped prevent the setting from becoming monotonous. One of the challenges of a prison film, says the director, is that “time stands stills. Lighting creates a break in time and allows you to impose a different kind of time, to no longer be in a strict chronology.” The directional feel of the lighting in the prison is rooted in the realism of the tubes and daylight, but much of the interior light comes from above, and Fontaine did not shy away from darkened eye sockets and shadowy, even obscured faces, as in the scene in which César asks Malik to make a hit for him. Some scenes, like a conversation by a window, are played entirely in silhouette. Fontaine concedes with a smile that he used very little fill light. Audiard adds, “It’s a matter of realism — everything is not visible all the time.” Fontaine also did not hesitate to overexpose, especially in the scenes outside the prison. A Prophet was the first feature Fontaine shot on Fuji film stocks; he used two, Eterna 500 8573 and F-64D 8522. He sometimes used the fast stock outside, when the winter light was dim. “Fuji has contrast but is less saturated than Kodak,” he notes. “It’s very subtle in the blues and cyans. Going from one color to another is very graduated without being very saturated.” Fontaine confesses to being a stickler about color temperature. The tube sources American Cinematographer
were usually gel-corrected for daylight, with special care taken to reduce the green spikes of the fluorescent spectrum. A few sources, such as the light above the mirror in Malik’s cell, were set to a warmer color, giving a distinctive look to some of the character’s introspective moments. The sequences outside the prison are often warmer, like the sunlit car ride from Marseille, and sometimes more saturated, as in the scenes driving at night. With tungsten stock in daylight, Fontaine used an 85C instead of an 85, which he finds “saturates colors too much. The 85C corrects less, and you therefore have a bluer negative. That doesn’t prevent you getting warm hues afterwards, if you want them. It’s just that there’s less saturation everywhere.” Working almost entirely handheld, Fontaine shot A Prophet with an Aaton 35-III (with Cooke S4 prime lenses and an Angenieux Optimo 27-68mm zoom). An Arri 435 was used for a few high-speed shots. There is one dolly move during an airport sequence, and one unusual highangle dolly right before the movie’s most stylized scene, a slow-motion shootout inside a van, which Audiard describes as the moment “when Malik becomes a film hero.” Although Audiard wanted to cover certain scenes with two cameras, the final cut almost exclusively comprises Fontaine’s A-camera material. “It’s just the way things worked out,” says the director. Fontaine states that he does not “light actors or sets,” but instead describes what he does as creating a “luminous ambience” that he feels the character would like to evolve in. “I am not trying to look; I am trying to see from his point of view,” he remarks. On some takes, Audiard asked Fontaine to apply what he calls a “mano negro,” to obscure part of the frame by creating a soft-focus circle with his hand in front of the lens. This simple technique gives a distinctive first-person point-of-view to the opening scenes, and to the speech César gives to Malik to remind him who’s in charge. The richness of A Prophet is made up in part by a series of brief anecdotal montages: short sequences that condense a
Clockwise from above: César (Niels Arestrup), the leader of the Corsicans, becomes Malik’s protector; cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, AFC crouches next to Rahim as the crew prepares to film in a typically small set; director Jacques Audiard gives some lastminute pointers to his star as Fontaine lines up the shot.
side story. For example, Malik’s friend Jordi (Reda Kateb) tells him the story of unlucky drug traffickers whose car stalled in front of the authorities. The story is illustrated in a series of shots unified by a continuous leftto-right motion as we see the traffickers push their car, meet the customs agents, and then end up handcuffed on the ground as their stash is unpacked. “We thought about A Prophet as an odyssey with many stories, many characters,” says Audiard. He muses that sometimes “holes in the story” contribute to its richness. “When you set off writing, you tell yourself that every drawer that is opened must be closed, and every character shown must be understood, but that isn’t true. There is a certain kind of secondary character whose story should not be concluded. It’s like the 22
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stages of a rocket — you have to separate yourself from the first one for the second one to work. “When you write a story, of course, you have dramatic goals for the story’s clarity, intelligibility and its plot points, and at some point you look it over and say, ‘Ah, yes, this is well made. I understand everything.’ And that is when you have to pose the question of creating holes in the story. There are floorboards that you have to break, that you have to remove; this can be done in the writing, the shooting or the editing. Then, all of a sudden, the spectator can imagine more than he has seen or heard.” The filmmakers originally planned to do a photochemical finish, but with the Cannes deadline and a growing number of American Cinematographer
visual-effects shots looming, they finally opted for a DI. This was carried out at 2K at Éclair, where Fontaine worked with colorist Isabelle Julien, a longtime collaborator. The cinematographer stresses that for him, the DI can only serve to continue the intention already in the negative. Speaking with Audiard and Fontaine, one senses their strong mutual trust. Audiard agrees, noting, “With Stéphane, there is never a question of risk. We never had a discussion where either one of us said, ‘We can’t do that. It’s too risky.’ It just doesn’t come up between us.” Fontaine adds, “Also, we never sought to make the film beautiful. We never talked about that.” On set, the filmmakers work quickly, but Fontaine notes that he still has time “for reflecting.” He reminds Audiard, “You told me that we’ve improved.” The director responds, “I think we have, and you know me better now, so because of that I rely on you a lot. We do have time to reflect and to talk, but in the end, I want to be surprised. That’s the magic of cinema.”
TECHNICAL SPECS Super 1.85:1 3-perf Super 35mm Aaton 35-III; Arri 435 Cooke and Angenieux lenses Fuji Eterna 500 8573, F-64D 8522 Digital Intermediate
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I
The Return of Jerome Robbins By John Calhoun
Finger-snapping dancers on New York City streets. Spectacular skyline views and visits to derelict locations populated by athletically graceful, multi-racial young people. A jazzy soundtrack punctuated by bursts of romantic feeling. Sound familiar? Maybe so, but West Side Story is not the movie in question. It’s NY Export: Opus Jazz, a new dance film scheduled for a March 24 broadcast on PBS. The common feature to both is the late Jerome Robbins, choreographer and director of both stage and screen versions of West Side Story and choreographer of the original ballet NY Export: Opus Jazz, which premiered in 1958. Though the latter is a more formal, abstract work, with music by Robert Prince as opposed to the Broadway sounds of Leonard Bernstein, the kinship is clear. But apart from a prelude showing 24
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the performers going about their daily lives, transitions bridging the five movements, and a vérité montage of youths on the streets, NY Export: Opus Jazz is pretty much all dance for its 46-minute length. Relieved of the requirements of telling a linear story, it also has the feel of pure cinema. Each of the five movements is shot entirely in its own style: the first with a locked-off camera, followed by Steadicam, handheld, crane and dolly. And the frame is anamorphic, giving the dancers and their backdrop an expansive view. According to co-director/cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes, the inspiration for Opus Jazz came after New York City Ballet revived the dance, in 2005. “Two of the dancers in the restaging, Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi, started talking about how cool this would be as a movie, and they conceived the story and the idea of shooting it in real locations,” says Lipes. They recognized that with its kinetic rhythms and the popular American Cinematographer
African-American and Latin-American influences on its dancing and music, Opus Jazz seemed destined to burst the confines of the stage. Bar and Suozzi became executive producers on the film and enlisted Lipes, whose credits include the documentary Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be the Same and the feature Afterschool, along with his colleagues Henry Joost (codirector and associate producer) and Ariel Schulman (associate producer and art director). Lipes and Joost wrote the adaptation for the piece. The first stage of filming took shape in 2007, when the producers raised funds to shoot “Passage for Two,” the ballet’s fourth movement. “Ellen and Sean wanted to shoot one scene from the larger film in order to raise more money,” says Lipes. The location was Manhattan’s High Line Park. Referencing both West Side Story and a performance of the ballet from The Ed Sullivan Show in the late 1950s, the filmmakers decided to do the five-minute duet mostly in a single take, using a 30' Jimmy Jib mounted on a dolly to capture the dancers from as many angles as possible. “We knew the piece was going to determine how the rest of the film would go, so we were very intent on doing it the right way,” says Lipes. “We gave ourselves two days because we wanted it to be at magic hour.” Shooting all day to give themselves backup footage, and as a means of practicing the complex take, Lipes and his crew completed more than 20 takes, but got the best one at the last moment. “It was overcast, but at the very end of the day,
NY Export: Opus Jazz frame grabs and photos courtesy of Bar/Suozzi Productions. Photos by Joe Anderson and Jody Lee Lipes.
These frame grabs show two movements in the ballet NY Export: Opus Jazz, choreographed by Jerome Robbins. The top frame is from “Passage for Two,” which the filmmakers shot in 2007 to help raise money to film the rest of the work. The frame at right is from “Improvisations,” shot in a gym in Brooklyn.
the clouds broke on the horizon, and there was a beautiful sunset,” he says. Shooting Kodak Vision2 250D 5205 with a PanArri 435 and a Z5A 40-200mm T4.5 Super Panazoom lens, “I opened up all the way and ended up pushing it 2 stops. It was the absolute last take, and it was perfect, thanks in part to my great focus puller, Joe Anderson.” What helped the team achieve it was Joost’s decision to prepare detailed photo storyboards. “We took pictures of a dance rehearsal with a digital SLR, and Henry made a big board of all the key frames with the crane moves,” says Lipes. “We went through it with the crew and then rehearsed it for half a day.” For this movement, and throughout the shoot, constant collaboration with Bar, Suozzi and a ballet master from the Robbins Trust helped to preserve the choreography while enhancing it for the camera. “The choreographer is thinking about movement as it’s seen straight from the front, and sometimes it works better to alter that a bit for the camera,” notes Lipes. “One example of that in ‘Passage for Two’ is when the camera rises up above them. The guy is holding the girl, who makes a sort of X with her body. Usually that’s done toward the audience, but in this case, we had her do it toward the sky, where the camera was.” With “Passage for Two” in hand, the filmmakers were able to raise the capital to film the rest of Opus Jazz by 2009. The stylistic approach to the remaining movements had mostly been worked out. Of course, the decision to shoot in the
Top to bottom: Two frame grabs from “Entrance/Group Dance,” shot at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn; co-director Henry Joost (left) and co-director/cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes confer; a frame from “Theme, Variations and Fugue,” shot in an old theater in Jersey City, N.J.
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anamorphic format, with Hawk C-Series and V-Series lenses, was part of the equation from the beginning. “Jerome Robbins was a perfectionist, to say the least, and he made his only film on 70mm,” says Lipes. “In that spirit, we wanted to shoot on a high-quality format. And when you’re working with big groups of dancers, widescreen is a lot easier to use; people can all stand in a line together, and you can get tighter on them and see their whole bodies. Also, it calls back to an older style of filmmaking.” A similar gesture to the past was the decision to use Ben Shahn’s abstract backdrops from the ballet’s original production as a starting point in determining which locations to use. “We chose places that were run down, places that were once something else and are now ‘old New York,’” explains Lipes. A case in point is Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool, a crumbling, Depression-era relic used for the film’s opening number, “Entrance: Group Dance.” After a prologue that shows the dancers making their way to this space from various locations, the members of the ensemble enter the pool and take their positions. “Something we took away from West Side Story was the importance of trying to make the choreography exist in the space,” says the cinematographer. “We didn’t want to just take choreography and plop it down in McCarren Pool; we wanted to integrate the movements into the space.” “Entrance/Group Dance” was shot with a locked-off camera, a time-consuming choice given that the shoot employed only one camera, an Arricam Lite. The movement required more than 100 takes. This sequence became the film’s static-camera movement almost by process of elimination. “It was pretty arbitrary,” says Lipes. “I’m a big fan of making rules for yourself to limit what you can do. Deciding to make that movement totally static, or this movement on a dolly, makes us think about how to capture the dance while emphasizing distinct styles of photography.” It was clear that the third movement, “Improvisations,” which was shot in a gymnasium in Brooklyn, would benefit the most from a freewheeling handheld approach. The last movement, the eightminute “Theme, Variations and Fugue,”
was shot onstage in an 80-year-old theater in Jersey City, N.J., and it was determined that a dolly would be needed for optimal coverage of the choreography. The open loft space in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that was used for the second movement, “Statics,” became the Steadicam sequence largely because of its structural properties, which included columns. Dave Ellis was the Steadicam operator for “Statics,” a nighttime sequence that Lipes shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219,
opening up to T4 and pushing one stop. This kept 1st AC David Jacobson on his toes, as he had to pull focus “with the camera flying around the room at 360 degrees,” says Lipes. The most frequently used lens in this sequence was a 40mm, which was about as wide as Lipes went on the shoot. “All of the Hawks open to a T2.2 or T3, and I shot the first couple of setups at T4. My favorite colorist, Sam Daley at Technicolor, called me at one point, frantic about extreme distortion. He said T8 was
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Above: A frame from “Statics,” a movement shot entirely with a Steadicam in a sixth-floor loft space. Right: Filming the movement.
really where I should be. That dictated a lot of the look of the film, because I wasn’t able to shoot at low light.” Lighting the Steadicam sequence, set entirely in a sixth-floor walkup, was a challenge for Lipes and his gaffer, Josh Allen. “I hoped to light from the street, but there were construction scaffoldings with
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black knitting over them,” says the cinematographer. “So I turned to the inside, where there were construction lights hanging in the ceiling. I started thinking we might as well use practicals because we were going to see 360 degrees. So we put the highest-wattage bulbs possible in there and put several Mighty Moles on the roof,
shooting them down through the skylights. My key grip, Matt Walker, had teams of people with nets and flags running around behind the camera, trying to keep out the shadows that resulted from these 60-odd bulbs.” Lighting for the final movement at the Jersey City theater was also a major
From left: Loader Jeff Peixoto, 1st AC David Jacobson, 2nd AC Johnny Sousa, camera intern Destin Douglas and camera operator Joe Anderson mix it up on the set.
undertaking. The dancers perform on the stage to an empty auditorium, a spectacle viewed from a number of dolly positions in the house and finally from the stage itself. “I went through a lot of options to try to make it look nice, and then I realized it’s supposed to look like a bunch of kids putting on a show, and it should therefore feel kind of homemade,” says Lipes. “So we put a 20K up in the balcony and just pointed it at the
stage.” 24 Source Four Lekos in the wings and 24 above the stage added flares and edging to the theater seats, while a 4K and other units in the lobby and two Mighty Moles on the theater floor brought out wall details. “We also had 15 or 20 shop lights in the upper tier of balcony seats, so when we looked up there, there was distance instead of just black.” At press time, the filmmakers did not know whether Opus Jazz had the potential for exhibition beyond television. “At this point, we’re not doing a print,” says Lipes. “But we’ve had offers for a theatrical run in New York, which is pretty amazing, considering that the film is only 46 minutes long.”
ERRATA In our coverage of The Hurt Locker (July ’09), special-effects supervisor Richard Stutsman was incorrectly identified as Robert Stutsman. In our coverage of Avatar (Jan. ’10), some technical specs were incorrect. The two primary lenses the filmmakers used were both Fujinon zoom lenses, a 6.1-101mm and a custommade 7-35mm. The original aspect ratio and Imax presentation were 16x9. Standard theatrical presentations were 2.40:1.
TECHNICAL SPECS 1.78:1 (2.40:1 mask) Anamorphic 35mm Arricam Lite; PanArri 435 Hawk, Cooke and Panavision lenses Kodak Vision2 250D 5205, 50D 5201; Vision3 250D 5207, 500T 5219 ●
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Mind
Games Robert Richardson, ASC delves into darkness for Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, which follows a federal investigation at a sinister psychiatric facility. By Patricia Thomson •|•
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I
n a novel, dreams and reality can be melded solely with words, but on a film, that feat requires an army of talents and state-of-the-art technology. On Shutter Island, his adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s best-selling novel, director Martin Scorsese was well stocked on both counts, thanks to a team of familiar collaborators that included director of photography Robert Richardson, ASC and Rob Legato, the show’s visual-effects supervisor and second-unit director/ cinematographer. Set in 1954, Shutter Island establishes a porous line between dreams and reality, presenting a protagonist, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose mental state is put to the test as the story unfolds. A World War II veteran and U.S. Marshal, Teddy travels to Shutter Island with his new partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), to investigate the mysterious disappearance of an inmate from Ashecliffe Hospital, a
American Cinematographer
Unit photography by Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
psychiatric penitentiary on the island. Though Teddy and Chuck are given a warm welcome by the physician in charge, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), Teddy becomes increasingly suspicious of the doctor and his staff, and when he begins experiencing fierce migraines and vivid visions of tragedies in his own past, he begins to fear that he has become Cawley’s latest experiment. Scorsese’s goal was to place viewers directly in Teddy’s shoes, and he wanted to convey the character’s fluctuating mental state with a variety of visual cues, primarily utilizing color and lighting. “The lighting, color and texture all contribute to the blurring of reality and hallucination, raising the question of what is subjective vs. objective,” says Richardson. “Marty plays with this blurring of lines throughout the film, I think with great prowess. The film is a journey within one man’s mind, and what you see could be real or imagined.” The film’s color palette alternates between a slightly desaturated look, used for the present day, and
Opposite: In Shutter Island, U.S. Marshals Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo, left) and Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) attempt to shed light on a patient’s baffling disappearance from a highsecurity penitentiary for the criminally insane. This page, from top: Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley, next to DiCaprio) gives the pair a tour of the facility; the lawmen inspect the missing woman’s room; Robert Richardson, ASC and Martin Scorsese confer on the set.
the saturated look of 1950s-era Kodachrome, used mainly for Teddy’s memories and hallucinations. Scorsese’s initial inspiration for tapping the Kodachrome look was director/cinematographer George Stevens’ 16mm Kodachrome footage of the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau; Teddy’s wartime experiences included the liberation of the camp, and the horrors he witnessed there are among the visions that haunt him. “Most of www.theasc.com
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Mind Games the footage I’ve seen of the liberation of the camps is black-and-white and the Stevens footage is shocking when first seen because in contrast to the black-and-white, it is, for lack of a better word, hyper-real,” says Richardson. “That footage served as the template for Teddy’s World War II experiences, and from that the concept
of Kodachrome grew. Rob Legato methodically analyzed the inherent characteristics of Kodachrome, using a vast library from the 1950s, and created a look-up table that enabled us to achieve something similar in the digital intermediate. The extraordinary vibrancy of color became the key to Teddy’s dream states.”
Above: Daniels hallucinates an unnerving encounter with the disfigured handyman (Elias Koteas) who set a fire that killed his wife. Right: Scorsese, Koteas and DiCaprio work through the scene amid Richardon’s mix of stage and source lighting.
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The rest of the picture is rendered in a palette that approximates a light application of ENR; this look was also achieved with a LUT. “ENR provides an apparent desaturation of skin tones and heightened grain, which enhanced the contrast with the fine-grained, vibrant properties of the Kodachrome look,” says Richardson. In prep, the filmmakers tested various methods of further enhancing the hyper-real look of Teddy’s visions; 65mm, anamorphic 35mm and highdefinition video were all considered as mates for the project’s main format, Super 35mm. “The goal was to capture as much detail as possible for the DI suite,” says Richardson. “There weren’t as many differences among the filmouts as you might expect — the DI was the great equalizer — but 65mm had a definitive edge. We could wrestle with it in the digital world without the normal side effects encountered with a smaller negative. After he saw the tests, Marty agreed to shoot Teddy’s dream states on 65mm.” Unfortunately, after filming one day with a Panavision PFX System 65
Studio and an Arri 765, both cameras broke down on a frigid night. “Only a few of those shots remain,” says Richardson. (Ed. Note: These can be seen in a dream sequence that shows Teddy in Dachau in civilian clothes.) The filmmakers decided to shoot the rest of the hallucinatory sequences on Super 35mm and rely on the digital grade, carried out at EFilm, to differentiate that look from that of the rest of the picture. (Ed. Note: HD was used for the film’s final shot, a hanging miniature, because Scorsese needed to see and approve the shot via the Internet. “The only way to see the depth-of-field properly was to shoot on HD, which gave us a perfect exposure on the monitor,” says Legato. “I knew it would match the body of the film quite well, and Marty got to see the illusion as if it were real via a QuickTime file as I was shooting.”) LUTs devised by Legato, who determined how to digitally approximate Technicolor’s three-strip and two-color processes for Scorsese and
The partners find themselves trapped at the asylum when a gale-force hurricane pounds Shutter Island. In creating the storm, the filmmakers faced major logistical hurdles that required the deployment of rain bars, Spiders, firehoses, Ritter fans and wind machines — not to mention huge lighting units, bounce muslins, black overheads and greenscreens. “We had an enormous specialeffects crew that would blast gallons of water at the camera,” says gaffer Ian Kincaid. “A large plastic bag was created to cover the camera and Bob.”
www.theasc.com
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Mind Games Richardson on The Aviator (AC Jan. ’05), were integral to achieving Shutter Island ’s contrasting palettes. “Using the same method I applied on The Aviator, I re-created the look of Kodachrome in [Adobe] After Effects and then generated a color chart based on that manipulation,” Legato explains. “An EFilm-friendly LUT was created, and more LUTs designed to achieve varying degrees of the Kodachrome look were derived from that. “We discovered that the difference between three-strip Technicolor and Kodachrome lies mainly in the yellows,” adds Legato. “Yellows are very pronounced in Kodachrome, so I added one more step to the LUT that accentuated the yellows.” Determining exactly when to apply the LUT was a matter of trialand-error. “It took time to find the proper path,” says Richardson. “Should it be prior to timing or after? At what level do you do the timing? Do you place the desaturation process first and then add on top?” The team
Top: Daniels questions the missing patient, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), after she mysteriously reappears. Middle: Daniels embraces his wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), during a dreamlike vision in which she turns to ash and disintegrates in his arms. The stylized look of the sequence was heightened by the application of a Kodachrome LUT that resulted in vivid colors and increased saturation. Richardson adds, “To enhance the Kodachrome look, we took a highly unnatural approach to the lighting, using 20Ks and Dinos for backlight and making all frontal light the result of passive bounce. The extremely hot backlights — which were more than 8 stops over — created a visual dynamic that catapulted the LUT onto another level.”
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Mind Games
Clockwise from upper left: Richardson and Scorsese eyeball an angle; Aule and Daniels seek refuge from the rainstorm in a crypt; the partners debate their disturbing circumstances while standing at the edges of the hot overhead light that has become one of Richardson’s signature techniques.
initially baked in the LUT early in the process, and although “that worked well for the overall feeling of dailies, when it came to the final rendering, we found there were aberrations both in the highlights and in the skin tones,” says Richardson. “The desaturated/ENR LUT influenced the Kodachrome LUT. On a 50-inch screen, the effect wasn’t noticeable, but on a 30-foot screen, the issues were magnified.” Legato and EFilm colorist Yvan Lucas, who graded the HD dailies as 36
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well as the final picture, diagnosed an additional problem when they noticed how the LUTs amplified any bias inherent in the Kodak film stocks, Vision3 500T 5219 and Vision2 200T 5217 and 100T 5212. If the uncorrected footage was overly warm or cool, that trait would be exaggerated in unpredictable ways, and to a degree that could be difficult to remedy downstream. Legato realized that before any LUT could be applied, the film had to be perfectly whitebalanced. “That way, when we ampliAmerican Cinematographer
fied each color, it wouldn’t bias in one direction or another, and the result was predictable,” he says. He also determined that the LUT should not be baked in until after HD dailies were generated. Lucas therefore saw a LUT’s effect in view-only mode. “That added an extra step,” says Legato, “but it also gave us full control. “As soon as you bake in the Kodachrome LUT, you’ve recorded a digital file that looks like Kodachrome,” he continues. “You can then
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Mind Games turn off the LUT and color-correct on top of it. But if you can’t achieve the color correction you want with normal manipulation, like desaturation, then you have to bake out the LUT and start clean by creating another LUT.”
In all, Richardson and Lucas worked with about five variations of the Kodachrome LUT in the DI. As complicated as it was, developing the strategy for rendering Teddy’s shifting mental state was not
After exchanging their wet clothes for orderly uniforms, the investigators search for clues on a precarious cliff. Environmental shots of the island were achieved by combining practical locations, setpieces and CG elements added in post.
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the filmmakers’ most daunting task. “Each film has its own set of complexities, and the biggest challenge on Shutter Island was maintaining the look of a severe storm over the period in which the film was shot,” says Richardson. A hurricane gathers force as Teddy’s investigation proceeds, and portions of the agents’ search for the missing patient takes place outside the compound. Principal photography commenced in Massachusetts in the winter of 2008 and wrapped in July, with the work spread over 85 days, and although the story called for fog, clouds and driving rains, the shoot was “plagued by sunlight,” says Richardson. Careful scheduling and extensive tenting were required throughout the shoot. “The tenting became an enormous task for the grips,” says gaffer Ian Kincaid. “I can’t imagine the yardage of materials [key grip] Chris Centrella and his capable band of grips put up in the air. Eventually, entire setups became compounded with greenscreens, so there were huge bounce lights, huge bounce muslins, huge black overheads and huge greenscreens. It was insanity.” Richardson notes, “I’ve never been involved with a shoot that utilized so many overhead blacks. Chris Centrella is a master, the
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Mind Games finest in this business. He was able to provide vast areas of shade under extremely complex conditions that fluctuated from harsh sun to deep clouds and fierce rains. Without him, this film wouldn’t have the look it does.” Most penitentiary exteriors and some interiors were shot at Medfield State Hospital, a former mental institution that the production converted to meet its needs. Centrella recalls, “Each building represented a different set that worked as exteriors and even some interiors, so it was like having our own backlot.” Other interior sets were built in a nearby vacant warehouse. Describing the exterior of Ward C, a former Civil War fort that has been modified to house Ashecliffe’s most dangerous patients, Centrella says, “We employed four 60-by-40foot rags in different configurations. The special-effects team would actually put the rain — the Ritter fans and wind machines — underneath the rags.” Centrella used The Rag Place’s Charcoal Vintage Grid Cloth, which let some light through and was relatively silent in the wind. “That would take out the sun, and then the altitude of the rag would determine how much ambience came in around it,” he says. Creating the film’s atmospheric island location was another challenge. No existing island had all the requisite features, which included a lighthouse, caves and steep, rocky cliffs, so the location was created with a mix of practical work and CGI. (Legato estimates that Shutter Island contains 650 visual-effects shots, the most of any Scorsese picture.) For wide shots, the visual-effects team reworked Peddocks Island near Boston, adding CG cliffs, digitally removing landmass, and creating vistas with composite shots. For a scene in which Teddy and Chuck stand on a cliff and look toward the lighthouse, DiCaprio and Ruffalo stood on a small dirt bluff, with bits of greenscreen below and tents overhead to keep out the
Daniels investigates the facility’s ominous Ward C, where he discovers the most violent patients wasting away in dungeon-like cells. The crew employed butane cans rigged with flame bars to augment the light from the matches Daniels uses to illuminate the darkest areas. “There were usually two [special-effects artists] moving in sync with the camera as it tracked with Leo,” Richardson notes. “Flame bars give me the color of a match flame, and I prefer the effect to electrical fluctuations through a dimmer board because the flame is in motion.”
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Richardson issues commands to his crew via headset, a strategy they jokingly dub “Radio KBOB.”
sun; the finished shot combines bits of Acadia National Park (captured with a SpyderCam rig with a stabilized head that was flown from a 300' crane), Big Sur, fake rocks, a lighthouse miniature, and plate shots of rough seas and overcast skies. Practical rain and wind were augmented by plate shots of flying debris. It was an uncomfortably wet shoot. Special-effects coordinator R. Bruce Steinheimer and special-effects supervisor Rick Thompson brought out the big guns, including four 100' rain bars that could cover a 140'x60' area and Spiders for 80'x80' areas. “We had an enormous special-effects crew that would blast gallons of water at the camera,” says Kincaid. “A large plastic bag was created to cover the camera and Bob. He prefers riding the crane, so we employed a GF-16 that he could ride to near 40 feet, and we wrapped him in plastic. It usually ended up directly in the line of fire of Steinheimer’s waterguns [Ritter fans with firehoses attached].” Richardson says economics are one reason why he favors riding a
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Mind Games crane. “I can use it any time because the cost to rent it is so minimal — there isn’t the cost of a remote head or added hands,” he explains. “Also, as I operate, I’m looking through the lens, not at a monitor. I react with a greater degree of accuracy and have a finer edge in how I analyze a sequence not only in terms of lighting and composition, but also because I’m able to see the actors’ eyes. I feel when something’s not working. Furthermore, I
attempt to calculate the position in order to allow the camera to find numerous positions from one setup, such as a moving master plus a single, or whatever the situation might allow. “[Crane work] is a craft, and it takes a great deal of work to get to the level of proficiency I’m seeking,” he continues. “With a riding crane, I can respond very well to an actor’s movement, even if it’s improvisational, because I can sense the actor moving
Richardson rides a crane while shooting the movie’s disturbing climax. Explaining his preference for this moving perch, he offers, “As I operate, I’m looking through the lens, not at a monitor. I react with a greater degree of accuracy and have a finer edge in how I analyze a sequence not only in terms of lighting and composition, but also because I’m able to see the actors’ eyes. I feel when something’s not working. Furthermore, I attempt to calculate the position in order to allow the camera to find numerous positions from one setup.”
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and can attempt to control [the crew] through my headset, asking them to dolly left or right, boom up or down, et cetera.” (Some crewmembers jokingly dub this one-way stream of communications “Radio KBOB.”) Most of the moves in Shutter Island were actually accomplished with either a dolly or a Steadicam, depending on the move at hand, notes Richardson. “Marty asks for precision with the camera, so whether we were on a crane, a dolly or Steadicam, the result was the same,” he says. The shoot was largely single-camera, though three were always on hand, with one dedicated to a Steadicam rig operated by Larry McConkey, SOC. Richardson’s interior lighting grows increasingly expressive as the storm intensifies and Teddy’s situation becomes direr. “As the storm hits its peak, lightning strikes violently cascade through a number of sequences, linking reality to Teddy’s dreams,” says Richardson. This is most evident in a scene set in Cawley’s office, where Teddy suffers an acute
migraine and is tended to by the doctor and Chuck. “The light becomes brilliant in its intensity — the windows glow and the statues are pounded with blinding light,” says Richardson, who boosted the effect even more in Teddy’s POV shots. “Marty wanted the audience to ponder whether Teddy is imagining the lightning or whether it’s real.” To create this effect, Richardson’s crew positioned several Nine-light Mini-Brutes in the room, fairly close to the actors. “Ben, Leo and Mark were all being hit directly by vast amounts of light that was put through a dimmer board,” says the cinematographer. “Ian Kincaid played the controls like they were keys on a piano, taking the lights to maximum power and then bringing them down again.” Richardson further intensified the look in the DI. “I sometimes enhanced three or four frames at the high point to extend it longer in terms of the white level. The image is so overexposed that it virtually disappears.” Richardson’s psychologically inflected lighting continues when Teddy sneaks into the dark, monochromatic environs of Ward C in search of a specific inmate. He finds the person, and when the storm kills the facility’s electricity, Teddy lights matches, one at a time, as they converse. “How do you light a sequence set in near-total darkness with just a match?” muses Richardson. He embraced the darkness but didn’t feel bound by verisimilitude. “At times we took faces to the point where only the slimmest of outlines were visible, meaning that if our base stop was approximately T2.8½ with 5219, we might be near three [stops] down on exposure and, with the lighted match, raise that to half below key to special moments where the highlights would bloom over six stops.” Richardson allowed a base level of ambient light to enter through the ward’s skylights and brought additional light through low windows, which provided edges or
backlight on the walls and gave the cells more shape. “I put enough light on the walls to create a basic exposure that could be enhanced or diminished in the DI, if necessary,” he says. To boost the illumination provided by Teddy’s match, the crew used handheld butane cans that generated small flames. “There were usually two [special-effects artists] moving in sync with the camera as it tracked with Leo,” explains Richardson. “When the match went out, the flames went out. When the match was re-struck, the flames came back up. The butane flames were the key. When we shot Teddy’s point of view, the flame bars were
“In general, I don’t look to motivation as a guide in how to light a sequence. I’d say my philosophy is more emotionally or psychologically driven.”
enhanced with a larger bar placed near the camera to light the cell bars in the foreground and send light into the cells. Flame bars give me the color of a match flame, and I prefer the effect to electrical fluctuations through a dimmer board because the flame is in motion, and beyond that, it varies — there are inconsistencies that are often mysterious and unexpected. In the DI, Yvan worked on the walls, sometimes darkening them to help reduce the excess light that came from the butane lighters. “In general,” he adds, “I don’t look to motivation as a guide in how to light 43
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Scorsese blocks out a suspenseful encounter between Max von Sydow (as Dr. Jeremiah Naehring) and DiCaprio.
a sequence. It’s not that I don’t utilize motivation, but I’d say my philosophy is more emotionally or psychologically driven.”
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Another striking lighting setup is Teddy’s first vision of Dolores in their apartment, and Richardson notes that the scene also illustrates how he and his
collaborators, including production designer Dante Ferretti and costume designer Sandy Powell, tailored their work to make the most of the Kodachrome LUT. “As Teddy moves down the hallway of his Boston apartment toward his wife, the walls vibrate with a vivid green, the actors’ faces glow with deep saturation, and Michelle’s red lipstick is intensely vivid,” says Richardson. “To enhance the Kodachrome look, we took a highly unnatural approach to the lighting, using 20Ks and Dinos for backlight and making all frontal light the result of passive bounce. The extremely hot backlights — which were more than 8 stops over — created a visual dynamic that catapulted the LUT onto another level.” In post, Richardson cut light from the walls, creating a soft pinhole effect that slowly widens as DiCaprio approaches Williams. When the actors embrace in the living room, the camera
moves toward DiCaprio’s face, then pivots 180 degrees toward Williams. During this move, Richardson subtly finessed the backlight. “I had two keys that were dimmed during the move, so the first served as a backlight as I approached Leo. Then, as I moved from his face to hers, a backlight on the opposite side was brought up to become a backlight on her. Again, no light was added to their faces beyond the passive bounce reflecting off each of them.” Dream logic takes over as the apartment catches fire. Water begins oozing from Williams’ belly, and the fluid soon turns to blood; she then turns to ash and disintegrates, leaving DiCaprio empty-armed. “About half of that shot was done practically, and the rest was CGI,” says Legato. “That’s my style. If there’s any way to shoot something practically, even if it’s a separate element, I do that before I resort to CGI. The mix can fool your eye into thinking what it sees is real.” In this case, ACS_ADVT_7.25x4.875.ai
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the filmmakers first shot Williams in DiCaprio’s arms, and then she slipped out so they could film DiCaprio completing his action. The two shots of DiCaprio were then stitched together. Meanwhile, “Legacy Effects artists created an ashen figure that was prerigged to fall apart,” says Legato. “When we pulled it, it disintegrated. You add some CGI to that, stitch it all together, do some paint fixes and, little by little, you create the illusion.” Working with a cinematographer as gifted as Richardson makes such work more demanding than it sounds, Legato adds. “Bob has an innate sense of cinema, and his brain just clicks in exactly where the camera needs to go, how it moves and where the light should be. It’s a bit like Mozart and music: it seems effortless, but when you try to re-create it, only then do you appreciate how much skill and art were involved.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS 2.40:1 3-perf Super 35mm, 65mm and High-Definition Video Panavision Panaflex Millennium, PFX System 65 Studio; Arri 765, D-21 Panavision Primo and System 65 lenses Kodak Vision3 500T 5219; Vision2 200T 5217, 100T 5212 Digital Intermediate Printed on Kodak Vision Premier 2393 and Vision 2383
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Cinematographers on The Pacific, Glee and CSI: NY detail the challenges of their respective projects. By Joshua Gollish, David Heuring and Jean Oppenheimer •|•
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or our roundup of current prime-time-television highlights, we interviewed the cinematographers on three diverse productions: HBO’s World War II miniseries The Pacific, shot by Remi Adefarasin, BSC and Stephen Windon, ACS; Fox’s new musical “dramedy” Glee, shot by Christopher Baffa, ASC; and CBS’s long-running hit CSI: NY, shot by Marshall Adams and Feliks Parnell. The Pacific Cinematographers: Remi Adefarasin, BSC and Stephen Windon, ACS As his crew dragged a crane through the jungle in Far North Queensland during production of The Pacific, Remi Adefarasin, BSC couldn’t help but think of Werner Herzog’s mad adventure Fitzcarraldo. “I seem to remember the cinematographer on that film was crying, too, wasn’t he?” he jokes good-naturedly. The Pacific, which Adefarasin co-shot with Stephen 46
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Windon, ACS, is a World War II miniseries that will begin airing on HBO on March 14. The 10-part drama is a sequel of sorts to Band of Brothers (AC Sept. ’01), which Adefarasin co-shot with Joel Ransom, CSC. Whereas Band of Brothers followed a company of soldiers, The Pacific focuses on three enlisted men who serve in different battalions of the 1st Marine Division in the Pacific Theater of Operations. In keeping with the method established on Band of Brothers, Adefarasin and Windon shot their episodes simultaneously, each working with his own crew. The filmmakers used a mix of Arriflex cameras with Arri Ultra Primes and Angenieux Optimo (17-80mm and 24-290mm) zoom lenses. (Adefarasin also deployed an 18mm Zeiss Superspeed lens.) During prep, the cinematographers decided to limit themselves to two Kodak Vision2 emulsions, 200T 5217 and 500T 5218. “We also decided to shoot all daytime scenes without an 85 filter to help expose the greens in the lush jungles and give a slight twist to the color curve,” says Adefarasin. “Of course, that meant we needed a lot of NDs!”
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The Pacific photos by David James, SMPSP, and Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, courtesy of HBO.
Opposite: U.S. soldiers endure heavy combat on Okinawa in a scene from The Pacific. This page, far left: Episode director Tim Van Patten (wearing white cap) checks the shot as cinematographer Steve Windon, ACS films a scene for episode 9. Near left: Cinematographer Remi Adefarasin, BSC at work on another episode.
The cameramen also agreed to film all combat scenes handheld, a style modeled on the front-line footage shot by war correspondents at the time. “The cameras back then had huge shutters, and cameramen often shot with the shutter at 90 or even 60 degrees,” says Windon. “We altered the shutter speed during some of the combat sequences, [going as narrow as] 45 degrees. We felt twisting time a little bit would heighten the reality of those scenes.” One idea that quickly fell by the wayside was using wide-angle lenses. “With a wide-angle lens on a handheld camera, the viewer can really experience walking through a jungle or moving through a ship,” says Adefarasin. “You share the experience with the characters, because as they turn their heads, you can see instantly what they’re looking at.” But in order to finish each episode within its allotted five weeks, it was essential to use multiple cameras. The bulk of the shooting, therefore, was done on longer lenses; Windon favored 32mm, 40mm and 50mm, while Adefarasin favored 28mm and 32mm. About one-third of The Pacific was shot on location in Far North Queensland. Windon knew the region well, having shot a TV adaptation of South Pacific there several years earlier. “One thing about shooting in a jungle is that if you put a movie light in there someplace low, the scene will always look ‘lit,’ no matter how good a cinematographer you are,” he notes. He therefore resisted lighting from the forest floor, even though little natural light penetrated the dense foliage. “I stuck with overhead lighting, and we
used a bounce card or a white or blue sheet to bounce light up under the men’s helmets.” Australia’s environmental laws precluded hanging lamps from any trees, so Windon hired native tree climbers to string hemp yacht-rigging wire between the trees, and his crew then suspended about 60 space lights, spreading them across 2½ acres. “We ran them all through a dimmer board, which was inside a large shipping container that we positioned adjacent to the set,” he recalls. In an extended sequence shot at this location, Pvt. Robert Leckie ( James Badge Dale) and his unit are picking their way through the jungles of Cape Gloucester when Japanese soldiers ambush them. Later that night, while camped beside a river in a driving rain, they are attacked again. The nighttime battle lasts only a few minutes, and it is pitch black. Windon embraced the darkness, relying on flashes of gunfire and bursts of lightning to illuminate the scene. “Every time there was a lightning strike, you’d see what was happening,” he recalls. “It would freeze the rain for a fraction of a second, which heightened the reality. I was amazed at how much we could see just by using gunfire.” Windon did a bit of testing to see how much exposure he’d get from the weapons — “not that you can get a light reading on a gunshot!” he laughs — and ended up filming the scene at T1.9. “It was tough on the focus pullers, Matt Toll and Matt Windon. We added offcamera gunfire to create a little more light and threw in a few small fixtures, gelled blue-green, to backlight the rain.” www.theasc.com
A number of Windon’s scenes called for rain, at times a torrential downpour. Rain towers and hats were set up 20' below the lamps, and because the production didn’t want real rain, a transparent covering was positioned above all the lamps. Wind proved to be another problem, especially during Australia’s winter. (The 10-month shoot ran from August 2007 to May 2008.) After filming in FNQ , where all of the jungle sequences and beach landings were shot, the production moved to the You Yangs, 50 miles southwest of Melbourne, where almost all of the outdoor sets, including the battlefields, were spread across a 200-acre quarry. Adefarasin, whose episodes include two amphibious landings, grimaces slightly as he recalls the first day of production, the landing on Guadalcanal. Two-dozen nervous Marines, on their first mission, are crouched inside a Higgins boat as it barrels toward shore. “Being in a Higgins boat is like being in a tin can with tall walls,” declares Adefarasin. “The boat was tossed around by the waves, the sun was beating down, and the odor of diesel permeated the air. We lost 18 men to motion sickness that day!” Whereas the landing on Guadalcanal turned out to be unopposed, the landing on Peleliu was met with fierce resistance from the Japanese, who were hiding in bunkers and pillboxes in the hills above the beach. The shots of the American boats reaching shore were filmed in FNQ , but once the Marines hit the beach and the battle began, everything was shot in the giant March 2010
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Top and middle: Amphibious landings posed a variety of challenges for the filmmakers, who shot these scenes in Far North Queensland, Australia. Bottom left: Soldiers move between their Higgins boat and a destroyer. Bottom right: Filming the scene onstage.
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quarry in the You Yangs. It was here that production designer Anthony Pratt — “the brilliant Anthony Pratt,” as both Windon and Adefarasin repeatedly refer to him — designed and built not only Peleliu, but also Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Pavuvu, the hospital on Banika, Camp Pendleton and a dozen other outdoor sets. The landing on Peleliu marks the introduction to combat for Pvt. Eugene Sledge ( Joe Mazzello). Adefarasin and episode director Carl Franklin designed
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Feliks Par nell Cinematographer
Marshall Adams Cinematographer
Expectations! We all have them but not everyone meets them. Clairmont Camera continually surpasses all of our expectations. Feliks and Marshall
H o l ly wo o d 8 1 8 - 7 6 1 - 4 4 4 0
Va n c o u v e r 6 0 4 - 9 8 4 - 4 5 6 3
To r o n t o 4 1 6 - 4 6 7 - 1 7 0 0 w w w . c l a i r m o n t . c o m
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M o n t r e a l 5 1 4 - 5 2 5 - 6 5 5 6
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Near right: Torrential downpours were created throughout the 10-month shoot. Far right: Sgt. John Basilone (Jon Seda), one of the miniseries’ main characters, leads his fellow soldiers into battle.
five shots that followed Sledge as he landed on shore, scrambled up the beach amid constant mortar attacks, and finally dove into the safety of a bunker. They wanted the five shots to play as one extended shot (with the smoke from the explosions masking the cuts), and they wanted to make the sequence as experiential as possible for the audience. “In a case like that, you really have to work out how to join those five shots before you start shooting,” notes Adefarasin. The plan called for a series of camera hand-offs among the camera operators, Simon Finney (A camera), Ben Fox-Wilson (B camera) and Adefarasin (C camera). The first operator starts the shot right behind Sledge as he tumbles out of the Amtrac and starts to run up the beach. At a certain point, that operator hands off the camera to the next operator, who continues running behind Sledge and then hands off the camera to a third operator, who is sitting on a crane. The crane swoops around a patch of impossible-to-navigate terrain, at which point the camera is handed off one more time to the operator who follows Sledge into the bunker. “Simon preferred looking through the 50
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lens, but Ben and I used an LCD screen [as a viewfinder],” recalls Adefarasin. “Simon kept the camera on his shoulder and turned into a goat, running like hell and keeping his eye glued to the eyepiece.” A strong believer in the “accidental errors of filmmaking,” the minor mistakes that can add authenticity to a scene, Adefarasin confesses that he “deliberately makes accidents happen.” In one instance, a Japanese soldier is shot at close range, and Adefarasin wanted the experiential feeling of his blood hitting the lens. The specialeffects department devised a rig to accomplish that. “You feel the death more,” says Adefarasin. Episode 8 is devoted almost entirely to Sgt. John Basilone ( Jon Seda), the third main character, who becomes the hero of Guadalcanal and eventually dies on Iwo Jima. The battle of Iwo Jima starts with an establishing shot of the Marines already on the beach. “We put three cameras on Basilone, each with a different lens,” recounts Windon, whose team included A-camera operator Marc Spicer, ACS, and B-camera operator Leigh McKenzie. (The cinematographer American Cinematographer
manned the C camera himself.) “[Episode director] David Nutter planned the sequence carefully, staging certain little pieces of action as practical explosions were going off. We literally held the cameras at knee level and ran with them, using these great little LCD monitors made by Transvideo. Holding the cameras low not only made them steadier, but also afforded an interesting perspective, because they’re catching the action from just above the ground.” As Basilone is shot and falls to the ground, the camera speed increases to 96 fps — the only time slow motion was employed on the shoot. The final shot of Basilone, which shows him lying dead in the dirt, starts just above him and pulls up higher and higher until a large swath of the battlefield is seen. “A couple of weeks before we shot that, I saw a small construction crane driving around, and I thought of that sequence,” recalls Windon. “I told David Nutter my idea, and he loved it, so Warren Grieff, my key grip, made a cradle for our Scorpio Head, and we sent it 100 feet into the air. We had to rig support cables to it so the camera wouldn’t twist around.” Windon cites the battle on Okinawa as his favorite episode.
Constant rains transformed the ground into rivers of mud, and “I went for a really desaturated look, a cool, almost monochromatic look. I hadn’t done that in any of my previous episodes. I underexposed everything by about a stop and used a light blue filter, and we had huge smoke machines that helped filter the sunlight.” He desaturated the image further in the final color timing, which was done at Santa Monica post house Riot in collaboration with colorist Steve Porter. (HD dailies were graded by Neil Wood at Digital Pictures in Melbourne.) Even though the Okinawa combatants only fought during the daytime, both the Americans and the Japanese shot flares into the night sky to keep an eye on the enemy. There is a long scene of the Marines sitting around at night, talking about their lives back home, and Windon wanted to shoot it by the light of the flares as they moved through the sky. “To re-create that, we used a mixture of real flares, courtesy of the special-effects team, and a lighting rig that we put on a construction crane,” he recalls. “The rig consisted of 15 or 20 6K tungsten globes, and we put an amber gel pack across the whole thing. We swung the 200-foot crane arm to suggest flares moving across the ridgeline. You can imagine the wonderful moving shadows it created! “That was our main light, and we supplemented with shiny boards and reflectors around the camera,” he continues. “When we didn’t have flares, we’d just rely on our ‘moonlight,’ 20K tungstens bounced off 20-by diffusion frames of Light Grid or Ultra Bounce. We also bounced 12K Pars off the ground.” Reflecting on the 10-month shoot, Adefarasin observes, “Our biggest problems were sand and grit in the cameras, although they all held up beautifully, and the short winter days in the forest. It was always near dark, but by 3 p.m. it was black! “This was an enormous production, with enormous rigs and setups, but the story is about small details — about
what happens to a man’s mind during wartime,” he adds. “You know, the world can be pretty terrible. We made Band of Brothers before 9/11, and the world today is a meaner, more wicked place. The Pacific seems to me to reflect the world as it is now as much as it shows what happened so many years ago. That’s why it’s such a powerful piece.” — Jean Oppenheimer
TECHNICAL SPECS Super 1.78:1 4-perf Super 35mm Arricam Studio, Lite; Arri 235 Arri, Angenieux and Zeiss lenses Kodak Vision2 200T 5217, 500T 5218
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The misfit kids in the Glee Club put on a show in a scene from Glee, shot by Christopher Baffa, ASC.
Glee Cinematographer: Christopher Baffa, ASC One of television’s newest series, Glee, takes a sometimes-snarky, sometimes-sincere look at the politics and peccadilloes of a high-school Glee Club. Matthew Morrison plays Will Schuester, an earnest Spanish teacher who hopes to revive the club, which is populated by an array of hormoneaddled students. Characters often break into song, and more elaborate production numbers are designed to communicate the magical thrill of performance. “We have moments of heightened, exaggerated comedy, as well as some surprisingly dramatic material,” says Christopher Baffa, ASC, the show’s cinematographer. “We’re trying to do that M*A*S*H thing, where the audience is laughing one moment and genuinely touched the next.” Baffa and Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy previously worked together on the hit F/X series Nip/Tuck (AC Feb. ’04) and the feature Running With Scissors (2006), but their first collaboration occurred back in 1999, on two seasons of 52
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another high-school dramedy, Popular. Baffa says he found Murphy’s script for the Glee pilot “very fresh, clever and insightful, and I was happy for the opportunity to do something this unusual.” When 20th Century Fox TV picked up the show, Baffa stayed aboard. “The challenge of doing the series — taking what we’d learned on the pilot and carrying it out on an episodic schedule and budget — was compelling,” he says. “I know some cinematographers are wary of the commitment involved in shooting a TV series, but I’ve come to appreciate the stability.” In their discussions about the show’s look, Baffa, Murphy and cocreators Ian Brennan and Brad Falchuk focused on accessibility. “That’s been a staple of my work with Ryan, who is interested in characters and situations that can be a bit difficult to identify with,” notes Baffa. “I think he has a real gift for depicting the intricacies of the human condition.” That outlook, in turn, leads to mainly naturalistic visuals. “We want Glee to be rooted in reality so that when the drama or comedy is heightened, or when there is a musical number, it contrasts with the everyday American Cinematographer
world but doesn’t become camp or farce,” says Baffa. “That realism serves as a safety net, in a way. If the material were combined with aggressive, highly stylized visuals, I think it would be too much.” The pilot was shot at several schools in the Los Angeles area, but John Burroughs High School in Burbank was the main location. For the series, production designer Mark Hutman borrowed elements of the actual schools to design hallway, classroom and office sets, and Baffa incorporated some lighting schemes from the practical locations. For the pilot, Baffa often lit from the ceiling, either changing out existing fluorescent fixtures or bouncing light into the ceiling and flagging it off walls. “Sometimes, usually on close-ups, that bounced light was further diffused by frames of Full Grid,” he says. “The overall approach gave us a nice, realistic high-school feel and allowed a lot of flexibility to do exploratory camera moves.” On the soundstage, Baffa replicated that look with overhead fixtures, sometimes blasting light through bleached-muslin ceiling pieces to create a single large, glowing source. Working onstage with greenbeds also allowed him to create more directional light when necessary. Glee’s permanent sets are built on four stages at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. They include school hallways, one classroom that is redressed to portray a variety of classrooms, and a couple of offices, including those of the school principal and Sue Sylvester ( Jane Lynch), Schuester’s archrival. Other key sets are the choir room, where the Glee Club meets, and the teachers’ lounge, which is almost an exact replica of the lounge at Burroughs. “We loved the teacher’s lounge at Burroughs because it had two glass walls that gave us layers to play with and let in some daylight,” explains Baffa. “On location, ambient daylight was generally just there, but on the series we had to create that feel.” Positioned outside the lounge’s glass walls are almost 20 six-light coops
Glee photos by Carin Baer, courtesy of Fox Broadcasting Co.
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Home-Screen Hits
Left: The students (from left: Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale) practice in the choir room. Above: Baffa and A-camera 1st AC Penny Sprague at work on the set.
hanging above a 30'x30' Full Grid sky. The crew, led by Baffa’s longtime chief lighting technician, Andrew Glover, and key grip Jerry Day, augments this “natural” skylight with “bashers,” a tool they developed on the Nip/Tuck pilot that comprises eight six-light Maxi coops through two angled frames (one measuring 10'x30', the other 11'x40') of Full Grid diffusion mounted just outside the windows. This sends ambient daylight into the set and helps to illuminate the trees outside the window. Direct “sun” is mimicked by two 20Ks through 4'x4' frames of Full Grid that are placed on an adjustable I-beam for easy repositioning. Everything, including the cyclorama lighting, is on dimmers to facilitate as much on-the-fly control as possible. As the first season progressed, Baffa occasionally used gels to add warmth, primarily to the two 20K “sun” sources. “There are usually a lot of actors involved in scenes in the teachers’ lounge, and we move the camera around in there quite a bit,” says Baffa. “We use a great deal of negative fill to create contrast when we can. Our overall lighting scheme allows us to get set up and move quickly, which is always a good thing in episodic television.” Baffa shoots the show in 3-perf Super 35mm using Panaflex Millen54
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nium XLs provided by Panavision Hollywood. Two cameras are run all the time, and as many as four are used on production numbers. Panavision 11:1 Primo zooms allow for precise compositional control and quick focal-length changes; prime lenses are used for the abundant Steadicam and handheld work. “With the great quality of today’s lenses and film stocks, the question of zooms vs. primes is no longer an issue, in my opinion,” says Baffa. “Using two cameras is pretty much a tenet of episodic work today, and I’ve gotten better at finding places to put the second camera. [A-camera/Steadicam operator] Andrew Mitchell and [Bcamera operator] Duane Mieliwocki are extremely creative at finding those opportunities as well.” Glee is shot on a single film stock, Kodak Vision3 500T 5219. “When I compare the real world to a corresponding image that I’ve shot on a Kodak negative, I’m always amazed at the synchronicity between the two,” he remarks. “My ability to depend on film’s latitude gives us added efficiency. Ryan very much prefers film to shooting digitally, and we feel this look is appropriate for the show. We didn’t want Glee to feel at all like a reality show. We have a young cast with a wide variety of skin tones, and we felt the softness of film American Cinematographer
was critical. Also, it has an emotional truth that people identify with, which ties in with our intended naturalistic approach.” Baffa makes judicious use of a handheld camera, but Mitchell and Mieliwocki are instructed to keep the frame as steady as possible. “Handheld can give a comedic scene a little spark and a dramatic scene added subconscious tension,” he says. “We’ve done scenes where one character’s coverage was shot handheld and the other’s was done from a dolly, mirroring their different emotional levels. But handheld is a big brush, and you have to know why you are exercising that power. It can turn an audience off just as quickly as it can engage them.” The choir room is also lit with two “bashers,” but in that set they are sourced with a mix of 12 5K and 10K Skypans softened by 4'x4' Full Grid frames, then further softened by two diffusion panels (10'x41' and 8'x41') on either side of the room. As in the hallways, the overhead-lighting approach facilitates camera moves and quick direction changes, sometimes within the shot. “There’s an unwritten rule now that when we do the songs, we have to be ready to go all over the room, and the lighting has to facilitate that,” says Baffa. “We often do 360-degree shots, and
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Home-Screen Hits
Glee Club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison, left) has a run-in with cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) in the teachers’ lounge. Also pictured is Stephen Tobolowsky.
Andrew’s Steadicam work really helps bring those scenes to life. There might be a group of kids watching a performance on one side of the room, and the teacher will be on the other side, and the singing and dancing is happening all around the room. The challenge is keeping the light off the walls! Jerry Day has giant black teasers that come down from the walls and take out large chunks of soft light. “As the season progressed, I was able to build more and more contrast into the look,” continues the cinematographer. “I’m drawn to contrast, but the texture and mood have to suit our highschool environment. We try to balance somewhat contrasty lighting with a fluid camera; my job is to make that work for our directors, and I think we’ve found a good balance.” Fill is often created with 4'x8' bead boards taped to a wall. “I like fill to be as big as possible, so I’ll bounce into a 12-by bleached muslin if I can,” says Baffa. “To me, fill should be light whose absence you notice; you shouldn’t necessarily notice its presence. I always want my fill to be shadowless, and that’s why it often ends up right over camera, so that any shadows that are created are hidden by the actors.” Performances in the choir room are usually shot in a more naturalistic style than performances given onstage; the latter tend to be elaborately lit, costumed and choreographed. The 56
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stage performances are filmed on location in an auditorium at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, Calif., where the crew augments the existing stage lighting. “The stage moments are very theatrical and romanticized because the idea is that these kids are in Glee Club because they’re attracted to the romance of the stage,” says Baffa. “The stage needs to pose a visual contrast with the students’ daily lives, so we use tools like multi-colored Par cans, lens flares and programmable rock ’n’ roll light changes in those sequences.” Par cans provide a lot of punch, which is important, given the number of saturated gels used on them. The programmable lights project moving patterns. The audience is sometimes lit with lighting balloons floated overhead, and in other cases, empty seats are raked with a more direct, hard source. Because of the shadows they create, spotlights on the performers are usually avoided in favor of covered-wagon fixtures overhead. Hard light is more often used as edgelight, backlight or for accents, often in two complementary colors. The production numbers are often quite grand, with as many as 20 singers and dancers. Mitchell is frequently onstage with the Steadicam rig, and a crane is often brought in for swooping shots from the audience’s perspective. Full 360-degree shots are also common. Additionally, lighting becomes more expressionistic, especially American Cinematographer
in terms of color. Baffa and Glover adjust colors on the stage lighting depending on the script and the emotional story point that each performance is intended to reinforce. “Andrew is great at incorporating the existing theater lighting with ours,” says the cinematographer. “Often the lighting is moving and running through a dimmer board and responding to music cues. It’s tough to orchestrate all that on an eight-day schedule, but we’re getting it down to a science, and my grip and electric crews work tremendously hard to wrangle the various technical and logistical challenges inherent in these sequences. The performances depend on all departments working as a cohesive whole, in support of each other, so when I see the final scene, it’s quite rewarding.” The show’s postproduction is currently handled by Encore Hollywood, where colorist Kevin Kirwan does the color correction on a DaVinci 2K. “I first worked with Kevin a decade ago, on Popular, and he has been a huge force in my TV career,” says Baffa. “He’s a good friend and an amazing colorist who understands what we’re trying to do, and he shares many of my artistic sensibilities. Kevin is an invaluable member of the team and a huge asset to the show.” When he spoke to AC, Baffa was prepping the second half of Glee’s first season, which will begin airing in April. The show has already been picked up for a second season, which is set to begin shooting in July. “I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished so far,” says Baffa, “and we’re all looking forward to getting back to work.” — David Heuring
TECHNICAL SPECS Super 1.78:1 3-perf Super 35mm Panaflex Millennium XL Panavision Primo lenses Kodak Vision3 500T 5219
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Home-Screen Hits
CSI: NY Cinematographers: Marshall Adams and Feliks Parnell Mirroring a transition that a number of TV series have made recently, Jerry Bruckheimer’s CSI: NY, about police detectives Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes) and their team of forensic investigators, switched from shooting film to doing mostly digital capture this season, relying on 35mm only for insert work. As the production’s digital-imaging technician, my role was to help make the transition seamless for series cinematographers Marshall Adams and Feliks Parnell. During prep for this season, the cinematographers discussed their digitalcamera options with Alan Albert and Mike Condon at Clairmont Camera, which had been providing the show’s 35mm camera package. “Feliks and I have both been with the show since its second season, so we knew what we were looking for,” says Adams. “Last season we used Arricam Studios and Lites and an Arri 435, and in combination with Kodak [Vision 500T] 5279, that was a robust, reliable system. The question was how we could match that both aesthetically and 58
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technically with the available high-definition technology.” The team concluded that the Sony F35, set up in Cine-Mode with SGamut color space and S-Log gamma curve, would yield the best results. After 14-bit A/D sampling of the Super 35mm-sized CCD, the S-Gamut and S-Log functions in the F35 allow for the maximum amount of color and dynamic range to be captured onto HDCam-SR tape at 10-bit 4:4:4 RGB. Camera tests and color correction a week prior to commencement of season-six principal photography confirmed that the switch would be viable. “The F35 handles contrast very well, yielding rich shadows and clean highlights, but the dynamic range is much more limited than film’s,” notes Parnell. “The curves of exposure are not the same, but if you shift your exposure band down, you can penetrate the layers of luminance and again see what you want in terms of the shadows and highlights. A combination of S-Log in the recording, what we monitor at the HD video village [the camera’s native Linear Rec 709 output], and our familiarity with [Encore Hollywood colorist] Johnny Kirkwood’s work allow us to accurately gauge what the final product will be.” American Cinematographer
“One of the nice things about digital is being able to see instantly how skin tones will react to some of the colors we might use — we use far more color on this show than a cinematographer normally would,” says Adams. “And in general, being able to judge exposure [using 24" Cine-tal and Leader 5750 Waveform monitors] and really control the edge of underexposure is a plus. [Gaffer] Andrew Smith and I push the edges of exposure by always trying to put something hot in the frame, giving Johnny Kirkwood a reference for the exposure top-line. The rest of the frame can stay down, compressed and edgy.” Given that CSI: NY features a very mobile camera, maintaining agility with the new HD package was critical. Adams notes that emerging support technologies were key. “Looking at HD sets that have a myriad of wires and monitors can make you afraid to make the change,” he says, “but we’ve been able to use a new wireless system [IDX’s WeVi CamWave CW5HD uncompressed wireless HD-SDI transmitter] confidently and without sacrificing quality.” The cinematographers agree that the chief disadvantage of shooting digitally is the F35’s electronic viewfinder, a high-resolution LCD system. “Without an optical viewfinder, our camera opera-
CSI: NY photos by Sonja Flemming, Rudi Simpson and Cliff Lipson, courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc.
Above: Det. Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise, left) illuminates some evidence for his colleagues Stella Bonasera (Malina Kanakaredes) and Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) in a scene from CSI: NY. Right: Cinematographer Feliks Parnell sets up a shot for a 2007 episode.
Photo by Tom Nowak
From the film Structurally Sound. Photo by Amanda Bose.
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Home-Screen Hits
Cinematographer Marshall Adams at work on the recent episode “Cuckoo’s Nest.”
tors are no longer able to see critical focus, so judging focus has become part of what the DIT does and what we do at the video village,” says Adams. “Small reflections, boom poles, minor flares and other small focus issues simply cannot be seen well with the electronic viewfinders. The assistants can see focus fairly well at the camera, but we must also watch for little issues to help the
operators. With digital, job descriptions are evolving.” In adapting to HD, the cinematographers are modulating the comparative “harshness” of the digital image with Tiffen’s Hollywood Black Magic filters in strengths of 1⁄8, 1⁄4, 1⁄2, and 1, says Parnell. Another concession to digital, he continues, is that the camera team has become “more judicious about lateral movement in the frame, because that feels different with the F35 as opposed to a film camera. But otherwise, we change the lenses the same way; we don’t do any special calibration or collimation; and we change tapes just as we would change a film mag. “It’s a different medium, and our goal isn’t to make it look like film, but to make it look as good as the digital format can,” he adds. “We have embraced the change, and we’re as efficient with day-to-day production and as capable as we were last season.”
CSI: NY is shot at CBS Radford Studios in Studio City, Calif., and on location in downtown Los Angeles. Making day exteriors resemble the look of New York City is no small feat, and Adams and Parnell use a variety of techniques to do so. “We try very hard on day exteriors to stay within building tops to maintain the feel of New York, where buildings are much taller,” says Adams. “That ‘canyoning’ look gives you ambient, bluish skylight, so we often go without an 85 filter.” “I tend to prefer very soft sources, and I like to use directional, strong, soft light to create a layered look,” says Parnell. “For day work, I use powerful, directional tungsten sources corrected for daylight; for night work, tungsten light is still the yardstick for the color spectrum. I may tend to go in a cooler direction with some lights and warmer with others, but for me, ambient night light always begins with a tungsten source.” Gaffer Andrew Smith adds, “One of
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Feliks’ favorite tools is an Iride Jumbo [ACL] with 16 lamps at 600 watts each.” The show’s key sets — CSI headquarters, The War Room (a conference center), Interrogation, Autopsy and Taylor’s office among them — are all full of detail. “We try to keep the frame as busy and interesting as possible,” says Adams. “The lab sets feature a lot of glass, and that gives us incredible depth because we can see from one lab into another. That, in turn, allows us to color elements in the foreground and background, which we do with Super Green and Super Blue Kino Flo tubes, Color Blast [LED] light fixtures, and a variety of gels that stay within our color palette. For example, we use Super Green [tubes] in our Reconstruction set, and you can see that in the deep background frequently. We also use various monitors [56" plasma screens, LCDs and LED meters] out of focus in the foreground or background to add color and movement
28mm – 76mm
to the frame; we have a large selection of old graphics from finished episodes to pull images from.” The production carries a full set of Cooke S4 prime lenses and Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses. “The 12:1 [24290mm] Optimo has become our workhorse — it’s an incredibly versatile and remarkable piece of glass,” says Adams. “We’ve had a 4:1 [17-80mm] Optimo for a while, and as the smaller Optimo series [15-40mm and 28-76mm] became available, we expanded our package to include them.” Parnell adds, “We try to guide the viewer’s eye to certain areas of the frame, and long lenses, shallow depth-of-field and wideopen apertures, whenever possible, all contribute to that. We don’t use prime lenses nearly as much as we used to.” “One of the effects of going digital this year is that tools we might not have considered in post have become more attractive,” notes Adams. “For example, when we shot film, we shot
17mm – 80mm
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flashback scenes at 12 fps and used Swing-and-Tilt lenses. This season we shoot them at speed (23.98PsF) and add the swing-and-tilt effect in post. “The other day, [A-camera 1st AC] Matt Credle and I were chatting about our transition to digital, and he remembered that Mike Condon [Clairmont’s key digital technician] was initially going to stay with us for a full week to ensure a seamless transition,” adds Adams. “As it turned out, we didn’t even need Mike for half of the first day! That’s how well it’s gone.” — Joshua Gollish
TECHNICAL SPECS 16x9 High-Definition Video and 35mm Sony F35; Arri 435 Angenieux, Cooke and Nikkor lenses Kodak Vision2 200T 5274, 500T 5260; Vision3 500T 5219 ●
24mm – 290mm
A Passion for
His Craft
John C. Flinn, ASC receives the Society’s Career Achievement in Television Award for years of sterling work. By Douglas Bankston •|•
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J
ohn C. Flinn III, ASC, who received the Society’s Career Achievement in Television Award a few weeks ago, lives and breathes his work. “I’ve been doing what I do for going on 46 years, and I can hardly wait until tomorrow,” he says. “I love it and thrive on it.” And that’s either behind the camera or in front of it. That’s right: Flinn’s first foray into the film biz was as an actor. “I really wanted to give that a shot, but in those days, getting on the lot was tough,” he says. It was the mid-1960s, when studios were still filled with contract players. However, Flinn had an “in” at Columbia Pictures, where his father was director of advertising and publicity. (Flinn’s grandfather had been a producer and vice president at Cecil B. DeMille Studios.) Between acting lessons, Flinn would get on the
American Cinematographer
Columbia lot and observe rehearsals, and what he witnessed behind the scenes steered him onto a different career path. “I saw how this whole team — directors, cinematographers, et cetera — came together to create this thing right before my eyes,” recalls the Los Angeles native. “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s for me.’” He went to Bill Widemeyer, the head of Columbia’s camera department, and offered his services — mentioning, of course, that he knew nothing about cameras. “A few weeks later, Bill called me up and asked if I could be at Columbia Ranch in an hour. I said, ‘To do what?’ And he said, ‘To be a second assistant cameraman.’ I go over there, and Freddy Jackman [ Jr., ASC] is up on a crane; he was the cameraman I was supposed to see. The assistant director called out, ‘Fred, there’s a kid here to see ya.’ Fred looks down and says, ‘Yeah?’ I said, ‘My name’s John Flinn. I don’t know a thing.’ The crane arm comes down, and he says, ‘You’re the first son of a bitch that’s told me the truth. Leroy, show this kid what to do.’ And that started it.” It was 1965, and the gig was on the comedy series The Wackiest Ship in the Army. “I had never been in a camera truck before, and there was so much stuff! I thought I’d never learn any of it. But there were great guys who sat down with me and took the time to explain what each thing did.” So, Flinn learned on the job from expert ASC cinematographers such as Bill Fraker, Ted Voigtlander, Richard Rawlings, Monroe “Monk” Askins, Burnett Guffey and Charles Wheeler. “After I’d been in the union with about eight or nine days of camera, the camera department called me up — again on a Friday — and told me to be at the airport at 7 on Monday morning to go to Hawaii. They were doing the pilot for From Here to Eternity, and Guffey was going to be the cameraman. I made sure my roommates locked me in the house so I wouldn’t go anywhere or do anything that would make me miss that flight! We shot for eight days, but the pilot never went anywhere. ➣
Opposite: John C. Flinn III, ASC checks his light during the filming of Magnum, P.I. in Hawaii. This page, from top: Flinn (center, gesturing) with his crew in Ireland shooting the telefilm The Flame is Love (1979); Flinn doing some aerial work on Cry of the Innocent (1980); the camera crew of the telefilm Sole Survivor (1970) included (from left) operator Michael Margulies (future ASC); cinematographer James Crabe, ASC; 1st AC Bobby Green (blocked by camera) and thenassistant Flinn.
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March 2010
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A Passion for His Craft “I got to work with so many cool guys,” he continues. “I worked with Connie Hall [ASC] on Divorce American Style for a week, and I worked with Bob Surtees [ASC], who was so great to me on Alvarez Kelly.” Flinn was basically day-playing and doing something that was unusual in those days: freely moving among the different studios. The Mitchell NCs and BNCs might have all been the same, but each studio’s camera department had its own techniques, and Flinn learned all of them. As word got around, he became a popular fill-in and go-to assistant on multiple-camera days. “Having the opportunity to bounce from one studio to the next was very cool,” he says. “To get in there and be accepted by the elders was really something. I had the opportunity to learn a lot.” He hadn’t yet turned his back on acting, however. When he wasn’t working camera, he’d get a part or do stunt work, sometimes moving from in front of the camera to behind it on the same production. Such was the case on the comedy series Get Smart, where Flinn did stair falls and fight stunts and eventually became a Kaos agent. When he wasn’t trying to take over the world, he was a camera assistant on the show. Flinn says, “I’d get on shows, and the director would come up to me and say, ‘Read this part.’ I was the operator on Gunsmoke, and sometimes [director] Vincent McEveety would ask me to read a part. I also did some stunts and saddle falls. I doubled John Russell, an old Western actor. I worked at Disney and got some parts on shows there, too. I still have my SAG card, which I’ve had since 1967.” Flinn got the card immediately after an incident that almost killed his budding career on the spot. He explains, “I wanted to get on the set of In Cold Blood at Columbia to watch Connie Hall light. The crew knew why I was really there, and they got me in as an extra, a policeman. I’ve got the uniform on, and I’m on the set of the police station. This guy comes up with a pipe
From top: Flinn and his crew on Nashville Beat (1989); Flinn takes five in director Lou Antonio’s chair while operating Steadicam for cinematographer Gayne Rescher, ASC on Something For Joey (1977); assisting (at far right) on the 1973 feature Battle for the Planet of the Apes for cinematographer Richard H. Kline, ASC (far left).
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American Cinematographer
Atop the tower (on right, with bullhorn), Flinn directs an episode of Magnum, P.I. Lloyd Ahern II, ASC took over camera duties on the shoot. Also on the tower is camera operator Pat McGinnis.
in his mouth and yells, ‘What is that in your pocket?!’ I open up the pocket and say, ‘Cigarettes, asshole. You want one?’ I look over at Connie, who is just shaking his head. This guy just turns and walks away, and I ask the assistant director, Tommy Shaw, ‘Who was that jackass?’ And he says, ‘That’s Richard Brooks, the producer, director and writer.’ Oh, my god, what have I done? Brooks comes back up the ramp, takes the pistol out of my holster, looks at it, then puts it back and walks away. Moments later, Tommy walks over and asks, ‘You got a SAG card?’ I told him no, I was just studying camera and acting. ‘Kid, go get your SAG card now, as you are.’ I went down to Sunset Boulevard in the police uniform, paid my $110, went back to the studio and got a two-week contract at $850 per week.” While working with cinematographer Robert Morrison on the fourpart series Backstairs at the White House (which was filmed in 1978 but aired in ’79), Flinn got to know producer Ed Friendly (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Little House on the Prairie) and director Michael O’Herlihy. “I got along with those guys so well that they knew how
much I loved my work,” says Flinn. Soon after, they asked Flinn to shoot a telefilm in Ireland because Morrison was tied up with another project. The Flame Is Love (1979) was Flinn’s break as a director of photography. He recalls,
“Can you imagine being stuck in Hawaii for 7½ years? Every day I felt lucky to be there.”
“I had plenty of time to prep, which gave me time to check the look and time of day. When the wind blows on those grass hills in Ireland, there is every different shade of green you can imagine. You just can’t believe it. And the clouds are going a hundred miles an www.theasc.com
hour. I had to literally time those clouds, because I could be in the middle of a scene and everything would go dark when a cloud passed by. That experience helped me when I went to Hawaii to shoot Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum, P.I.” The call about Hawaii Five-O came while Flinn was in Ireland: Jack Lord asked him to shoot the show’s final season. After that, Flinn returned to L.A. and shot a few TV movies before signing onto a new series, Steven Bochco’s Hill Street Blues (1981). The drama about an inner-city police precinct became one of the top shows of the decade. In 1984, Flinn moved on to tackle the dramatic fireworks at a modeling agency on the short-lived series Paper Dolls. “It got canceled at lunchtime during the 13th episode,” he recalls. “When I called my agent and told her the news, she said she was busy looking for a cameraman to go to Hawaii to shoot a show called Magnum, P.I. I said, ‘Would you do me a favor and call them and tell them I’m available? I’d appreciate that!’ A halfhour later, she calls and says, ‘You’re leaving tomorrow.’ I knew Tom Selleck — he and I went to school and played ball together. I ended up staying in March 2010
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The Magnum, P.I. crew left Hawaii for Washington, D.C., for the series finale, “Resolutions.” Here, Flinn and operator Pat McGinnis prep a crane shot at the Lincoln Memorial.
Hawaii for the next four years.” Magnum, P.I., which starred Selleck as the laid-back private investigator Thomas Magnum, was another hit series that came to define the 1980s. On the show, Flinn practiced his mantra of never shooting the same shot twice. It wasn’t a strict rule, but an overarching philosophy. “I did do some of the same shots but would change up the composition a little,” he elaborates. “If take one was really cool and the director liked it, I’d ask to move the camera a bit just to get a little different background so he could have a choice. I could take the camera and move it five feet and get another beautiful picture.” Flinn looks back on his Magnum days with fondness. “Working with Selleck and understanding his character and having so much fun with all of it was beyond comparison,” he says. “We came back from lunch one time, and I was on the set, lighting the interior, and the door opened and all this loud music was playing. Here came Selleck, his buddies, his wardrobe guy and his driver. I said, ‘Come on, guys, we gotta go to work!’ Then I realized they all had their hands behind their backs. All of a sudden, they unload with huge squirt guns, nailing everybody on the set. That 66
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started a water fight that was so big and lasted so long that we had time to go to the drugstore 10 minutes away to get balloons, fill them with water and send stunt guys up on the rafters to throw water balloons. Finally, Selleck called out, ‘That’s a wrap!’ Those are the kinds of things he would pull. Just magic.” Flinn’s directing break happened
“I’ve been doing what I do for almost 46 years, and I can hardly wait until tomorrow.”
on Magnum. “The directors really depended on me,” he says. “I kept things moving for them because they were our guests and they didn’t know the crew. American Cinematographer
We had a schedule to keep, and I knew how long it took to get from A to B. I had great relationships with those directors, and it was awfully kind of them to go to the producers and say, ‘This guy Flinn really helped me out.’ In the end, they let me direct a show, and they gave me another one the next season. That was such a compliment.” Magnum also brought Flinn his first Emmy nomination (for the episode “Unfinished Business”). When the series ended its run, in 1988, Flinn returned to the mainland and hit the golf course with his dad. Between the ninth and 10th holes, he ran into Mike Motor, the senior vice president of Viacom. Motor asked him how he liked Hawaii. When Flinn responded very favorably, Motor hired him on the spot to shoot the crimesolving series Jake and the Fatman, which was about to move to Hawaii. Flinn’s belongings were still en route to California in a container ship, and he had to get the ship and his family turned around and headed back to the islands immediately. “Can you imagine being stuck in Hawaii for 7½ years?” he asks jokingly. “I’d wake up at about 6, take a run on the beach, shower, go to work, then go home and play with my kids in
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A Passion for His Craft
the ocean. It was the best. Every day I felt lucky to be there.” Flinn’s work on Jake and the Fatman brought him an ASC Award (in 1993, for the episode “Nightmares”), two additional ASC nominations (in 1991 and 1992) and two Emmy nominations (in 1989 and 1990). In 1990, he notched a second Emmy nomination for the telefilm The Operation. Flinn racked up two more Emmy nominations in the mid-1990s for his cinematography on Babylon 5, a sci-fi series on which he also did some directing and acting. (One character of his was even named Mr. Flinn.) After years of working on Westerns, crime shows and dramas, Babylon 5 was his first taste of science fiction, and his efforts endeared him to a rabid fan base. “Space — what’s out there?” he asks rhetorically. “I get the old palette out and say, ‘Give me every gel we’ve got and test this and that.’ It was fun. What planet are we on today, and what colors are on it? Production designer John Iacovelli and I had a great communication. He did a great job on such a small budget.” The series also was his first that featured extensive visual effects, and it occurred during the rapid sea change from optical to digital. “In the old days, it would take a whole day to do greenscreen or bluescreen,” he says. “But with computers, I could have the whole thing lit and ready to go in half an hour. Every day that whole process was changing so fast and for the better. I’d
Top left: Flinn with 1st AC Wally Sweeterman on the series Babylon 5. Top right: Checking his light on actress Terry Farrell while shooting Paper Dolls. Right: Setting up a shot with operator Phil Caplan for the series Hill Street Blues. Below: In the ring with a headmounted 16mm camera while operating on The Contender (1980).
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A Passion for His Craft
Flinn works as a Steadicam operator on the 1977 telefilm Something for Joey. With him is 1st AC Rick Anderson. The director of photography was Gayne Rescher, ASC.
shoot a day or two of just greenscreen with light effects.” Flinn notched another Emmy nomination for the 2003 telefilm Hunter: Back in Force, which was based on the 1980s Hunter series and starred the original leads, Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer. The telefilm jump-
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started a Hunter series reboot, which Flinn also shot. In 2005, he signed onto Gilmore Girls, which became a breakout hit, and in 2009, he began shooting the critically acclaimed series Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter. “Holly is one of the most incredible actors I’ve ever worked with,” says Flinn. “We spent
nine hours on this fight scene with her being thrown against the wall and doing this and that with intricate slo-mo. We had another scene to do after it. They gave Holly 45 minutes to clean up and get ready for the next scene. She came back looking rested and like a million bucks. We finished our day in 12 hours. When I went to my car, I noticed her car was still by the trailer, and I wondered if she was okay after being slammed against the walls so much. The next morning, I asked the director about it, and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, she was in the editing room for another two hours after we left.’ That’s how she is. That show stood out. The way the directors, producers and writers all worked together was really something, and I’m glad I was part of it.” Flinn became a member of the ASC in 1987 — he was proposed for membership by James Crabe, Gene Polito and Charles Wheeler — and the achievement still amazes him. “It meant
Far left: Flinn with his crew on Babylon 5, including his son, John C. Flinn IV (holding slate). Near left: Flinn meets one of his idols, Freddie Young, BSC, at the 1993 ASC Awards ceremony. Young was the International Award honoree and Flinn won his prize for Jake and the Fatman.
so much. I remember when I first started as a second assistant, I was filling out the slates, and the first assistant said, ‘Make sure you put ASC there.’ From the very beginning, I understood the American Society of Cinematographers to be the elite group. Every time I walk into the Clubhouse, I think about the
history of everyone who has been inside. Talk about an honor!” As for his latest award from the Society, he says, “I just don’t have the words! It’s a tremendous honor. “I put everything I’ve got into every shot I do,” he muses. “I don’t care how simple the shot might seem to
somebody; each shot means a lot to me. I do everything I can to prepare and to make it all happen on that set in the right amount of time. When I’m on a series, I make 22 of the best movies I can per season. The worst part about it is not being able to do it all the time. I hate downtime!” ●
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Saluting an
Industry Stalwart
Five-time Emmy nominee Sol Negrin, ASC is honored with the Presidents Award for his long record of leadership and generosity. By David Heuring •|•
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hen Sol Negrin, ASC accepted the Society’s Presidents Award last month, it capped a career of storytelling with images. Negrin began his professional career working as a camera assistant for ASC legends whose roots were in silent film; today, he is busy cultivating the cinematographers of tomorrow through his tireless education and training efforts. “Sol’s constant efforts to organize industry events and teach the next generation of image-makers their craft are selfless and without compare,” observes ASC President Michael Goi. Negrin earned five Emmy nominations, three for episodes of the series Kojak (in 1974, 1975 and 1976), one for the telefilm The Last Tenant (1978), and one for an episode of 72
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the series Baker’s Dozen (1982). His cinematography in television commercials earned four Clio Awards, including one for American Tourister’s Bouncing Suitcase campaign in the early 1970s. Negrin’s other credits as a director of photography include episodes of the series McCloud, The Lucie Arnaz Show, The White Shadow, St. Elsewhere and Rhoda; the telefilms Best of Friends, Dempsey, And Your Name is Jonah and Women at West Point; the music documentary The Concert for Bangladesh; and the feature films Amazing Grace (1974), Proof of the Man and Parades. He also contributed additional cinematography to many feature films, including Superman (1978), Coming to America, King Kong (1976), Jaws 2 and Robocop. Negrin was born in New York City in 1929. His father worked in the garment industry, which the younger Negrin says he “detested.” He instead had plans to become a naval architect. He designed and built model boats at home, and had a goal of attending the U.S. Naval Academy or Webb Institute, the top two schools with naval-engineering programs. But it eventually became clear that his math skills were holding him back. “I had an adviser who asked whether I had an avocation,” Negrin recalls. “I told him I liked photography, and he suggested I pursue that. It was good advice. I passed the exam for the High School of Industrial Arts [now the High School
American Cinematographer
Photos courtesy of Sol Negrin.
Opposite: Sol Negrin, ASC poses at New York’s Hy Brown Studios in 1963. This page, far left: In 1949, Negrin assisted on a series of films entitled Marriage for Moderns at Stevens College in Columbia, Mo. Near left: Negrin works on a documentary with President Harry S. Truman.
of Art and Design], showed some of my artwork and got in. It was the only school at that time that taught both still photography and filmmaking, and I gravitated to the film work. I shot short films for the school, which had a lot of Army surplus equipment, including 16mm Cine Special cameras.” Negrin literally pounded on doors in New York looking for work to sustain him through high school. He held a darkroom job for two months, but he didn’t like it. He found his way to Hartley Productions, a company that produced industrials and commercials for clients such as Pan Am and the U.S. government. He started off by sweeping the floor for $5 a week, watching for any opportunity to learn. He was gradually given more responsibility, and after 18 months he became a camera assistant. When he graduated from high school and began working full time at Hartley, he got a ground-floor, hands-on education about everything related to 16mm and 35mm filmmaking. “I worked on commercials, documentaries, industrial films and, eventually, feature films and television,” he says. In 1948, Negrin joined ADTFC/NABET, a union whose membership worked in documentaries and television. By 1952, he was able to join the International Photographers Union-Local 644, which represented commercial and feature-film camera
crews. He furthered his training at City College Film Institute and took courses at the RCA Institute through the International Photographers Guild. Negrin worked as a camera assistant from 1948 to 1960 alongside noted ASC cinematographers such as Torben Johnke, Joe Brun, Jack Priestley, Lee Garmes, Joe Biroc, Leo Tover, Harry Stradling Sr., Hans Koenekamp, Charles Lang, Charles “Buddy”
“Sol’s efforts to teach the next generation of image-makers their craft are without compare.” — ASC President Michael Goi
Lawton, Mario Tosi and Boris Kaufman. “The best part about being an assistant is that you get to observe,” he says. “From Lee Garmes, I learned simplicity. He had an eye for composiwww.theasc.com
tion and good taste. He knew his diffusion. He was a master in every respect. I worked with Hans Koenekamp on some visual-effects shots for Damn Yankees. He really knew his effects and was a master lighting cameraman as well. With Charles Lang, we were doing a shoot where Joan Crawford spoke to stockholders of Pepsi-Cola, which she had taken over from her late husband. Charlie photographed her as if it were a feature, using all the diffusion nets and glass as needed. That was an education in itself. Boris Kaufman was from a different generation; he was a master of hard light. Like Harry Stradling, he knew how to use one large source and make it do the work of many lamps.” Negrin had a special relationship with Johnke, who had emigrated from Denmark. “I worked with Torben as an assistant when he first arrived in this country, and later I worked for him as a director of photography when he became a producer and director,” says Negrin. “He was one of my mentors. He had his own techniques, and he taught me a lot. We’re still friends. I worked with him on one of the last Technicolor monopack films, which we shot at the old Fox Studios on 53rd Street. We had the Bell Telephone Orchestra with about 70 musicians. The film was actually Kodachrome reversal stock. When it was processed, they made three matrix March 2010
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Left (top to bottom): Negrin at work on Elodia (1962), directed and co-shot by Joseph Brun, ASC; Negrin (far right) confers with director Bruce Kessler on the set of McCloud; Negrin checks the light on Kojak star Telly Savalas. Above: Negrin is visited on the set in 1963 by son and future ASC member Michael.
strips out of it. It was the forerunner to Eastmancolor monopack film. The exposure index was 10 or 12. There were so many Arc lamps that they had to bring in projectionists to operate them because there weren’t enough electricians who knew Arcs. We needed 1,200 footcandles just to get a T2.8 exposure! We were photographing the violinist Zino Franciscotti. It was a dolly shot into a close-up of the bow and strings of his violin, and because of the heat of the lights, we thought the violin might be damaged. It was a very difficult shot. We had to wait for the dailies because the film had to be sent to California to be processed. We were biting our fingernails, hoping it was in focus. We had been promised a new BNC camera, but the delivery was late, so we’d had to use an older Mitchell Standard, which had to be put in a blimp that made it very cumbersome. But we did the picture with it, and I was proud that it went smoothly, with no problems. It was quite an experience.” For a few years, Negrin was on staff at MPO, which he remembers as “the MGM of commercials.” The work was steady and paid well, but it involved some exasperation and a great deal of travel. “We called it ‘More Paying 74
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American Cinematographer
Overtime,’” Negrin laughs. “They had fully-equipped studios in Queens and Manhattan, and it was the definitive operation. Their staff cinematographers included Zoli Vidor, ASC; Akos Farkas; and Gerry Hirschfeld, ASC. A lot of great cinematographers were trained there early in their careers, including [future ASC members] Owen Roizman and Gordon Willis. Gordon was my assistant on one project. There was a lot to learn. Later, I worked at Filmex, another commercial house, as a director of photography with ASC members like Adam Holender, Drummond Drury and Jack Priestley.” When Negrin was a camera operator, he worked on TV series and feature films such as Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster, Where’s Poppa?, Across 110th Street and I, the Jury. He operated the camera on 21 episodes of The Patty Duke Show, which gained him valuable experience. He also operated the camera on Naked City, a landmark TV drama that helped establish the New York school of cinematography, founded on a gritty, location-based look. Other TV operating credits Negrin earned in this period include The Defenders, East SideWest Side and Car 54, Where Are You? Anyone who has seen Negrin take the wheels in hand, whether on a set or at a seminar, knows he is a master with a deep well of experience. Negrin’s first opportunity as a cinematographer arose on a pair of TV documentaries about two West African nations emerging from colonial rule. He was recommended for the job by Jack Etra, a cinematographer he had assisted. Negrin quickly earned kudos for his work, and by 1974 he was invited to join the ASC. (He was proposed for membership by Gerald Perry Finnerman and Harry Stradling Sr.) Negrin earned his first Emmy nomination for the “Wall Street Gunslinger” episode of Kojak, the TV series that starred Telly Savalas as a hard-nosed New York detective. That same year, Negrin was elected president of 644, the New York local; it was the first of several terms he would serve. He
Top to bottom: Crewmembers on King Kong (1976) pose at the World Trade Center. In the back row at left are camera assistant Michael Negrin and 2ndunit cinematographer Sol Negrin. (Cinematographer Richard Kline, ASC is standing third from right); Negrin (right) poses with his Kojak crew in 1974; Negrin (far left, wearing cap) at work on the 1985 series Lime Street in Washington, D.C.; the cinematographer gets a low angle for the 1979 telefilm Women at West Point.
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Saluting an Industry Stalwart
Clockwise from above: Shooting a 1981 High Point Coffee commercial, Negrin checks his light on Lauren Bacall; Negrin (foreground left) and his crew on The Lucy Arnaz Show pilot pose with their star (holding slate); checking the frame for Lime Street; Negrin (wearing cadet hat) at work on Women at West Point.
eventually shot 24 episodes of Kojak, earning two more Emmy nominations along the way. “While shooting Kojak in New York, I worked with many different directors and often received their praise for a job well done,” he recalls. “Part of our task was to capture the flavor of New York City. While working with these directors, I absorbed many of their techniques in order to produce the best visual images. I enjoyed collaborating closely to achieve a mutual understanding about the lighting and composition in order to make each story as interesting and exciting as possible. The Emmy nominations were very gratifying, but my greatest satisfaction came from knowing I had done my best.” In the early 1970s, Negrin earned Clios for excellence in advertising for his work on four different national campaigns. He continued working on TV projects, feature films and commercials through the 1980s and into the 76
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1990s. In 1987, he received the Billy Bitzer Commendation Award from Local 644 for his contributions to the union, and in 2000, he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree from Long Island’s Five Towns College, where he has taught cinematography for the last decade. In 2005, the college handed him another honor, a lifetime achievement award. Negrin often shares his wealth of experience and expertise with students and aspiring filmmakers through mentorships, seminars, demonstrations and speaking engagements. He is cochair of the ICG Educational and Training Committees and a Life Member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, where he has been on the roster for an astonishing 65 years. He is also a member of the Directors Guild of America. Membership in the ASC has American Cinematographer
been a particular honor for Negrin, and he takes special pride in the fact that his son Michael is also a member. “In 1942, I read my first issue of American Cinematographer, which featured many fine, well-known cinematographers of the time,” says Negrin. “I knew at that moment that I wanted to be an ASC member. I very much admired the work of ASC members Gregg Toland, Harry Stradling Sr., Lee Garmes, Ernest Haller, Stanley Cortez and Hal Rosson. The day I was accepted as a member was one of the most memorable in my life. The camaraderie of being in the company of such talented individuals is something I never expected. To receive the Presidents Award this year means so much to me. I’m honored and very happy. “The best advice I was ever given came from Harry Stradling, who said, ‘Never be afraid to take a chance. It may be the best thing you ever did.’” ●
Post Focus I
Cinemascan Streamlines Shutter Island By Patricia Thomson
The problem is a familiar one: How do you edit without becoming too attached to the look of your dailies? If a film has a customized color palette, like Shutter Island, and your director has a year-long editorial process, like Martin Scorsese, the ideal would be to introduce color-accurate footage at the very beginning of the process, so the director and the editor can cut, live with and fine-tune that material. Scorsese’s post team has been chasing this goal for years. With Shutter Island they finally attained it, thanks to EFilm’s new Cinemascan system. “With Cinemascan, we digitally capture dailies in 3K, down-rez them to 2K and then keep them in the same film color space we use for the final digital grade, so everything stays true, and all the color changes and iterations that you use from dailies to final delivery apply to that finished film delivery,” says Michael Cooper, EFilm’s vice president of business development. Shutter Island was the first feature film to utilize Cinemascan, and for Scorsese’s team, it was the culmination of an evolution that began with The Aviator, when they switched from print dailies to high-definition-video dailies. “That changed the ballgame,” says Rob Legato, Scorsese’s visual-effects supervisor on The Aviator, The Departed and Shutter Island. “With HD dailies, you’re no longer doing test screenings on film; you’re previewing on HD.” With Cinemascan, an Arri-scanned 2K file is stored in EFilm’s tape robot, a near-line storage system, and it remains pristine. Everything the colorist subsequently does is stored as a separate file of metadata; this metadata rides along with each shot and eventually accompanies the EDL. “Metadata is very robust,” says Cooper. “It’s not one bit of data, but any number of changes that can happen in the DI suite, including contrast and color, the tracking of information, all the intra-frame changes and all the matting.” When the colorist makes changes, the Cinemascan system does not overwrite the earlier data — it saves both iterations. “The cinematographer might call and say, ‘Can you print that up a quarter point?’” says Cooper. “We’ll make that change and send it back, but we maintain the original metadata, too. That way, if that cinematographer comes in to do the DI and says, ‘Yeah, I did have you print that up, but we like the darker one better,’ we can access the earlier version instead.” The raw file and the metadata are connected by a “marrygrade,” a flag that allows one to find the other (i.e., marries the two). “When we make changes to the images, or the editor makes changes editorially, it instantaneously flows through — no one has to move that metadata around,” says Cooper. Shutter Island’s post path began at DuArt Film and Video, which processed the negative. The neg then went to EFilm, where 78
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rushes were scanned at 3K and then down-sampled to 2K. An HDCam-SR master (for the color-correction) and a standard-definition version (for editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who cuts on a Lightworks system) were output. Scorsese, cinematographer Robert Richardson, ASC and EFilm colorist Yvan Lucas did the color-correction in New York, and the conform and master filmout were done in Los Angeles. Communication between New York and Los Angeles jumped to a new level with Cinemascan technology. Legato notes, “The metadata is a text file, not an image file, so if Marty changed his mind about something, I could remaster a reel in 30 minutes.” When changes needed to be relayed via a secure server, “we’d send a text file containing the new metadata instead of a high-res image file,” says Legato. “It’s such a small file you can literally send it over a dial-up connection. It re-grades the whole thing, and the other party can see the results immediately.” “With Cinemascan, clients in our New York DI suite and clients in our Hollywood DI suite can look at the same images projected and see the exact same changes being made to the 2K files in real time,” says Cooper. “That’s pretty convenient.” Lightiron Commits to File-Based Post Lightiron Digital has opened its doors in Los Angeles, offering a complete range of file-based postproduction services for film, television, Web and advertising media. The new facility currently houses a digital-intermediate grading theater with Quantel 4K Stereoscopic Pablo and Assimilate Scratch color-grading systems, as well as 2K and 4K cinema projectors for both 2-D and 3-D postproduction. The company has already begun expanding the facility to include film scanning and digital cinema packaging services. Founded by brothers Michael and Peter Cioni, the company comprises two divisions: Ironwork provides such services as dailies
The Lightiron Digital team (from left): Michael Cioni, Peter Cioni, Chris Peariso, Katie Fellion, Paul Geffre, Matthew Blackshear and Oscar Velasquez.
American Cinematographer
processing for tape and tapeless media, offline and online editorial, data conform and color grading; and Lightwork provides technology consultation, systems integration and workflow design. The custom solutions offered by Lightwork include providing clients with the technology and expertise to capture digitally acquired dailies, back them up, and prepare deliverables for screening and editorial purposes without leaving the set. “With today’s technology, it’s possible to view dailies within 10 minutes of capturing them,” says CEO Michael Cioni, who previously co-founded PlasterCity Digital Post, where he served as DI supervisor. “Productions can prepare their own verifiable back-ups, sync audio, perform basic color-correction, produce media for Avid and Final Cut, and even prepare files for visual effects. It’s a very powerful model, and we think some of the future of profitable postproduction will likely be found on set.” In opting to focus exclusively on filebased post solutions, Lightiron Digital is acting on its founders’ belief that digital acquisition and file-based workflows will have a transformative effect on the delivery of post services and the companies that offer them. “Contrary to what many people think, the true impact of the digital revolution on film and television production is only starting to become clear,” says Michael. “Most agree it’s going to change our world; the unanswered question is exactly how and where. That makes this an exciting time to launch a company, because we have the unique opportunity to prepare our strategies and infrastructures to be in line with what will likely be a sweeping revolution.” Lightiron Digital is located at 5805 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 559-5400 or visit www.lightirondigital.com. VCL Builds Home in Hollywood Animation and visual-effects company Visual Computing Labs, a division of Tata Elxsi Ltd., has announced that visualeffects veterans Joel Hynek, Tricia Ashford and Treva Blue will develop VCL’s new visual-effects studio in Santa Monica, Calif. Hynek will serve as senior visual-effects supervisor, Ashford will serve as head of
production and Blue will serve as head of trailer production. “We are delighted to have three of the field’s most accomplished professionals … to team with in building a world-class studio,” says VCL COO S. Nagarajan. “VCL now offers a truly unique package of highend and cost-effective VFX service options by combining their exceptional attributes and these robust new facilities to our large and talented team in India.” VCL’s Santa Monica studio will feature a Stereoscopic DI suite supported by Autodesk’s Lustre color-correction system. Multiple Autodesk Flames, CG workstations and compositing stations will run Autodesk Maya and The Foundry Nuke software. The studio’s artists will also use FilmLight’s Truelight system to manage overall color calibration for their productions. For more information, visit www.tataelxsi.com. Electric Picture Solutions Opens Santa Monica Facility Headquartered in Studio City, Calif., and with a sister branch in Burbank, Electric Picture Solutions has been serving the motion picture and television industries for 15 years. Building on its success, the company has opened an editorial base in Santa Monica. The newly remodeled, two-story, 5,200-square-foot structure houses 20 editing rooms, a full kitchen, multiple lounges and a complete machine room, plus ample parking for clients. Each room features multiple fiber-optic runs and business-class 80
DSL lines for fast upload and download speeds; the new facility also boasts its own FTP site for file exchange. Additionally, the second floor features nine rooms and its own entrance, making it ideal for larger productions. EPS offers its clients Apple Final Cut Pro systems, Lightworks Alacrity and Touch systems, and a range of Avid systems, from Adrenaline to Symphony Nitris DX. David Goodman, EPS’ general manager, notes, “We will do whatever is necessary to fulfill a client’s needs. We are a full-service, nonlinear editorial company … meaning we’ll rent you something as little as a cable, or we’ll take care of everything turnkey and all things in between.” In addition to the company’s physical expansion, EPS is also expanding its services into new media outlets such as Internet channels and mobile-phone platforms. “EPS’ devoted customer base is the cream of the crop in Hollywood, and the company has done a phenomenal job of providing for them,” notes Charlie Mitchell, vice president of Sales for EPS. “I take a look at the technical expertise and facilities we have here, and I say we can offer these ancillary and complementary services for our clients. We are somebody they already trust [and] now we will be a one-stop shop.” EPS’ new facility is located at 1831 S. Centinela Ave., Santa Monica. For more information, visit www.picturesolu tions.com. ●
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New Products & Services Canon Updates Vixia Line for 2010 Canon U.S.A., Inc. has unveiled its 2010 Vixia lineup, comprising nine high-definition flash-memory camcorders. The camcorders are spread across Canon’s flagship Vixia HF S-series, the compact Vixia HF M-series and the entry-level Vixia HF R-series. New features in the 2010 lineup include a touch-panel LCD with an advanced tracking feature, helping to keep any subject in focus and properly exposed; an enhanced image-stabilization system; and an HD-to-SD downconversion feature, allowing video to be easily uploaded to the Web or burned onto DVDs. Select Vixia camcorders are also compatible with Eye-fi SD Memory Cards, allowing wireless uploading of video content to a computer or favorite video-sharing site via the Eye-fi card’s wireless capabilities. All of the 2010 Vixia camcorders retain Canon’s proprietary imaging technologies: a Genuine Canon HD Video Lens, HD CMOS Image Sensor and DIGIC DV III Image Processor. The Canon Full HD CMOS Image Sensor and DIGIC DV III Image Processor have been further improved to reduce noise under low-light conditions and deliver more faithful reproduction of purple and blue tones for both video and photos. Other features new to the Vixia line include Smart Auto mode, which utilizes the DIGIC Image Processor to intelligently detect and analyze brightness, color, distance and movement, and automatically select the best setting for the scene being recorded; Touch & Track, which lets users select a subject on the touch-panel LCD that the camcorder will then recognize and track; and Relay Recording, which allows users to capture uninterrupted video when the primary recording media is full. For additional information, visit www.usa.canon.com. Mark Roberts Enhances 3-D Stop-Frame Animation The Academy Award-winning team at Mark Roberts Motion Control has introduced the S3 Stereoscopic 3D Stepping Module, a vital tool for any stop-frame animators looking to produce 3-D content. In 3-D stop-frame animation, it is generally simpler and more cost-effective to use a single camera and slide it side to side to capture the images for each eye. However, this technique requires accurate control of the side-to-side motion of the camera. The intelligent, low-cost, portable S3 accurately controls that motion as well as the triggering of the camera. Designed to carry a variety of DSLR and film cameras, the S3 82
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• SUBMISSION INFORMATION • Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to:
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boasts a strong, rigid construction with highquality bearings; simple user interface with backlit LCD screen; on-board Flash memory; and userprogrammable interocular distance. The S3 can be set to either trigger the camera or be triggered by the camera, and the unit can be used with or without a motion-control system. The S3 offers extremely precise and repeatable motion, with up to 3" of travel on the standard unit. The S3 easily attaches between the camera and the tripod or motion-control system. Using the onboard display, the user then sets the required interocular distance and attaches the camera-trigger cable. Every time the unit receives the trigger order (from any of a range of sources, including intervalometers, motion-control software, remote switches and motion sensors), it triggers the shutter for the left-eye view, moves the camera for the right-eye view, triggers the shutter again, and then moves back to the left-eye view, ready for the next frame. For additional information, visit www.mrmoco.com. Vocas Launches DSLR Support Line Vocas Systems has launched a line of support products designed for the DSLR cinematography market. Central to the product range is a 15mm rail support system that can be mounted beneath the camera. Vocas also offers a padded leather handgrip system that mounts to the 15mm rails; a shoulder support with thick rubber pad that fits to the back of the 15mm rails; and a 15mm offset bracket specifically made for the shoulder support. The offset bracket, which moves the shoulder support to the side of the camera, is especially useful for viewing a DSLR’s centrally placed viewfinder. The line of 15mm accessories can be combined in a variety of ways to support a range of shooting situations. For additional information, visit www.vocas.com.
American Cinematographer
Z-Finder Offers Clear View with DSLRs Embracing the growing popularity of capturing moving images with DSLR cameras, Zacuto has introduced the Z-Finder V2, an optical viewfinder that offers DSLR cameras a video form factor. The 6-ounce Z-Finder V2 features a 40mm-diameter lens by Schneider Optics that provides 3x focusable magnification. An adjustable (left or right) eyecup prevents extraneous light leakage, and the field of view perfectly matches the LCD screens of many popular DSLRs from Canon, Panasonic, Nikon and Pentex. Zacuto’s product designers and engineers created an extremely fine focus wheel, which is critical for the shallow depth of field of many DSLRs. With its diopter, the Z-Finder can adjust to varying levels of vision correction
necessary for both nearsightedness and farsightedness. The Z-Finder attaches to the camera’s LCD screen via a snap-fit mounting frame, which itself sticks to the LCD screen with a double-sided adhesive. Once the frame sets for a couple of hours, the Z-Finder can be snapped on and off for quick viewing of the LCD screen or to take a look through the camera’s viewfinder. Zacuto also offers two add-on features for protection and safety. First, a lanyard gives users the option to attach a strap to the Z-Finder, allowing them to carry the viewfinder around their neck when it’s not attached to the camera. Second, ZBands hold the ZFinder tight against the LCD screen, preventing it from being knocked off. For additional information, visit http://zacuto.com.
Qio Expands Recording Possibilities Sonnet Technologies Inc., a provider of local storage systems for professional Mac, Windows and UNIX users in the film, video and broadcast industries, has introduced the Qio universal professional media reader/writer. Designed for in-studio and on-location applications, the Qio offers a convenient and cost-effective alternative to standalone card readers, controllers and adapters. The Qio features dual P2, SxS and Compact Flash slots, and it can transfer data from two cards concurrently, enabling users to offload files more quickly and efficiently. For almost any other memory-card type, including Memory Stick, MMC, SD and xD-Picture, the Sonnet 21-in-1 multimedia memory card reader and writer is included. For quick migration of data, the Qio integrates a complete SATA controller based on Sonnet’s Tempo SATA E4P SATA card, which through four
eSATA ports enables users to connect two Sonnet Fusion F2 portable storage systems or four drive enclosures with port multipliers or embedded RAID controllers for access of up to 20 SATA drives. The Qio connects to a computer through an included cable and either an ExpressCard/34 (for notebooks) or a PCIe (for desktops) interface adapter. The included adapter extends the computer’s PCIe bus outside the box, providing faster performance than USB and FireWire interfaces. Since ExpressCard connectors also carry USB signals, Sonnet designed the Qio to extend the USB bus through the SxS slots as well. The Qio reader/writer’s SxS slots also double as ExpressCard/34 slots, while the P2 slots are compatible with CardBus cards. For notebook users, this effectively quadruples the number of expansion card slots available, and it allows desktop users to swap adapter cards including Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, FireWire and more, without the need to open their computers’ cases. For additional information, visit www.sonnettech.com. ➣ 83
Ikan Intros Elements Ikan has introduced its modular Elements line of camera-support equipment. The cost-effective, simple-to-use, ergonomically designed system consists of multiple pieces that give users endless possibilities for customization. Featuring ¼-20 and 2⁄8 threads on all pieces, the Elements system can be configured to work with any camera setup. Compatible with 15mm rail systems, the small, lightweight system is constructed out of anodized aluminum and includes all necessary hardware. Ikan’s first Elements Bundle, the Flyer, boasts the convenience of a flash bracket with the ergonomics of a handheld system. Created specifically for use with DSLRs, the Flyer can also be used with smaller camcorders. The Flyer Bundle comprises two durable foam-grips handles, two attaching arms and a “cheese-plate-style” base plate. As the Elements line continues to grow, so will users’ ability to customize the Flyer to suit their individual needs. For additional information, visit www.ikancorp.com. Scorpion Stabilizes Handheld Shots Cam Caddie has introduced the Scorpion handheld stabilizing device. The Scorpion’s design separates the camera from the operator’s hand, placing control in the operator’s arm and thereby naturally dampening handheld jostle. Designed to work with a wide range of consumer and prosumer cameras, camcorders and DSLRs, the Scorpion offers a simple and affordable solution for capturing smooth handheld shots. For additional information, visit www.camcaddie.com. 84
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Abel Cine Tech Opens Midwest Office Abel Cine Tech has opened a new sales location in the Chicago area. The office is focused exclusively on equipment sales and offers the same educational showroom experience found in the company’s New York and Los Angeles locations. Abel Cine Tech began expanding their presence in the Midwest when the company acquired the sales division of Fletcher Chicago in the spring of 2008. At that time, Fletcher Sales Manager Kari Hess joined Abel to direct their regional sales efforts. Joining her in the launch of the Midwest sales office is Gregger Jones, formerly based out of Abel New York, and sales administrator Colleen Nutter. Hess notes, “We are really excited by this opportunity to have a greater physical presence in the Chicago production community, and we look forward to serving our clients with the same level of technical expertise and customer support they expect from Abel.” “The opening of the Chicago office is another integral step in our mission to provide unparalleled sales support to our clients nationwide,” adds Pete Abel, president of Abel Cine Tech. “We’re committed to creating a sales environment in Chicago that reflects the experience our customers have in our New York City and Burbank locations.” Abel Chicago offers sales of highend HD camera lines such as Phantom, Panasonic and Sony, as well as Zeiss, Angenieux, Canon and Fujinon optics, compact HD cameras, DSLR systems, accessories, recording media and expendables. For additional information, visit www.abelcine.com. Techno-Jib Rentals Services Southern California Techno-Jib Rentals has opened its doors in North Hollywood, Calif. Outfitted to supply the full line of Techno-Jib telescoping jib arms and related equipment, it is the first rental house to offer the compact T15 model. Traveling at up to 5' per second, the fully automated Techno-Jibs extend or retract to move the camera smoothly and silently in and out of hard-to-reach places. American Cinematographer
With the Techno-Jib, the operator can perform diverse camera moves while maintaining control over zoom, focus and the telescoping arm. These versatile units can be used either by a single operator as a standard jib or, when equipped with a remote head with hand wheels, they can be operated as a traditional telescopic crane.
The Techno-Jib is available in two models: the T15, with a minimum reach of 7' and a maximum of 16', and the T24, which expands from 9' to 24'. For additional information, visit www.technojibrentals.com. Raleigh Studios Sets Up Shop in Budapest In April, Raleigh Studios plans to open the doors of a new state-of-the-art facility in Budapest, Hungary. Raleigh’s European partner in this venture, Origo Film Group, has championed the development of this project since its inception. The new facility is less than 20 minutes from downtown Budapest, making it the closest studio facility to the heart of Hungary. The studio boasts nine sound stages, including a 45,000-square-foot “super stage” with a 65'-high grid. Other features include full transportation, set and location lighting and grip with Hollywood Rentals, line producing with Raleigh Film, and a state-of-the-art post facility and digital film lab. All stages, offices and support structures are built from the ground up and engineered to Hollywood standards. Incorporated into the studio’s design is a 15-acre backlot perfect for outdoor set builds. A full production training school will also be located on the lot to help maintain Hungary’s existing talent pool while creating a new generation of film crews. “We are very excited to be opening in Budapest,” says Michael Moore, presi-
dent of Raleigh Studios. “There has already been considerable interest from our clients, and we’re confident this will be one of the finest studio operations in Europe.” Stateside, Raleigh Studios has announced that 1st Call Studio Equipment will be the exclusive heavy-equipment provider for Raleigh Studios Baton Rouge at the Celtic Media Centre. This continues a strong relationship Raleigh has with 1st Call, which is also the exclusive heavy-equipment provider at Raleigh’s California locations in Hollywood, Manhattan Beach and Playa Vista. “1st Call is a first-class operation,” says Moore. “We are proud to expand upon our existing relationship and to be associated with such a quality organization.” 1st Call will be located on the Baton Rouge studio lot, eliminating pickup and drop-off charges for most of the equipment needed for on-lot productions. The equipment will be held to Hollywood industry standards, meaning all equipment — including scissor lifts, forklifts and boom lifts — will be strictly for production and not used for construction-site work. A 1st Call equipment representative will be on the lot in Baton Rouge to facilitate orders and provide 24-hour service throughout the state and surrounding region. For additional information, visit www.raleighstudios.com and www.1stcallequip.com.
Cine-tal Continues Growing CineSpace Cine-tal Systems, a developer of image-monitoring and color-management solutions, has announced the expansion of its CineSpace film-profiling services. CineSpace customers can now receive overnight film-profiling services in North America as well as in the company’s operations in ➣ Australia.
Cine-tal’s CineSpace film-profiling services provide color profiles of a filmout for use in the CineSpace product suite. The filmout color profile emulates the film color space while working on video monitors in visual effects, DI and animation. The use of the profiles helps users ensure the color quality of the image data when it is run through the filmout process, and it maintains consistency across multiple filmout service providers. CineSpace customers can use CineSpace’s Inverse Transform feature and CineSpace film profiling services to take their video (Rec 709) or DCI (P3) graded image data to a filmout with confidence. “CineSpace is the most pervasive color-management system in use today for VFX, DI and animation,” says Rob Carroll, CEO of Cine-tal. “CineSpace users have used our Australian offices for film-profiling services for the past four years; now they can get the same services overnight in our Indianapolis facility.” For additional information, visit www.cine-tal.com. Digital Cinema Lessons Goes Online Bling Digital has launched Digital Cinema Lessons, a Web site offering video tutorials on all aspects of the Red One camera and its associated workflows. The site features up-to-date video lessons aimed at the growing digital-cinema community; each video tutorial is provided by a highprofile instructor and runs approximately 6 to 10 minutes in length.
“Digital-cinema workflow is still new to all of us,” says Chris Parker, who heads the Digital Cinema Lessons project for Bling Digital. “It is a constant learning process, and the best way to learn these new technologies and workflows is to see how others are doing it.” 86
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More Power from Victory Battery Victory Cinevideo Battery Corporation has introduced NiMH battery packs for use with both film and HD camera systems. The battery packs feature an external charger as well as a built-in charger, and they are available in 12-, 13.2-, 14.4-, 24-, 26.4-, 28.8- and 30-volt configurations. The external smart charger features 120-240-volt AC input for worldwide use, a built-in temperature sensor and automatic power cutoff to prevent the battery pack from overcharging, and an integrated circuit (IC) to protect the battery from over-current, short-circuit and reverse polarity. There is no voltage output from the charger when a battery is not connected. For additional information, visit www.victorycinevideobattery.com. Digital Cinema Lessons offers a searchable database of video tutorials, each designed to illustrate a specific technique or answer a particular question. The library of videos is constantly updated, and each is available for viewing for $3. The videos target both production and postproduction personnel, with specific lessons for camera assistants, cinematographers, editors, colorists and anyone else interested in learning more about digital-cinema workflow. The site’s initial launch is in English, with additional languages to follow. Kaku Ito of Rock R/C is currently working on a Japanese-language version in addition to serving as the site’s first international instructor. “I and the whole Rock R/C team are excited to be working with Bling Digital on bringing the Digital Cinema Lessons to Japan,” says Ito. “We are at the forefront of this technology in Japan, and it is an honor to be working with the other instructors, who are all global leaders in file-based workflow, to help expand the worldwide knowledge base.” For additional information, visit www.blingdigital.com, www.rockrc.net and www.digitalcinemalessons.com. American Cinematographer
HD Camera Guide Encourages Talkback Since its launch, HDCamera Guide.com has become a fast-growing online guide for professional and consumerlevel HD camera users. The video-rich site includes tutorials and product demonstrations from such companies as Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Ikegami, Grass Valley and more. Now, the site has added a feature whereby visitors can ask additional questions to the speakers featured in particular videos. For example, viewers can use the feature to ask television technology consultant Mark Schubin to elaborate on a point he made during his video tutorial on HD camera imager sizes. They can submit their question to Larry Thorpe, Canon’s Broadcast Division’s HD optics authority, while watching his video on the importance of quality camera optics. They can also reach out to director of photography James Mathers to ask which HD cameras are gaining popularity for Hollywood feature production. “Interacting with our exclusive Learning Center videos is one more advantage we offer at HDCameraGuide.com,” says Bob Richards, director of video services. “It’s not a real-time podcast, which means you don’t have to sit at your computer and wait for an answer. You can watch the Learning Center videos anytime, e-mail your question for the experts and read the e-mail reply at your convenience.” Visitors can also register for Learning Center video updates for free. For additional information, visit www.hdcameraguide.com. Mo-Sys Lambda Enters 3rd Dimension The Mo-Sys Lambda has long been regarded as one of the strongest and most versatile remote heads on the market, and it is also proving an ideal system for carrying the largest 3-D camera rigs. Responding to the increased demand for 3-D systems, MoSys has gone into production on a new gyro-stabilized third axis for the Lambda that’s specially designed for 3-D applications. “We knew the Mo-Sys Lambda was the strongest head for 3-D cameras, but to get that confirmed by 3-D film industry leaders is testimony to our vision and quality
product,” says Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “We’re confident that after successful demos of the new third axis, even more sales will follow.” The Mo-Sys Lambda remote head can support camera packages weighing up to 110 pounds, and the head requires no balancing on the two- and three-axis modules. The head can be upgraded within minutes to be gyro-stabilized, and it also boasts the ability to export data to postproduction. For additional information, visit www.mo-sys.com.
The International Journal of Motion Imaging
Camlinx Provides Control The Camlinx System from Netherlands-based elQuip AVM Advies is a complete camera remote-control system based on optical fibre, designed for use with single or multi-camera units. Industry standard HD and SD video formats are fully supported, offering full broadcast-quality signals. The lightweight Camlinx camera unit features HD/SD-SDI video feed and return video, tally, talkback, syncs, audio feed, and program sound. The base station is rack mountable and offers extensive diagnostics for the video engineer. For additional information, visit www.elquip.tv. ●
WE WANT YOUR OPINION! The 10 Best-Shot Films of 1998-2008 Our 80th anniversary readers’ poll covered the years 1894-1997, and it’s time to bring it up to date. Films from every nation are eligible, provided they were theatrically released between 1998 and 2008. Submit your picks online* by March 31st at www.theasc.com. The nomination form will include room for comments, which might be included in our coverage of the results. *Subscriber login required
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March 2010
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Advertiser’s Index 16x9, Inc. 88
Deluxe C2
AC 1, 4, 87 Aja Video Systems, Inc. 11 Alan Gordon Enterprises 89 Arri 53 AZGrip 88
Eastman Kodak 9, C4 EFD USA, Inc. 13 Element Technica 17
Backstage Equipment, Inc. 6 Band Pro Film & Digital 5 Burrell Enterprises 88 Cavision Enterprises 57 Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. 19 Chapman University 55 Cine Gear Expo 91 Cinematography Electronics 6 Cinekinetic 88 Cinerover 88 Clairmont Film & Digital 23, 49 Columbia College Chicago 59 Convergent Design 44 Cooke Optics 27
Film Gear 79 Filmtools 87 Five Towns College 79 FTC West 88 Fuji Motion Picture 35 Glidecam Industries 15 Ikan Corporation 21 Innoventive Software 85 JEM Studio Lighting 83 K 5600, Inc. 28 Kino Flo 70 Laffoux Solutions, Inc. 88 Lite Panels 2 Maine Media Workshops 6 Mole-Richardson 88, 89 Movie Tech AG 89 MP&E Mayo Productions 89 NAB 81 New York Film Academy 39 Oppenheimer Camera Prod. 88 Otto Nemenz 67
90
Panasonic Broadcast 7 PC&E 29 PED Denz 41, 88 Photon Beard 89 Photo-sonics, Rental 45 Pille Film Gmbh 88 Pro8mm 88 Rag Place, The 41 Reliance Mediaworks 25 Rosco Laboratories, Inc. 71 School of Visual Arts 69 Shelton Communications 89 Sim Video 37 Stanton Video Services 85 Super16 Inc. 88 Telescopic 89 Thales Angenieux 60-61 Tiffen 51, C3 VF Gadgets, Inc. 89 Viking 88 Willy’s Widgets 88 www.theasc.com 77, 80, 83, 90, 95 Zacuto Films 89 ZGC, Inc. 27 Zipcam Systems 43
JOIN HOLLYWOOD’S PROFESSIONALS IN
2010
June 4-5, Expo and Premier Seminars June 3-5, The Film Series & Competition June 6, Master Class Seminars The Studios at Paramount, Hollywood, CA phone: 310.472.0809 fax: 310.471.8973 email:
[email protected]
www.cinegearexpo.com
American Society of Cinematographers Roster OFFICERS – 2009-’10 Michael Goi, President Richard Crudo, Vice President Owen Roizman, Vice President Victor J. Kemper, Vice President Matthew Leonetti, Treasurer Rodney Taylor, Secretary John C. Flinn III, Sergeant-at-Arms MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Curtis Clark Richard Crudo George Spiro Dibie Richard Edlund John C. Flinn III John Hora Victor J. Kemper Matthew Leonetti Stephen Lighthill Isidore Mankofsky Daryn Okada Owen Roizman Nancy Schreiber Haskell Wexler Vilmos Zsigmond ALTERNATES Fred Elmes Steven Fierberg Ron Garcia Michael D. O’Shea Michael Negrin
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ACTIVE MEMBERS Thomas Ackerman Lance Acord Lloyd Ahern II Herbert Alpert 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 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 Michael Bonvillain Richard Bowen David Boyd Russell Boyd Jonathan Brown Don Burgess Stephen H. Burum Bill Butler Frank B. Byers Bobby Byrne Antonio Calvache Paul Cameron Russell P. Carpenter James L. Carter Alan Caso Michael Chapman Rodney Charters James A. Chressanthis 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 Stuart Dryburgh Bert Dunk Lex DuPont John Dykstra Richard Edlund Frederick Elmes Robert Elswit Geoffrey Erb Scott Farrar Jon Fauer Don E. FauntLeRoy Gerald Feil Steven Fierberg Gerald Perry Finnerman Mauro Fiore John C. Flinn III Ron Fortunato William A. Fraker Tak Fujimoto Alex Funke Steve Gainer Ron Garcia Dejan Georgevich Michael Goi Stephen Goldblatt Paul Goldsmith Frederic Goodich Victor Goss Jack Green Adam Greenberg Robbie Greenberg Xavier Perez Grobet Alexander Gruszynski Changwei Gu Rick Gunter Rob Hahn Gerald Hirschfeld Henner Hofmann Adam Holender Ernie Holzman John C. Hora Tom Houghton Gil Hubbs Michel Hugo Shane Hurlbut Tom Hurwitz Judy Irola Mark Irwin Levie Isaacks
American Cinematographer
Andrew Jackson Peter James Johnny E. Jensen Torben Johnke Frank Johnson Shelly Johnson Jeffrey Jur William K. Jurgensen 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 Andrew Laszlo 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 Constantine Makris Karl Malkames Denis Maloney Isidore Mankofsky Christopher Manley Michael D. Margulies Barry Markowitz Vincent Martinelli Steve Mason
Clark Mathis Don McAlpine Don McCuaig Seamus McGarvey Robert McLachlan Geary McLeod Greg McMurry Steve McNutt Terry K. Meade Chris Menges Rexford Metz Anastas Michos Douglas Milsome Dan Mindel Charles Minsky Claudio Miranda Donald A. Morgan Donald M. Morgan Kramer Morgenthau 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 Anthony Palmieri Phedon Papamichael Daniel Pearl Edward J. Pei James Pergola Don Peterman Lowell Peterson Wally Pfister Gene Polito Bill Pope Steven Poster Tom Priestley Jr. Rodrigo Prieto Robert Primes Frank Prinzi Richard Quinlan Declan Quinn Earl Rath Richard Rawlings Jr. Frank Raymond Tami Reiker Robert Richardson
M A R C H
Anthony B. 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 Harris Savides Roberto Schaefer Tobias Schliessler Aaron Schneider Nancy Schreiber Fred Schuler John Schwartzman John Seale Christian Sebaldt Dean Semler Eduardo Serra Steven Shaw Richard Shore Newton Thomas Sigel John Simmons Sandi Sissel Bradley B. Six Dennis L. Smith Roland “Ozzie” Smith Reed Smoot Bing Sokolsky Peter Sova Dante Spinotti Terry Stacey Robert Steadman Ueli Steiger Peter Stein Robert M. Stevens Tom Stern Rogier Stoffers Vittorio Storaro Harry Stradling Jr. David Stump Tim Suhrstedt Peter Suschitzky Alfred Taylor Jonathan Taylor Rodney Taylor William Taylor Don Thorin John Toll Mario Tosi Salvatore Totino Luciano Tovoli Jost Vacano Theo Van de Sande Eric Van Haren Noman Kees Van Oostrum
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Ron Vargas Mark Vargo Amelia Vincent William Wages Roy H. Wagner Ric Waite Michael Watkins 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 Volker Bahnemann Kay Baker Joseph J. Ball Amnon Band Carly M. Barber Craig Barron Thomas M. Barron Larry Barton Bob Beitcher Mark Bender Bruce Berke Bob Bianco John Bickford Steven A. Blakely Mitchell Bogdanowicz Jack Bonura Michael Bravin William Brodersen Garrett Brown Ronald D. Burdett Reid Burns Vincent Carabello Jim Carter Leonard Chapman Mark Chiolis Denny Clairmont Adam Clark Cary Clayton Emory M. Cohen Sean Coughlin Robert B. Creamer Grover Crisp Daniel Curry Ross Danielson Carlos D. DeMattos Gary Demos Richard Di Bona Kevin Dillon
David Dodson Judith Doherty Cyril Drabinsky Jesse Dylan Jonathan Erland John Farrand Ray Feeney William Feightner Phil Feiner Jimmy Fisher Scott Fleischer Thomas Fletcher Salvatore Giarratano Richard B. Glickman John A. Gresch Jim Hannafin William Hansard Bill Hansard, Jr. Richard Hart Robert Harvey Charles Herzfeld Larry Hezzelwood Frieder Hochheim Bob Hoffman Vinny Hogan Cliff Hsui Robert C. Hummel Roy Isaia George Joblove Joel Johnson John Johnston Marker Karahadian Frank Kay Debbie Kennard Milton Keslow Robert Keslow Larry Kingen Douglas Kirkland Timothy J. Knapp Ron Koch Karl Kresser Doug Leighton Lou Levinson Suzanne Lezotte Grant Loucks Howard Lukk Andy Maltz Steven E. Manios Robert Mastronardi Joe Matza Albert Mayer, Jr. Bill McDonald Andy McIntyre Stan Miller Walter H. Mills George Milton Mike Mimaki Rami Mina Michael Morelli Dash Morrison Nolan Murdock www.theasc.com
Dan Muscarella Iain A. Neil Otto Nemenz Ernst Nettmann Tony Ngai Mickel Niehenke Marty Oppenheimer Walt Ordway Larry Parker Michael Parker Warren Parker Doug Pentek Kristin Petrovich Ed Phillips Nick Phillips Jerry Pierce Joshua Pines Carl Porcello Howard Preston David Pringle Phil Radin Christopher Reyna Colin Ritchie Eric G. Rodli Andy Romanoff Daniel Rosen Dana Ross Bill Russell Kish Sadhvani David Samuelson Peter K. Schnitzler Walter Schonfeld Juergen Schwinzer Ronald Scott Steven Scott Don Shapiro Milton R. Shefter Leon Silverman Garrett Smith Stefan Sonnenfeld John L. Sprung Joseph N. Tawil Ira Tiffen Arthur Tostado Bill Turner Stephan Ukas-Bradley Mark Van Horne Richard Vetter Joe Violante Dedo Weigert Franz Weiser Evans Wetmore 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. Neil A. Armstrong Col. Michael Collins Bob Fisher David MacDonald Cpt. Bruce McCandless II D. Brian Spruill
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Clubhouse News
Top to bottom: ASC associate members William McDonald, Marker Karahadian, Robert Bianco and Volker Bahnemann.
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Yeoman Serves Sundance Robert Yeoman, ASC was a juror for the U.S. Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. He was the American Cinematographer
only cinematographer on the panel, joining actress Parker Posey, author Russell Banks, producer Jason Kliot and director Karyn Kusama. Bahnemann Passes Torch at Arri ASC associate member Volker Bahnemann, president and CEO of Arri Inc. and Camera Service Center, recently announced that he will retire on April 1. He has been with Arri for 48 years, 32 as the CEO. Bahnemann was responsible for the initiation, development and refinement of many significant technologies, including the Arriflex 35-III, Arriflex 765, Arriflex 435 and Arriflex 235 cameras and Arri/Zeiss High Speed and Variable Prime lenses. In 1996, the Academy of Motion-Picture Arts & Sciences honored Bahnemann with the John A. Bonner Award. In 2002, the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers presented him with its Fuji Gold Medal Award. The new president of Arri will be Glenn Kennel, who has been the company’s chief technology officer since 2009. “I am confident and gratified to have found in Glenn a person qualified and ideally suited to lead the company into the future,” says Bahnemann. Kennel adds, “I am honored and humbled to have this opportunity. These are challenging times. In the digital world, we face strong competitors and fast-moving technology. I am excited because we have the best people and the best technology, plus an unmatched reputation for quality and service.” With Bahnemann’s departure, Simon Broad will become president of Arri CSC. He has overseen that company’s day-to-day operations as COO for the past four years. Kirkland Named Samy’s Photographer of the Month Samy’s Camera named ASC associate member Douglas Kirkland its “Photographer of the Month” in January. Kirkland discussed his career with author/photographer Mark Edward Harris at the Pier 59 Studio West in Santa Monica, Calif. ●
McDonald photo by Juan Tallo. Bahnemann photo courtesy of Arri.
McDonald, Karahadian, Bianco Named Associates New associate member William McDonald received his Master of Fine Arts degree in cinematography in 1986 from the University of California-Los Angeles, where he is currently head of cinematography and the department vice chair of undergraduate studies. He previously served on the faculties of various film schools, including American University, Loyola Marymount University and the University of Southern California, while working as a freelance cinematographer. McDonald’s recent cinematography credits include the documentaries Funny Ladies: A Portrait of Female Cartoonists, Women of Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever Changed Detective Fiction and Mysterious California: Four Authors. New ASC associate Marker Karahadian is the vice president of Band Pro Film & Digital, a position he has held since January. He was previously the executive vice president of Plus 8 Digital, a company he formed in the mid-1990s after working in the film and television industry as an engineer, camera assistant and operator. Karahadian’s responsibilities at Band Pro include guiding the company’s technical direction and product development, marketing, and overseeing Band Pro Tek, the company’s in-house Sony-authorized service department. New ASC associate Robert Bianco is the vice president of front-end operations for Deluxe Laboratories, a company for which he has worked since 1983 (aside from a brief stint with Technicolor in 1984). Bianco previously served Deluxe as a raw-stock splicer, Cmachine and wet-gate printer, new generation printer, sensitometry operator, sensitometry supervisor, manager of lab processes, director of lab processes and director of front-end operations. His current duties include overseeing all processes involved in dailies, answer prints and intermediate creation.
Salvatore Totino, ASC
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impression on you? Where I grew up, there was a movie theater that would play Italian films on Sunday, and sometimes my parents, being Italian, would take my sister and me. So at a very early age I was exposed to all the Italian Neorealist classics, which had a profound effect on my psyche. Some of my favorites are Fellini’s Amarcord (1974) and La Dolce Vita (1960) and Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945). Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire, and why? Conrad L. Hall, ASC, because he had balls! He was a risk-taker and not afraid to take a chance on an idea. What sparked your interest in photography? The work of still photographers Saul Leiter and Robert Frank.
Have you made any memorable blunders? Once on a commercial, I lit a scene very dark. I was pushing the limits, and the director asked me about the exposure. I said, ‘It’s on the edge.’ The next day at dailies, the director said, ‘You found the edge and fell off.’ We had to reshoot that scene. That was a learning experience, and I am still happy to walk that edge. What is the best professional advice you’ve ever received? The advice I got the first day I worked in the film business: Always be five minutes early to work, never five minutes late. But more importantly, live on the edge when it comes to your photography — take risks. Put your ideas on film and fall down a few times; it will make you a great filmmaker. What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you? Films: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Books: Excellent Cadavers by Alexander Stille.
Where did you train and/or study? I trained on the job under camera assistant Paul Gaffney and commercial cinematographer Jack Donnelly.
Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to try? I like true stories about people who live on the edge of life.
Who were your early teachers or mentors? Harris Savides, ASC. I met Harris in New York City in 1990. He was very influential in the sense that he, too, is a risk-taker, and he taught me how to let go and be free with my inner ideas.
If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing instead? I’d be a chef.
What are some of your key artistic influences? Music is a big artistic influence in my life. Artists like Tom Waits and Nick Cave drive my imagination. Also, life experiences bring a lot of ideas to my work. How did you get your first break in the business? Sal Oppedisano got me a job as a production assistant at a commercial house in New York in the summer of 1985.
Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for membership? Harris Savides, Darius Khondji, Declan Quinn and Shelly Johnson. How has ASC membership impacted your life and career? What happens at the Clubhouse stays at the Clubhouse! ●
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project? Cinderella Man and Frost/Nixon.
96
March 2010
American Cinematographer
Photo by Scott Shepard.
Close-up
n? io t u ll o p IR o t n io t Looking for a solu
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ONFILM C H R I S T I A N B E R G E R, ACC
“Great painters are able, with a few brushstrokes, to provoke our brains into replacing missing information. It’s like an ignition to the imagination. That is the power to be artistic, to create emotion. The technical is a way to get where we want to go, but what’s most interesting is how each individual uses it. Technology is always changing, but the artistic is a more archaic perspective. I am convinced that a director of photography today only finds the best result if he or she finds the most modest and efficient tool for the situation. What endures is a strong need for humans to communicate, to tell their stories. Film captures images with a quality that is higher than ever, and much higher than the digital formats. We should never work under the dictate of technique. It’s easy to say but difficult to do.” Christian Berger’s fifth collaboration with director Michael Haneke, Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon), was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the 2009 European Film Award. The film also earned Berger best cinematography honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle and at the Movieline/Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards. Their previous credits include Benny’s Video, 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance), La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher), and Caché (Hidden). Berger’s other credits include Amos Gitai’s Disengagement, Luc Bondy’s Ne fais pas ça, and Markus Heltschl’s Der gläserne Blick (Dead Man’s Memories). Berger also directed the features Raffl and Hanna Monster, Liebling. For an extended interview with Christian Berger, visit www.kodak.com/go/onfilm. To order Kodak motion picture film, call (800) 621-film. www.motion.kodak.com © Eastman Kodak Company, 2010. Photography: © 2009 Douglas Kirkland
