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The International Journal of Motion Imaging
32 Once Upon a Time in the South
Robert Richardson, ASC saddles up for Django Unchained,
Quentin Tarantinos homage to Spaghetti Westerns
50 An Unlikely Hero
Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS explores high-frame-rate 3-D
capture for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
66 A Musical Revolution
Danny Cohen, BSC sets Victor Hugos saga to song
78 An Auteurs Angst
Jeff Cronenweth, ASC lends a variety of looks to Hitchcock,
dramatizing the directors travails on and off the set of Psycho
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4
OFFICERS - 2012/2013
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ALTERNATES
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6
My visit to the set of Hitchcock was a bit unnerving. Upon
arriving at Red Studios, I found myself sitting in a directors
chair with Hannibal Lecter and Ed Gein lurking directly behind
me. Who scheduled this visit right before lunch? I joked,
glancing back at actors Anthony Hopkins (this time portraying
Alfred Hitchcock) and Michael Wincott (as Gein). Wincott
took the bait. When I go to the craft-services truck and they
ask what I want, I say, Scarlett Johansson. (Johansson co-
stars as Janet Leigh.)
Hitchcock is laced with gallows humor that leavens the
drama as Hitchcock struggles to make Psycho while worrying
that his wife, Alma (Helen Mirren), is having an affair. Cine-
matographer Jeff Cronenweth, ASC offers his insights to Jay Holben (An Auteurs Angst,
page 78), while director Sacha Gervasi provides his own perspective (Dramatizing the
Master of Suspense, page 82).
Robert Richardson, ASC is no slouch when it comes to cinema history, but he has met
his match in Quentin Tarantino. Before the duo began work on Django Unchained, Tarantino
screened a wide variety of titles for Richardson and other key collaborators, including Sergio
Corbuccis The Great Silence, Dario Argentos Suspiria, Lucio Fulcis Dont Torture a Duckling,
Mario Bavas Black Sunday, Max Ophls The Earrings of Madame de , Brian De Palmas
Carrie, Sergio Leones For a Few Dollars More and Howard Hawks Rio Bravo. Thats by no
means a complete list, Richardson notes wryly in his interview with Iain Stasukevich (Once
Upon a Time in the South, page 32).
Though Tarantino probably trumps almost anyone except Martin Scorsese in terms of
the sheer scope of his movie mania, he wisely defers to Richardson when it comes to areas
of technical expertise. My input [on lighting] is so minuscule that it really doesnt exist,
Tarantino concedes. I love Bobs look. I love his atmosphere. I love his hot pools of light. I
love all that shit. Its taken my work to a different level.
Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS and Peter Jackson achieved a similar serendipity while work-
ing together on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a triumphant marriage of technology and visual
design. With The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the two have upped the ante by adding
high-frame-rate 3-D to the mix. Peter has been talking about 3-D and high frame rates for
years, Lesnie tells Simon Gray (An Unlikely Hero, page 50). It goes back to seeing a
Showscan event in New Zealand when he was young and watching 70mm films in his child-
hood, and it goes all the way up to the King Kong ride he created at Universal Studios, which
involves 60-fps projection.
Not to be outdone in terms of ambition, Danny Cohen, BSC and Tom Hooper set
Les Misrables to music in a sweeping adaptation of the hit Broadway production. In tack-
ling Victor Hugos epic saga, they opted for naturalistic visuals that ground the spectacle in
gritty period realities. Its a story about social issues wealth, revolution and social change
but the story is told through song, Cohen tells John Calhoun (A Musical Revolution,
page 66). By making it as naturalistic as possible, we thought the fact that everybodys
singing wouldnt create a wall between the story and the audience.
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
Editors Note
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We wish all of you a Happy New Year. We hope for peace and prosper-
ity all over the world. This is a big January in the United States, as many
new faces have been elected and will be taking federal or state office this
month. Many of us watched the campaigns and elections closely and
noted the advances in polling and polling analysis.
Nate Silvers FiveThirtyEight blog in The New York Times was
quite informative. (The title comes from the total number of electoral-
college votes that can be cast: 538.) Silver made clear his methodology
as he gave new projections every day. Most readers were aware that hed
had a remarkable degree of accuracy in predicting the 2010 election
results. Ultimately, he had a near-perfect record of predicting 2012s
winners. That some candidates lost and were surprised by their losses
makes one wonder what information they were getting. If Silver could
predict the outcome of the election with a great degree of accuracy the
day before the election, why werent the candidates able to do so as
well? Simple: wishful thinking and assumption, the mother of all mess-
ups. Some candidates made assumptions about who would vote, and
many of those assumptions were wrong.
In cinematography you knew I would get back to cine-
matography we see lots of wishful thinking and mistaken assump-
tions, but what concerns us is the misinterpretation of numbers. When
discussing cameras, numbers have become a faddist sort of sloganeering
by the uninformed. We hear constant reference to 4K as the best
camera, but that might not be the case if the camera is 4K with 4:2:0
compression. And what exactly does 4K refer to: sensor size, individual recorded frame size, etc.? There is also frequent
reference to raw camera files, and many assume these files are uncompressed and unaltered. In fact, there are several
variations of raw that are processed and compressed. Manufacturers often clearly explain that a given raw file type is
compressed, but the uninformed chatter often does not take these various and reasonable compression schemes into
consideration. I say reasonable because as we make the welcome move toward 4K capture, we are going to be handling
enormous amounts of data, and well-made compression systems will be necessary.
In cinematography, what matters is the quality of the image. One camera might have better numbers, but the
image must serve the story and move it forward. The chatter about numbers distracts from the real purpose of images and
demeans the role of the cinematographer. Yes, we know our numbers, but numbers do not tell the whole story either in
elections or in storytelling.
Stephen Lighthill
ASC President
Presidents Desk
10 January 2013 American Cinematographer
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WWW. WARNERBROS2012. COM
F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N
BEST PICTURE
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
WALLY PFISTER, A. S.C.
POTENT, PERSUASIVE AND HYPNOTIC.

MASTERFUL FILMMAKING BY ANY STANDARD. BRILLIANT.
K E N N E T H T U R A N ,
Bullet Train
By Alec Ernest
When the Barbarian Group asked director/cinematographer
Andrew Wonder to capture 36 hours of time-lapse photography that
could be slowed down to a drop at any point, he recognized it
would not be a conventional job. The project was Juice Train, part
of an online campaign to revitalize General Electrics website, and the
subject was the train that makes a 36-hour journey to transport
550,000 gallons of Tropicana orange juice from Bradenton, Fla., to
Jersey City, N.J., for distribution in the Northeast.
Wonder had caught the agencys eye with his visceral docu-
mentary short Undercity, for which he followed urban explorer Steve
Duncan through New York City subway tunnels and sewers, and to
the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, with his Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The
video became a viral sensation. All I wanted to do was make some-
thing I had never seen before, says Wonder.
The potential to achieve that, he continues, can only be real-
ized by todays digital cameras. I could never move a film camera the
way I can move my 5D. Getting that camera was like finding my
paintbrush. With todays digital tools, we can make films no one has
ever seen before.
It used to be a real technical challenge to achieve time-lapse,
but DSLR technology has made it easy, he continues. The challenge
now is to do it in a way that creates a new experience for the viewer.
Juice Train, which presents the Tropicana trains 36-hour trip
in 156 seconds, offered such an opportunity. Prep was a six-month
journey to get all the tools we needed from vendors around the
world, and my producer, Alon Simcha, was instrumental in that
process, says Wonder.
The first challenge was finding a camera that could record
1080p at 60 fps. I wanted to use the Sony F3 because it offered
broadcast controls and a very cinematic image, but the specs said the
camera was only capable of 720p/60p, says Wonder. I hoped there
was a workaround and contacted Cinedeck about its recorders to see
what was possible. They pointed me to the Cinedeck RX recorder,
which was able to take the dual link out of the camera and record it
as 1080p/60p ProRes. Once we discovered the Cinedeck RX, the
whole shoot came together. It also allowed us to record directly to
two eSATA drives and provided full-screen waveforms, eliminating
the need to offload footage with a computer, change SSD modules
or use scopes. We couldnt have done the shoot without it.
Next, with help from Panavision New York, he tracked down
a JDC 32mm anamorphic lens, thinking that by shooting 2x anamor-
phic on a 16x9 sensor, he could achieve an aspect ratio of 3.55:1. I
wanted the image to be like a proscenium stage, he says. I wanted
the audience to look around the frame and find different details each
time they watched the video.
Short Takes
For Juice Train,
part of an online
campaign for
General Electric,
director/
cinematographer
Andrew Wonder
and his
collaborators
mounted two
Sony F3 cameras
to the front of a
locomotive and
recorded the
trains 36-hour
journey from
Florida to
New Jersey.
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When the team scouted the train,

they discovered that for safety reasons, they
could not place a camera directly center on
the front it would have to be 2' to the left
or right. We werent given an opportunity to
shoot any tests, so we decided to put two
cameras on the front of the train so that if
both images felt too much to the side, we
could stitch them together in post, Wonder
says. I attended some of Sonys 3-D training
last year, and I thought if I could implement
those techniques into our Juice Train work-
flow, it would help our post team espe-
cially since putting tracking marks on the
route wasnt possible. We used the F3s inter-
nal gen-lock to sync the two cameras, and I
used a Transvideo 3-D monitor to help sync
the two images as we framed the cameras
up. The cameras were 4 feet apart, so we
couldnt use the convergence on the monitor
to perfectly sync the images, but it was
enough that I could check a few points on
the horizon line to get the cameras as close as
possible.
Panavision continued to work with the
filmmakers as the details of the shoot
changed. Wonder explains, They adapted
their custom fiber-optic converters so we
could run cable from the front of the train to
our control room 200 feet back, and when
we decided to add a second camera, they
sourced another JDC lens for us and made
custom cables to sync the cameras.
Abel Cine Tech in New York helped
us figure out the best way to set up and use
the Sony F3s in this scenario, he adds.
Rigging grip T.J. Beatty worked with
Wonder to determine the best way to mount
and weatherproof the cameras without
hampering the ability to run cable out of
them. T.J. built waterproof Plexiglas cases for
the F3s that were white on the outside and
black on the inside to help moderate temper-
ature, says Wonder. They had built-in AC-
powered fans to prevent overheating, and
clear optical flats that we could change mid-
journey if they were damaged or too dirty to
be cleaned.
Because of the trains schedule, the
team had one day actually 12 hours to
do all the rigging. The crew also included 1st
AC James Madrid, gaffer Smokey Nelson, key
grip Shiloh Eck, and operators David Cobra
Ellis and Nora DeBroder. We werent able to
test our rigs before the shoot and didnt
Top: The
productions
F3 cameras
were mounted
with JDC
32mm 2x
anamorphic
lenses and
control boxes
rented from
Panavision
New York.
Middle: The
cameras
protective
housings were
built by
rigging grip
T.J. Beatty.
Bottom: The
cramped
control room
on the train
housed a 17"
Sony
reference
monitor (left),
two Cinedeck
RX recorders
(right), paint
boxes and
FI+Z units.
WWW.WARNERBROS2012.COM
REX REED,
ARGO IS A TRIUMPH. A MOVIE THAT
DEFINES PERFECTION. EACH PIECE FITS
SEAMLESSLY AND EVERY DETAIL WORKS.
EXEMPLARY AND METICULOUSLY
DETAILED. IT IS A GREAT FILM.
B E S T P I C T U R E
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
RODRIGO PRIETO, ASC, AMC
know how much vibration to expect from
the train, so we rigged the cameras to T.J.s
boxes using Matthews Master Suction
Cups, says Wonder. Wed used those to
mount [Canon] C300s to a crop-dusting
plane on our previous job and were
impressed with how well they absorbed
vibrations. We mounted each F3 to the
suction cup and then attached it to the
bottom of the Plexiglas box.
Eck attached the camera boxes to the
front of the train using fabricated speed-rail
brackets. We had 11 cables running out of
each camera back to the control room,
which was the size of a Porta-Potty, recalls
Wonder. James and Smokey had to live in it
for two days. There was only one take!
Juice Train would seem to be a job
that didnt require a gaffer, but Wonder
explains that Nelsons role was unique.
When we scouted the train, we discovered
there was only a single Edison outlet in the
locomotive, and it was 72 volts. Smokey
came aboard and helped us source an
inverter that would convert that to 120 volts
and give us the ability to run up to 1,500
watts of our control station off the outlet.
Throughout the shoot, he made sure nothing
went wrong with the inverter, checked
connections and the rig, and helped James
control the cameras. He was more a Swiss
Army knife than a gaffer!
Each camera recorded in ProRes
through the Cinedeck onto 6TB Sonnet
Fusion F3 eSATA hard drives, which could
record the entire 36-hour journey without
requiring a change of SxS cards. With a 17"
Sony OLED monitor, Madrid controlled each
camera with paint boxes and Preston FI+Z
units. During the day, we had no way to get
ND, because the ND on an F3 is a switch,
notes Wonder. So we had to adjust iris, ISO
and shutter speed instead. We were some-
times at
1
5,000 with an iris at 11 or 16. To
minimize motion blur, we never went below
a shutter speed of
1
125, even at night.
While Madrid and Nelson sat in the
control room, Wonder and the others used
Canon 5Ds and C300s to capture footage of
the train from the ground to give the POV
shot context. We used Zeiss ZE primes and
Canon L zooms for that work, says Wonder.
Sometimes the three of us only had five
minutes to set up before the train came into
the station, and we had to coordinate up to
five cameras at once.
In addition, Anthony Jacobs and Max
Sainvil of Perspective Aerials provided a drone
rig for some aerial shots of the train; these
were captured with a Sony NEX-FS100.
The two F3s each captured a 36-hour
panoramic clip without a hitch, but when the
team started going through the footage at
post facility Omega Darling, they discovered
that with a little perspective control in Adobe
After Effects, they could make one camera
POV look centered. When we tested stitch-
ing the images together, it gave us almost
exactly the same result but required a lot
more rendering time, Wonder explains. So
we decided to just use the one angle. Omega
Darling did some After Effects work to
control the image blur and speed changes.
Our editor, Matt Kliegman, did an
amazing job of cutting down a vast quantity
of footage and figuring out how to use one
perspective to create a narrative, he adds.
The result is a 156-second ultra-wide
shot of the trains POV, with some moments
like the afternoon sun sparkling through
the trees and flaring the lens slowed down
to emphasize certain aspects of the journey.
We used our grading session with [colorist]
Sal Malfitano at The Mill to emphasize these
slowed-down moments, and we used power
windows and vignettes to help direct the eye
to different parts of the image, says
Wonder. Sal created a look with a lot of
punch that also feels natural and real.
This was a great project because it
provided so many technical challenges my
team had to overcome, concludes Wonder.
No one had ever thought of doing time-
lapse this way, and I am thankful to the
Barbarian Group for dreaming it up and
giving us the opportunity to bring it to life.
Juice Train can be viewed at
www.GE.com.
Top and middle: Two frame grabs illustrate the 3.55:1 aspect ratio of the unsqueezed
anamorphic footage. Bottom: Wonder helps rig the control room.
Enduring Love
By Benjamin B
Amour, directed by Michael Haneke and shot by Darius
Khondji, ASC, AFC, takes place almost entirely in the Parisian apart-
ment of an elderly couple, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges
(Jean-Louis Trintignant). The story follows Annes gradual descent
into physical incapacity and dementia following a stroke. Georges
promises to keep her at home, and her degradation challenges his
love for her as he courageously becomes her caretaker. They gradu-
ally become isolated from the world outside, including their daugh-
ter (Isabelle Huppert). AC recently spoke with Khondji about his work
on the picture, his second feature with Haneke (following the U.S.
remake of Funny Games in 2007).
American Cinematographer: Whats it like to work with
Haneke?
Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC: Nothing is left to chance with
Michael. Everything is thought out and planned ahead of time. He is
extremely meticulous and rigorous. The whole film was story-
boarded, and we knew all the camera positions ahead of time
sometimes the day before, sometimes weeks ahead of time for
complicated shots. For example, the opening dolly shots, when the
police break down the front door to the couples apartment, were
rehearsed many times weeks before the shoot. We never used dolly
tracks; the apartments wood floor was leveled and sandpapered so
that we could dolly on it smoothly. The camera operator, Joerg
Widmer, did a superb job.
We understand you shot with the Arri Alexa. What
made you decide to go digital?
Khondji: I proposed the idea to Michael. He was a little skep-
tical at first, but then he embraced the idea because he thought,
and rightfully so, that it would be easier for the actors because we
wouldnt have to reload as often. I was also able to light more with
practicals because you need less light overall with digital. That also
helped us.
I believe this was the first feature shot in ArriRaw, and we had
some problems because the de-Bayering process wasnt completely
finished yet. Our dailies werent sharp, and Michael was very frus-
trated by this. I always want to try things, I always want to go
forward, but Im going to let digital advance a little bit before I use
it again. All these digital cameras are wonderful, but theyre not
completely finished yet. In two or three years, digital will be incred-
ible; after all, its already wonderful.
One problem I see with digital is a form of laziness on set.
Some filmmakers say they will create a negative with good wave-
forms and then determine everything else in post. I want to work
the opposite way. Of course, every film requires a different approach
to under- and overexposure, but, for example, I dont want to create
a good signal and then lower it in post. I prefer to underexpose
instead. Or, if a director asks me to shoot a film in a desert with a
completely overexposed image, Im ready to overexpose it, to fry the
sensor! (laughs) I want to give a real direction to the cinematogra-
phy. Otherwise, what is our work about?
Amour is infused with a very strong realism, like so
much of Hanekes work.
Khondji: Michael has a desire for the true. Everything has to
be very true or real, words he uses all the time. My crew and I
adopted that vocabulary on the set; my gaffer, Thierry Baucheron,
Production Slate
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Anne
(Emmanuelle
Riva) and her
husband,
Georges (Jean-
Louis
Trintignant),
enjoy an
evening at home
in a scene from
Amour.
I
FOR SCREENI NG I NFORMATI ON, PLEASE VI SI T WWW. WARNERBROS2012. COM
BEST PICTURE
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
JOHN TOLL, ASC FRANK GRIEBE
BEAUTIFULLY PHOTOGRAPHED
BY FRANK GRIEBE AND JOHN TOLL AND ELEGANTLY CRAFTED.
JOE MORGENSTERN,
and key grip, Cyril Kuhnholtz, would
propose something by saying, This is truer.
Michael would say to me, for example, The
lighting you did here is pretty, but I cant
read a book in this light; therefore, it isnt
true. I want them to be able to read with the
light of the practical. Sometimes I would
add a fixture in the direction of the practical
to extend its effect, and he would tolerate
that, but he would say, It cant only be
pretty. It must also be functional. Some-
times, in the moment, it was frustrating, but
it led me to enter into another lighting
approach that is magnifique. I loved it. I
learned a lot on this film, and on the films
Ive worked on since then, I have striven to
work on the truth of the lighting, which has
made it more beautiful to me.
This movie has a lot of depth-of-
field. There are only a few scenes in the
living room where you see a focus shift.
Khondji: With Michael, you always
need more sharpness and more depth-of-
field, so we shot at T4 almost all the time.
With another director, I might have shot
more open, but in this case I had to
compensate for the lack of depth-of-field of
the digital sensor. I found T4 with the Alexa
to be the equivalent of T2.8 with film. With
film I would have shot between T2.5 and
T2.8, but there I was at T4, and sometimes
even at T5.6, trying to give more roundness
to the depth-of-field. I mixed Cooke S4 and
S5 primes, which I often do. I started with
Top and middle:
Georges is
alarmed when his
wife suddenly
seems incapable
of speech during
breakfast.
Bottom: Georges
informs the
couples daughter
(Isabelle Huppert)
of Annes
deteriorating
condition.
the idea of shooting fairly open with the S5s
during my tests. I like the S5s because you
can open them up, and theyre very beauti-
ful between T1.3 and T2. Their lack of
depth-of-field makes the image very beauti-
ful and fragile. Its almost like shooting with
a large-format negative.
Part of the films sobriety comes
from its limited focal lengths. What
focal length did you use most often?
Khondji: 35mm. Robert Bresson
shot everything with the 40mm. Michael
Haneke shoots everything with the 35mm,
which isnt available in the S5s yet.
Almost the entire film takes place
in the apartment, a set built on a sound-
stage. What was your lighting
approach?
Khondji: Michael created a detailed
lighting framework, which he started by
himself and we then refined together. In
defining the orientation of the apartment,
we decided the windows of the bedroom
and living room would face north so that
there would be no direct sunlight. Those
rooms are lit by the bounce off a big build-
ing across the street that is visible through
the windows. The kitchen is the only place
where sunlight enters directly, in the morn-
ing. Whats more, its never the same light-
ing from scene to scene. There are sunny
days, cloudy days, rainy days and so on. We
followed Michaels directions like a musical
score, continuously changing the lighting
according to the moment in the day, the
weather and the season. Because we knew
everything in advance, we preset the light-
ing settings ahead of time, and we could
determine the proportion of daylight to
practicals. We had everything on dimmers
to define the light intensity. I wanted the
lighting to be very true. I wanted you to feel
the light coming in from the outside, and
for the light to be very spatial, to really be
part of the dcor, just like the colors of the
walls. Many people have told me they cant
really tell its a soundstage, not a location.
What was your lighting setup?
Khondji: All the fixtures were tung-
sten. For daylight I wanted very big sources,
so as to light the entire window. We put
24Ks with heavily diffused Chimeras 5 or 6
meters [16'-20'] away from the windows,
shining directly through them, and we hung
sheer curtains on the windows that also
diffused the light. Above each window we
installed 4-by-4 Kino Flos with diffusion
similar to tracing paper; these were skirted
and channeled to extend the window light
inside. Underneath each window outside
were soft lights shooting up, because
daylight does that: it doesnt just come from
above, it also [bounces] up from the ground
and lights up the window and the window
edges. When the street windows were in
shot, we lit the greenscreen outside. [Visual-
effects supervisor] Julien Meesters from
Mikros Image did a wonderful job of [comp-
ing in] street footage behind the sheers.
Did you have any lighting above
the set?
Khondji: All the rooms were lit from
above with space lights gelled with CTB
and going through very thick, unbleached
muslin. These top sources were played very,
very low. Depending on the scene and the
moment of the day or evening, they had
almost no impact, or a little more. They
could provide fill to offset the contrast from
the window light. The big vestibule and the
little hallway leading to the kitchen also had
toplight, but it was much more tungsten-
balanced so that when the practicals are on,
there is more fill coming down from the ceil-
ing. But I found that the toplight could
quickly become fake looking, so I dimmed
the ceiling lighting a lot.
There are few close-ups in the
film, but you present the characters
faces beautifully with a very natural
look. An example is the kitchen-table
scene in which Anne has her first
stroke.
Khondji: That scene was shot with
two cameras, so it was very complicated
because I had to light the two actors and
the two backgrounds at the same time in a
very tight spot. The only source of light was
through the window. The key on each actor
was provided by a 10K, and it was more
heavily diffused on him than on her.
Tell us about the DI.
Khondji: We actually did two
passes. I did the first with [colorist] Didier
Lefouest at Digimage, with very specific
notes from Michael, and Michael did the
second in Austria. He wanted to see my
version and then do his own because he is
so meticulous. We graded in 4K, and I must
say that the 4K DCP we saw at Cannes was
much more beautiful than the 2K DCP I saw
afterwards. There really is a big difference.
For me, there was something very
musical about this film. The lighting varia-
tions felt like a musical score that incorpo-
rated the time of day, the weather and the
season. I felt like a violinist working with a
very, very good orchestra conductor. Its true
that I had less freedom than Ive had with
other directors, but it was a fascinating
experience nevertheless. You know, I would
have loved to have had the opportunity to
work with Bresson and Bergman, and work-
ing with Michael Haneke on a film like this
felt like the same level of filmmaking. He
has the same rigor and desire for truth.
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.85:1
Digital Capture
Arri Alexa
Cooke S4, S5
Director of photography Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC (center) and director Michael Haneke (third
from right) confer with their collaborators on the set.
W W W . WA R N E R B R O S 2 0 1 2 . C O M
B E S T P I C T U R E
B E S T C I N E MAT OG R AP H Y
ANDREW LESNIE ACS, ASC
A Conscience Decision
By David Heuring
To present the rural setting of the
drama Promised Land with the richest
detail and greatest clarity possible, Swedish
cinematographer Linus Sandgren, FSF and
director Gus Van Sant brought an unusual
format to the big screen: Super 1.85:1
achieved with a 4-perf Super 35mm nega-
tive and Hawk 1.3x anamorphic prime
lenses. The format, which boosts image
size on the negative, is made possible by
the combination of DI techniques and the
1.3x lenses. It has been used in some
commercials, but never in a feature film,
Sandgren attests. By shooting 4-perf
Super 35mm in a squeezed ratio of 1.42:1,
we worked with a negative area that was
70 percent larger than Academy 1.85:1
and 30 percent larger than 3-perf Super
1.85.
Promised Land follows Steve Butler
(Matt Damon), a salesman for a natural-gas
company who arrives in a small, economi-
cally depressed town in upstate New York
with his work partner, Sue (Frances McDor-
mand), and tries to talk the locals into sign-
ing over the drilling rights to their farmland.
It isnt an easy sell, and as he spends more
time talking to the townspeople, Butler
struggles with whether he is doing the right
thing.
In prep, Van Sant and Sandgren
discussed their mutual admiration for
photojournalism of the latter 20th century,
particularly images captured with Leica
cameras, and decided to try to capture a
similar level of detail in Promised Lands
rural locations (in Avonmore and Apollo,
Pa.). Sandgren tested a range of formats to
determine how best to deliver this look.
They took inspiration from large-format still
photography, especially the work of
Stephen Shore, but also the reportage-style
images of Steve McCurry, Mitch Epstein
and Eve Arnold. There were conversations
about shooting 65mm, but that format was
deemed impractical. Anamorphic 2.40:1
was considered, but Van Sant decided he
wanted a 1.85:1 aspect ratio to make the
images feel more natural, says Sandgren.
Gus thought these Kodachrome stills shot
in the American countryside in the 1970s
and 80s were perfect. You see a lot of
detail, not much grain, and everything has
nice latitude, with nothing really blowing
out. Theres exposure everywhere, but its
still contrasty.
The images they were viewing had
faded slightly with age, and Van Sant also
liked that quality. Sandgren found that a
combination of overexposing and pull
processing the negative helped. By overex-
posing
1
3 of a stop and pull processing 1
stop, we got even exposure and great,
strong contrast. The blacks are dense but
soft. (Deluxe Laboratories in New York
processed the productions negative.)
He shot most of Promised Land on
two Fujifilm Eterna Vivid negatives, 250D
8546 and 500 8547. For bright day exteri-
ors, he occasionally used Fujifilm F-64D
8522. I wanted to get a lot of saturation
so that we could perhaps mute it later [in
post], he says. I wanted everything to
have color. In window highlights with white
curtains, the Vivid stocks seemed to register
those subtle tones of cyan or yellow that
exist in the world. Those reportage photos
we were referencing blow most peoples
minds because they make you feel like
youre there, and the Vivid stocks helped us
[achieve] that same effect by capturing even
minimal saturation. By pull processing, we
maintained even exposure and maintained
highlights, and I found that the mid-tones,
where most of the important information is,
maintained contrast, while the blacks and
the highlights were softened. The blacks
dont develop enough to be completely
contrasty, and the highlights dont process
enough to burn out. White clouds are
P
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p
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b
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S
c
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t
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G
r
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n
,

c
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F
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s
.
Upon arriving
in a rural town
to pitch the
locals on a
fracking plan,
Steve Butler
(Matt Damon,
left) finds
retired
engineer Frank
Yates (Hal
Holbrook) to
be a very
tough sell.
I
detailed, and blacks are deep yet dull. Faces
get a beautiful shine. Our testing showed
we couldnt achieve this look any other way,
even in the DI. (The final digital grade was
done at Technicolor Hollywood with colorist
Mark Gethin.)
The Hawk V-Lite 1.3x anamorphic
lenses, which he teamed with Arricam
Studio and Lite cameras, are just great
very well manufactured, contrasty and
beautiful and they contributed signifi-
cantly to the look as well, he continues.
They have their own unique characteris-
tics, like out-of-focus highlights in the back-
ground that are not quite circular. In combi-
nation with the rich detail of the negative,
the lenses gave us an image thats just
amazing.
Sandgren notes that the pull-
processed material looks less grainy than
the material that was processed normally,
even at night, and he attributes that in part
to the increased resolution of the 4-perf
squeezed image. I didnt pull process the
first night exterior [a dialogue between
Damon and John Krasinski in a parking lot]
because I was afraid it was going to get too
dark, he says. Later, we shot in a similar
environment and did the pull processing,
and it looked so crisp. It was very successful.
The pull processing doesnt bring up the
grain; you can lift it up with the gamma
curves in the DI. In the end, there were only
two scenes that we didnt pull process, and
they were both from the first day of the
shoot.
Van Sant values simplicity, and Sand-
grens in-camera techniques, as well as his
lighting and framing, were in harmony with
that aesthetic. We could move fast and
capture things quickly with confidence, and
because we were already using the right
technique, what was happening in front of
the camera could give us some cool
surprises, says Sandgren. That was nice.
Most mornings during the shoot,
Van Sant spent the first hour or so devising
the blocking for a scene. Then, the actors
would retreat for wardrobe and makeup,
and Sandgrens crew would go to work.
Lighting was minimal, and clean sets
were encouraged no cameras, dollies or
lighting in the spaces until after blocking.
Blocking and shot selection, like most of
Top: A farmer
(Scoot McNairy)
gives Butler the
cold shoulder.
Bottom: The
salesman enjoys
a warmer
welcome from
a local
schoolteacher
(Rosemarie
DeWitt) in the
town bar.
2012 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
Features and specications are subject to change without notice. Sony, CineAlta, and the make.believe logo are trademarks of Sony.
HD, 2K, 4K and beyond.
With Sony 4K, your future is bright. Even if youre distributing in HD, Sony 4K gives you beautiful, super-sampled pictures
with higher contrast and greater sharpness. The F55 camera upgrades your imagery with true color, on-board 4K
recording and electronic global shutter, while the F5 offers a 4K sensor and super-sampled HD recording. They join the
8K-sensor F65, not to mention a full spectrum of Sony 4K tools to create the ultimate in immersive viewing. Experience
incredible Sony 4K recorders, monitors, digital cinema projectors, a nonlinear editor, a home theater projector and even
a home television. Sony 4K: delivering tomorrows performance, today.
sony.com/35mm
PMW-F5
PMW-F55
the future
ahead of schedule
Van Sants decisions, were always based on
character and on the actors instincts. Sand-
gren and his gaffer, Patrick Murray, usually lit
the room rather than the shot, with some
minor adjustments after blocking. Most
scenes were filmed with two cameras.
Gus wanted the sets to be very
open for the actors when it came to block-
ing, the cinematographer recalls. If we
didnt need to use movie lights, that was
preferred. Sometimes we needed light, but
only on interiors and night exteriors. We
used sodium-vapor and mercury-vapor
streetlights sparsely and randomly in the
town. We didnt use very big units, but we
had a lot of small units on Condors so we
could fill [night exteriors in town] with dirty
mixed light.
Nothing was too planned out, he
continues. We didnt want the light to
look as if it was meant to be in a space in
that perfect, filmic way. I wanted it to be a
little off. Our plan was to kill any light source
that didnt feel authentic. I was also very
allergic to wide squares reflected in the eyes
of the actors. I hope you dont see any!
Key grip Bart Flaherty and costume designer
Juliet Polcsa collaborated to create 8'x8' and
4'x4' frames with a variety of fabrics in
shades of yellow, blue and white. The
frames were used to soften faces and
reflected abstract, less noticeable patterns
in eyes.
For a day-interior scene in which
Butler appeals to the locals at a town meet-
ing in the high-school gymnasium, the film-
makers switched off the existing mercury-
vapor practicals because they were too
noisy, and Sandgrens crew rigged a combi-
nation of diffused ArriMax M18s overhead
and 18K ArriMaxes and ArriMax M40s
through windows to emulate sunlight.
Van Sant wanted Sandgren to
emulate the reactive style of camera
movement he admired in certain films from
the 1970s. Gus was concerned that we
might not be able to move the camera
much in some of our locations, says Sand-
gren. We found an Elemack Jib that the
operator rides, and we used it extensively.
Early on, Van Sant asked Sandgren if
he could work without monitors or play-
back. I said, Sure, that would be fun!
says the cinematographer. I operated the
A camera, and I trusted my B-camera oper-
ator, Davon Slininger, completely. Of course,
it took a few days to get used to this
method, but when we saw dailies, it was all
good. Working without monitors saved us a
lot of time. It eliminates a lot of discussions.
Gus encouraged all of us to trust our
instincts. It was like an organized pledge to
work together. Everyone felt included.
TECHNICAL SPECS
Super 1.85:1
4-perf Super 35mm
Arricam Studio, Lite
Vantage Hawk V-Lite 1.3x
Fujifilm Eterna Vivid 250D 8546,
500 8547; F-64D 8522
Digital Intermediate
Top: Butlers work partner, Sue (Frances McDormand), questions his strategy.
Bottom: Cinematographer Linus Sandgren, FSF.
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2012 Red.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
The smallest camera makes the biggest images.
This still frame was pulled from 5k RED EPIC
motion footage. Hitchcock 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Not for sale or duplication.
The visions always clear in my mind but the trick on every project
is to get it up on the screen, fully realized. No excusesI absolutely hate
compromise. After shooting The Social Network, The Girl With the Dragon
Tattoo, and Hitchcockal l on REDI came to the conclusion that
compromise has been removed from the equation. With RED, my vision
becomes my reality. For what its worth, I feel much better now.
Jeff Cronenweth, ASC

OnceUponaTime
in the
South
Robert Richardson, ASC reteams
with Quentin Tarantino on
Django Unchained, the story of a
former slave seeking revenge.
By Iain Stasukevich
|
www.theasc.com January 2013 33
Q
uentin Tarantinos previous
collaborations with Robert
Richardson, ASC, Kill Bill (AC
Oct. 03) and Inglourious Basterds
(AC Sept. 09), quoted liberally
from the visual vocabularies of Italian
Spaghetti Westerns, but with Django
Unchained, the writer/director blazes his
own trail. This time, says Tarantino,
Im doing a Spaghetti Southern.
He goes on to explain that the
bleak, pitiless universe of Spaghetti
Westerns seemed like the ideal setting
for the story of a freed slave in the ante-
bellum South. The former slave, Django
( Jamie Foxx), is trained in gunslinging
by a charismatic bounty hunter, Dr.
King Schultz (Cristoph Waltz), who
then hires him to help him track a posse
of bandits called the Brittle Brothers. In
return, Schultz agrees to help free
Djangos wife, Broomhilda (Kerry
Washington), from the clutches of
wealthy plantation owner Calvin
Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).
It has long been Tarantinos
custom to screen dozens of movies for
his key creatives early in prep to help
establish the language of the universe
they will create. For Django Unchained,
Richardson recalls, these screenings
included Sergio Corbuccis The Great
Silence, Dario Argentos Suspiria, Lucio
Fulcis Dont Torture a Duckling, Mario
Bavas Black Sunday, Max Ophls The
Earrings of Madame de , Brian De
Palmas Carrie, Sergio Leones For a Few
Dollars More and Howard Hawks Rio
Bravo. Thats by no means a complete
list, adds Richardson.
The cinematographer and his
core crew gaffer Ian Kincaid, 1st AC
Gregor Tavenner and key grip Chris
Centrella have worked together for
so long that the cinematographer can
issue any number of specific commands
with the mere wave of a hand.
Richardson also wears a headset that
enables him to communicate with
them, and occasionally other crewmem-
bers, from his perch behind the camera.
Bob has trained all of us to be sensitive
to the way a scene progresses, says
Tavenner. Even a single close-up can
P
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A
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,

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i
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i
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C
o
.
Opposite: Django
(Jamie Foxx, right)
saddles up alongside
bounty hunter Dr.
King Schultz
(Christoph Waltz) in
Django Unchained.
This page, top to
bottom: Plantation
owner Calvin Candie
(Leonardo DiCaprio)
poses an obstruction
to Djangos ambitions;
director Quentin
Tarantino eyeballs
a setup;
cinematographer
Robert Richardson,
ASC shares a direction
via headset.
contain a lot of information, so you have
to be able to feel what that moment is
really about.
Tarantino and Richardson agree
that they are finding their own groove
after more than a decade of collabora-
tion. This is the most Ive ever worked
with one cinematographer, so the rela-
tionship is really getting solid, says the
director. Bob isnt trying to impose
anything on me. Richardson notes that
Tarantino might not have always felt
that way. When we first worked
together, on Kill Bill, I brought along
my gaffer, key grip and first AC, and
Quentin hadnt worked with someone
who came with his own crew, he says.
I think he was afraid we would battle
him, which was not the case. The direc-
tor is the one with the vision, and we
serve him or her. The only path to creat-
ing a great film is to support the direc-
tor. Quentin is the master.
Bob always lines it up the way I
ask, and then I look through the
viewfinder and it sucks its not magi-
cal, the director concedes, chuckling.
Bob has very strong opinions, but he
doesnt editorialize. He just wants to
know whats in my head. Thats a crazy
amount of trust.
The filmmakers decided to shoot
anamorphic 2.40:1 and use the same
Panavision Primo lenses they had
chosen for Inglourious Basterds.
Tarantinos affection for wider focal
lengths meant the 40mm or 50mm was
often on the camera. Quentin doesnt
like the foreground-background separa-
tion that a long lens creates, notes
Richardson. When a lighter camera
configuration or a focal length not
covered by the Primos was needed, the
cinematographer used Panavision E-
Series primes. The eight E-Series
lenses, which range from 28mm to
180mm, are completely compatible
with the Primos, says Tavenner, and
theyre not only beautiful, theyre also
beautiful wide open. Bob has a
tendency to light to a T3.2. (The lens
package also included Primo 48-
550mm ALZ11, 40-80mm AWZ2
and 70-200mm ATZ zoom lenses.)
Once Upon a Time in the South

Right: Django
takes a dip in a
hot spring. Below:
Richardson rides
at the end of a
Grip Factory
Munich GF-16
crane to get a
shot of Foxx in
the water.
After principal photography
commenced, Tarantino continued to
revise the script based on his work with
the actors, or to reflect casting changes.
Because of this, tests involving new sets
and costumes were shot whenever
Tarantino, Richardson, Kincaid,
costume designer Sharen Davis and
production designer J. Michael Riva
could find a free moment on set.
Kincaid recalls, Wed sometimes have
our riggers set up panels of different
colors and textures of paint in an envi-
ronment that wed lit in the style we
intended to use in those particular loca-
tions, and then send a B camera over to
roll some footage. That way, Michael
and Sharen could adjust their colors to
our lighting. (When Riva died
suddenly mid-shoot, art director David
Klassen assumed the production
designers responsibilities in addition to
his own.)
The 120-day shoot took the
filmmakers to Simi Valley and Santa
Clarita, Calif.; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; and
New Orleans, La. The California loca-
tions, Melody Ranch Studios in Santa
Clarita and Big Sky Ranch in Simi
Valley, doubled for sites in Texas, where
the first part of the story takes place.
Thats where Django is freed by
Schultz thats the Western part of
the movie, says Tarantino. Then we
move to the winter wonderland, where
Django becomes a bad-ass bounty
hunter; we shot all that up in
Wyoming. Then we moved down to
Louisiana, where we wanted to drench
the movie in Southern atmosphere.
Richardson describes the differences
between the West and the South in
terms of Technicolor processes: an
earthy British Technicolor look was
sought for the West, and a more satu-
Clockwise from top:
Django and Schultz
venture through
what Tarantino calls
the winter
wonderland, where
Django becomes a
bad-ass bounty
hunter; Richardson
and 1st AC Gregor
Tavenner frame up a
snowman; the crew
films a scene on
location in
Wyoming,
surrounded by
vintage charcoal
silks.
rated IB Technicolor look was the goal
for the South.
A historic plantation in Wallace,
La., called Evergreen served as Candies
plantation, Candieland. The production
used Evergreens mansion and slave
quarters for some interiors and exteriors,
as well as its oak-tree alleys and sugar-
cane fields. The art department spent
five months constructing a 90'-wide-
by-45'-high faade for the mansion
exterior, which featured six Greek
Revival-style columns that were 30'
high. The first and second floors were
art-directed approximately 20' into the
faade to match the two-story interior
set built at Second Line Studios in New
Orleans.
The one-camera setup is a hall-
mark of Richardson and Tarantinos
creative collaboration. Rarely, a B-
camera will come into play, and if it
does, Tarantino operates it. When
people ask Quentin why he doesnt
shoot with multiple cameras, he says, I
direct, I dont select, says Richardson.
He will reluctantly shoot B-camera
coverage for action sequences, but even
those shots are specifically tailored.
Tarantino describes two different
approaches to camera moves in Django
Unchained in terms of other filmmakers:
When were outside, its Sergio Leone
and Sergio Corbucci. Inside, especially
in Candies mansion, its Max Ophls.
Richardson elaborates, One of the
things Quentin brought up almost
immediately [in prep] was how Fulci
and Corbucci use the zoom. Often their
work utilized zoom actions that mimic a
dolly but have a vastly different sensibil-
ity. Whether the choice was budgetary
or aesthetic is open to argument, but we
embraced it as an aesthetic. We screened
Ophls films for the long, fluid camera
moves. Django became a combination of
these two styles; we were often doing
crane moves or dollies in conjunction
with a zoom. When Tarantino
requested it, Richardson would punctu-
ate the drama with snap zooms, which
he pulled by hand.
The Candieland mansion interi-
ors exhibit a really elegant, 1940s-

Top: The Brittle
Brothers and their
masked posse
stalk Schultzs
wagon. Middle: A
remote-operated
camera on a GF-8
crane captures
the bandits.
Bottom: 40'x40'
truss frames
fitted with 24
DMX-controlled
6K space lights
and skinned with
Gelfab Full Blue
Silent Grid Cloth
provide some
moonlight
ambience.
studio-film look, with big, sweeping
crane shots, says Tarantino. Bob and
Michael Riva and I screened 35mm
prints of films like The Exile and Letter
from an Unknown Woman for those
scenes.
In one such shot, the camera
tracks Candies right-hand man,
Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), as he
walks through the kitchen and then
moves through a swinging door into
the dining room, where Candie, Shultz
and Django are dining with Candies
sister, Lara Lee (Laura Cayouette), and
his lawyer, Leo Moguy (Dennis
Christopher). Richardson is riding a
GF-8 crane with the Primo AWZ2 set
at 80mm. He zooms back with Jackson,
and the crane tracks with Jackson as he
moves from one room to the other until
the camera passes through a wall to
frame the dinner table in a wide shot.
The crane tracks past Jackson as he
stops at the head of the table, and
continues tracking down the length of
the room. Slowly, the arm of the crane
swings around the far end of the table
while zooming into a medium close-up
of Foxx in profile. Meanwhile, Centrella
and his crew fly in the outside wall to
provide Richardson with a wider frame.
As the camera came around to the
profile shot of Jamie, we dimmed down
Samuels backlight and brought up
Jamies backlight, notes Kincaid.
When a crane shot is required,
Richardson prefers to ride with the
camera instead of operating remotely
from the ground. Typically, Tarantino
will ride the crane first to show
Richardson what he has in mind, and
then, after a couple of rehearsals,
Richardson will take the reins. Usually,
Centrella and crane tech Mike Duarte
operate the chassis, and dolly grip Dan
Pershing handles the arm. Richardson
favors OConnors 120 EX fluid head
over gears.
For another shot in the mansion,
the camera was on a 45' GF-16, shoot-
ing through the banister of the main
staircase. The focus starts on the hem of
Lara Lees dress as she escorts Broom-
hilda upstairs to Schultzs room. The
Top: The Brittle Brothers ride toward their intended victims. Middle: The camera tracks alongside one of
the riders. Bottom: The 40'x40' moon box is further supported by two 12K HMI Pars, an ArriMax on a
125' Condor and two 15-light Bebee Night Lights on location at Big Sky Ranch.
camera booms up the stairs, tilts to
reveal the women, and follows them at
eye level around the second-floor
balcony. We were on 50 or 60 feet of
track starting at the door, recalls
Centrella. We tracked with the bottom
of the dresses and boomed up to the top
of the steps, and then we swung around
and tracked backwards towards
Schultzs room.
An unconventional source was
carried in front of the actresses to key
them in the candlelit scene: a 3' China
ball holding four dimmable 300-watt
Teflon-wrapped household bulbs.
These bulbs are used at construction
sites, and I noticed them while my
house was under construction and
wondered if their [translucent] rubber
coating made them any quieter than
other household bulbs, Kincaid
explains. So when we got down to
Louisiana, I tested them, and we found
they hum about 75 percent less than
any other bulb. That made [sound
mixer] Mark Ulano jump for joy!
When Tarantino devised a move
that couldnt be accomplished with a
dolly or crane, Richardson tapped
Steadicam operator Larry McConkey,
SOC, a frequent collaborator. Bob
demands perfection, and for him to
hand the shot to me involves a great
deal of trust and, I think, a bit of
reluctance, says McConkey. Tarantino
orchestrated two long Steadicam shots
for McConkey, but ultimately decided
to shoot just one: the introduction of
Candies slave master, Billy Crash
(Walton Goggins). The sequence called
for two shots: a close-up of Crashs feet
coming down the mansions main stair-
case, and a medium Steadicam shot
tracking Crash down the stairs and
swinging around to follow him outside,
where a line of potential slave fighters
awaits his inspection. Billy is this big
thing with spurs, a cowboy hat and
guns, says McConkey. Quentin
wanted a close-up of those feet coming
down the stairs, bang! bang! bang!
bang!
For the close-up, a set of over-
sized steps was built on the mansion-

Top: Schultz
executes a bounty
kill in anticipation
of his reward.
Middle and
bottom: The crew
rigged charcoals
to control the
daylight ambience
around the
Western town.
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interior set at Second Line. The banis-
ter was removed from the camera side,
and the grips rigged 32' of track parallel
to the angle of the staircase and used a
wire rig to motivate the camera.
Because the sequence involved interior
and exterior spaces, the master had to
be staged on location at Evergreen.
Though Riva had designed the entry-
way of the faade to match the full-
sized set at Second Line, it was never
intended to accommodate interiors, so
doorways and ceilings were missing and
the main staircase was foreshortened.
There wasnt much traction on
those stairs [at Evergreen], McConkey
recalls, and Walt was wearing spurs
that made his feet several inches longer,
so he couldnt get the balls of his feet all
the way on the step. He had to balance
himself like a dancer, with his hands in
the air, as he came down. That image
was so incongruous with Crashs evil
nature it was pretty funny.
As Goggins descended the stairs,
McConkey rode a modified GF-16
crane parallel with the actor, framing
him in a medium profile at the same
profile angle as the close-up, and then
stepped off the crane at the bottom of
the stairs to follow him onto the
veranda. The shot ends on the lawn,
with Crash sizing up one of the more
physically intimidating potential fight-
ers. With a shot like that, notes
McConkey, youre not just following
an actor. You have to be aware of the
subtleties of each moment, and every
move has to be just right. We finally
found [what we wanted] at the end of
one of the takes. I was framed on
Walton, and then I tilted up slowly
when he looked into the mans face, and
then tilted back down with him. A
second later, he shoots the man in the
chest. Its comedy and brutality in one
take.
Richardson recalls that Tarantino
was more improvisational in devising
shots on Django than he was on their
previous collaborations, which involved
handwritten shot lists provided each
morning. Quentin still knew exactly
what he wanted to shoot, but this time,

Top: Candies right-
hand man,
Stephen (Samuel L.
Jackson), keeps
tabs on Djangos
enslaved wife,
Broomhilda (Kerry
Washington).
Middle: Jackson
climbs the stairs
inside the
Candieland set,
illuminated by a
24K Lightweight
Dino bounced off
an unbleached
muslin and
through a
bleached muslin.
Bottom: Dolly grip
Dan Pershing
maneuvers
Richardson around
the cast.
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he was willing to come in and develop a
scene based on the moment, which was
a little unusual in my experience with
him, he says.
In terms of lighting, says the
director, my input is so minuscule that
it really doesnt exist. I love Bobs look. I
love his atmosphere. I love his hot pools
of light. I love all that shit. Its taken my
work to a different level.
On day exteriors, there wasnt a
lot we could do for the wide shots, of
course, but wed often try to situate the
sun behind the actors when they were
out in the open, says Kincaid.
Otherwise, wed try to stage day exteri-
ors in forested areas. In both cases, the
grips rigged 30-by-40-foot vintage
charcoals overhead that shaded every-
thing, but still allowed nice soft light
through. When we got into close-ups,
wed bring in some negative fill and
passive fill big muslin bounces to add
light and big solids to take it away.
The films numerous wide night
exteriors, many of which were shot at
Big Sky Ranch, were a larger concern
for Richardson, particularly when a
zoom lens was involved. How do you
light a vast Western landscape for a
T4.5 or T5.6? he muses. He often
pushed Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 to
ISO 1,000. Im sure we were seeing up
to a mile of background in every direc-
tion, says Kincaid. There was no light
out there, and there wasnt supposed to
be any. The only motivation was moon-
light ambience.
In one scene, the Brittle Brothers
and a posse of torch-wielding bandits
ride across the countryside in pursuit of
Django and Schultz. Richardsons crew
used four 15-light Bebee Night Lights
and three 40'x40' truss frames with 24
DMX-controlled open-bottom space
lights each to light the action. Gelfab
Full Blue Silent Grid Cloth was hung
beneath the trusses to cool the toplight.
Most of the time, we were told in
advance if the shot would involve the
Primo zoom, Kincaid recalls.
Sometimes wed start with doubles in
all the lights or three globes in each of
the space lights, and when the zoom

Top: A ride through
the cotton fields
ends with a bang.
Middle: Steadicam
operator Scott
Sakamoto, spotted
by Pershing, leads
Foxx on a walk
around Candieland.
Bottom: A 15-light
Bebee Night Light
gelled with Half
Straw illuminates
the exterior of the
Candieland mansion,
built on location at
the Evergreen
plantation.
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came, wed snap on all six globes in each
of the 24 space lights, pull the doubles
out, and Bob would push the film.
Night interiors were keyed with a
mix of flame sources. Back then, prac-
ticals were candles, kerosene lamps and
whale-oil lamps, says Klassen. The
filmmakers used candles and period-
correct fixtures that ran on propane.
We drafted the special-effects depart-
ment to help us, says Kincaid. They
had propane running into 3-foot and 4-
foot flame bars. In a small room, wed
use three 4-foot bars in front of big
muslin bounces and just let the flames
do the flickering.
Gas fixtures feature more promi-
nently in the Candieland mansion and
the exclusive Cleopatra Club, where the
practicals were augmented with
dimmable 650-watt peanut bulbs.
Theres a subtle difference between the
feel of gas lamps and electrical ones, but
we never used [our lights] to key the
scene, says Kincaid.
Paper lanterns holding 300-watt
household bulbs dimmed 33-66 percent
were also used for augmentation. For
large night interiors, Kincaids crew
built walls of these household bulbs,
using as many as 200, behind frames of
bleached muslin. We like a dimmed-
down, crushed bulb that emits a really
gentle light, so rather than use some-
thing like a Photoflood, well use large
panels of household bulbs and crank
them way down on the dimmer to
create a big, soft glow, notes the gaffer.
Richardson also tapped a soft
book light, a 12-light Maxi-Brute or
Nine-light Mini bounced off
unbleached muslin and back through
bleached muslin, using 8'x12' or 12'x20'
frames, depending on the size of the
room. We usually had the lights backed
off far enough that they were easy to
control, but we werent afraid to put the
grips to work! says Kincaid. They put
up lots of solid floppies and 20-by-4-
foot bottomers and toppers.
When working with softer light,
Richardson favored the Primo primes
over the E-Series anamorphics. A
Primo is so truthful in its translation of

Top: The camera
traveled along a 32'
track rigged
parallel to an
oversized staircase
built onstage in
order to capture a
close-up on the
boots of slave
master Billy Crash
(Walton Goggins).
Middle and bottom:
Steadicam operator
Larry McConkey,
SOC rode a crane to
get the wide
master shot of
Crash descending
the staircase and
walking outside the
plantation home.
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stockings varied in their styles and
patterns, but [the effect] mostly
depended on how it was stretched and
matched to the different focal lengths,
says Tavenner. Over the years, all these
nets have gotten mixed up in my kit, so
I just grab a stocking and judge the qual-
ity by eye.
soften a shot, hed ask Tavenner to glue
a stocking across the rear element of the
lens. This was done mostly for scenes set
in the South to reduce overall contrast
and add a slight bloom to the highlights.
That reflects the nature of the light
down south, which is kind of humid, a
little glowing, Tavenner notes. The
whats in front of it, says Tavenner.
With the older anamorphic lenses, you
can throw all that light at a scene and
they will soften it. Bobs lighting is so
soft that he benefits from the Primos
ability to capture all that resolution and
detail.
When Richardson wanted to

Top: Django
finds himself
surrounded after
events in
Candieland take a
violent turn.
Bottom, left and
right: Richardson
finds two frames
on Jackson.
Deluxe Laboratories and its

subsidiary EFilm in Hollywood
handled the productions post workflow,
processing the negative, creating film
and digital dailies, and facilitating the
DI. Colorist Yvan Lucas supervised all
of the timing; ASC associate Adam
Clark timed the film dailies, which were
viewed by Tarantino, cast and crew; and
Benny Estrada timed the digital dailies,
which were generated from 2K scans of
the negative and screened by
Richardson and editorial using eVue,
part of EFilms CinemaScan system.
Richardson notes that Tarantino
initially wanted to try a photochemical
finish, but ultimately conceded to the
realities of digital distribution. He
wants to get this film in as many
theaters as possible, Richardson
comments. Even so, he continues, my
work with Yvan essentially duplicated
what we would have done in the lab. We
worked in points. Of course, there are
more variables in the digital space, so we

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48
Trailing Foxx and Waltz, Richardson rides the GF-16 into the sunset.
can work with quarter points, but the
concept remains the same.
Deluxes proprietary Adjustable
Contrast Enhancement silver-retention
process was applied to the Western
portion of the story in the print dailies,
and the team applied a digital approxi-
mation of that look to the CinemaScan
dailies and to the final grade. Through
testing, we ended up at a near 50-percent
application of ACE, which Deluxe
numbered 152, says Richardson. The
creative intention was to create a desatu-
rated look with deeper blacks. When
Django and Shultz travel to the South,
ACE was dropped, and the result was an
apparent increase in chroma. In the digi-
tal realm, Yvan added 15-percent desat-
uration and an increase in contrast to
mimic the look of ACE, but there is no
way to fully replicate the chemical prop-
erties of the process digitally.
The film was vastly more beauti-
ful, in my opinion, adds Richardson.
Soon, unfortunately, this process will be
more and more difficult to see due to
the rise of digital cinema and the slow
burnout of the companies that produce
film stock.
Most of the work in the final
grade involved evening out the densities
between shots, however. Richardson
explains, Quentin prefers to start at the
beginning of a scene and work his way
through it, even if one angle might be
repeated at the end of the scene. So, lets
say you have a 15-page scene to be
filmed over a number of days. The
weather is never going to be consistent,
so there will be mismatches. I tend to
want to shoot the actors backlit, know-
ing that if it gets overcast, backlight
looks more like overcast weather than
frontal light. But sometimes it didnt
serve Quentin best to shoot that way.
But thats okay. Hes not there to make
a beautiful-looking picture; hes there to
make a great movie, and thats what I
signed on for. Always have, always will.
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49
J.R.R.
Tolkiens The Hobbit, or There and Back
Again tells the story of how diminutive and
reluctant hero Bilbo Baggins finds himself
far from home on a perilous journey. The
Hobbit wrests himself from hearth and home when he is
hired by a company of dwarves to steal a vast treasure from a
dragon. The Hobbit is a classic heros journey that continues to
resonate because it reminds us to get out there and take part in
our amazing, richly divergent world, says cinematographer
Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS, who is shooting a trilogy of films
based on the novel for director Peter Jackson. The themes and
subtext of the book drove my theories about the films visuals,
and the character I focused on was Bilbo [Martin Freeman].
Through interaction with a variety of people and creatures in
faraway lands, he wrestles with self-doubt and finds courage
and inner strength. He returns home wiser, more compassion-
ate and forgiving. The novels storyline also involves the 13
dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), who
enlist Bilbos services.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first movie in
Jacksons trilogy, and he and Lesnie have broken new ground
in using 3-D digital capture at 48 fps to make the picture.
Peter has been talking about 3-D and high frame rates for
years he has always expressed an interest in more image
clarity, says Lesnie, who also shot Jacksons Lord of the Rings
trilogy (AC Dec. 01, Dec. 02, Jan. 04). It goes back to seeing
a Showscan event in New Zealand when he was young and
watching 70mm films in his childhood, and it goes all the way
up to the King Kong ride he created at Universal Studios,
which involves 60-fps projection.
We tested 3-D rigs for King Kong [AC Dec. 05] and
digital cameras for The Lovely Bones [AC Jan. 10], and both
times we decided to stay with 2-D and film, Lesnie contin-
ues. But developments in 3-D and digital technologies that
began to surface in 2010 specifically, 3ality Technicas
TS-5 3-D camera rig and Reds Epic camera combined
with Series 2 projection systems capable of projecting at
higher frame rates, made Jacksons desire to shoot The Hobbit
in high-frame-rate 3-D achievable. I undertook to embrace
that vision when I started prep on the movie, says Lesnie.
The first step was assembling the veritable armada of
equipment for R&D to determine how best to integrate the
An Unlikely
Hero
An Unlikely
Hero
Andrew Lesnie, ASC, ACS
pioneers high-frame-rate 3-D
capture for Peter Jacksons The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
By Simon Gray
|
new and existing technologies. In the
second half of 2010, Lesnie and Jackson
appointed New Zealand-based second-
unit cinematographer Richard Bluck,
head of technology Dion Hartley and
3-D camera supervisor Gareth Daley to
assemble, refine and combine prototype
Red Epics with 3alitys 3-D rigs and an
array of other gear, including motion-
control and motion-capture tools.
Throughout this period, Lesnie kept in
touch with fellow ASC members John
Schwartzman, Dariusz Wolski, Jeff
Cronenweth and Newton Thomas Sigel
about the teams progress and findings.
During ACs visit to the produc-
tions Wellingtons Stone Street Studios
last year, Daley noted that both Red and
3ality were extremely supportive during
all phases of the production. The Red
Epics [recording on 128GB SSD cards]
and 3ality rigs were still works in
progress, with software and design
upgrades that covered everything from
the cameras to rigs to wireless systems
coming in on a regular basis. Red was
incredibly responsive, often making
firmware changes on the same day [we
discussed an issue].
Preston Cinema Systems worked
with 3ality to create controller software
for its handsets, allowing the stereogra-
phers to use familiar equipment to
control the 3-D. For the TS-5s use on
the Steadicam, 3ality replaced non-
structural metal components with
Delron, changed the mirror-box to
molded carbon fiber, and removed any
steel screws that werent absolutely
necessary. At the same time, Red
continued to develop the Epics hard-
ware and software at such a rate that
Bluck, Daley and Hartley often needed
to retest their workflow, sometimes going
back to the beginning of the process.
The production ultimately
acquired three TS-4 (side-by-side), four
TS-2 and 10 TS-5 (beam-splitter) rigs
from 3ality. According to Daley, the
TS-5 became the preferred rig for its
versatility, ergonomics and low profile for
camera operators Cameron McLean (A
camera/Steadicam) and Simon Harding
(B camera/Steadicam). Unlike 3-D rigs
where one camera is essentially fixed, the
TS-5s two cameras move equally with
interaxial changes, so the Steadicam rig
remains perfectly balanced no matter
what the stereographer does with inter-
axial and convergence during the shot,
says Daley.
All of the equipment had to be
able to withstand New Zealands rugged
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Opposite page:
Bilbo Baggins
(Martin Freeman)
races through his
rural Hobbit
homeland, the
Shire. This page,
top: The great
wizard Gandalf the
Grey (Ian
McKellen)
commiserates with
the royal elf
Galadriel (Cate
Blanchett). Bottom:
Cinematographer
Andrew Lesnie,
ASC, ACS lines up
a shot.
locations and accommodate Jacksons
style of filmmaking. The camera
systems were to be wireless and on small,
light, mobile rigs so they could be taken
anywhere to do pretty much anything,
Lesnie explains. I wanted to be as flexi-
ble as possible to enable Peter to have
ready access to any and every piece of
gear to make the film he wanted.
Lesnie and Bluck also managed
the crewing of the department, includ-
ing the stereographers. Each unit
required A-camera and B-camera stere-
ographers; those roles fell to Sean Kelly
and Angus Ward for the main unit, and
Phil Smith and James Rua for the
second unit. Most of them had been
first or second camera assistants, and it
was important to Andrew and I that
they had worked with Peter before, says
Bluck. Gareth and 3ality trained them
for their new roles.
With prep deep into camera
development, Lesnie and Jackson began
testing high-frame-rate acquisition.
Their eventual decision to capture the
entire picture at 48 fps doubled the
already huge amount of data; Lesnie
estimates that over the course of 266
days of principal photography, The
Hobbit amassed the equivalent of 26
million feet of film. This was my first
3-D shoot, my first major digital shoot,
and certainly my first at a higher frame
rate, so the learning curve has been enor-
An Unlikely Hero
Top: Bilbo hosts a gathering in his cozy Hobbit-hole at Bag End. Middle: The dwarves in attendance
include Bombur (Stephen Hunter), Ori (Adam Brown), Dori (Mark Hadlow), Nori (Jed Brophy) and Gloin
(Peter Hambleton). Bottom: Freeman holds the door as director Peter Jackson discusses a scene with
Graham McTavish, who plays Dwalin.
900Mhz spectrum, eliminating inter-
ference when the two shooting units
were next to each other, Daley says.
Each of the productions 17 rigs was
assigned a permanent individual
frequency. We then had a completely
wireless rig: picture, time code, gen-
lock, focus, iris and stereo control. We
were even able to rebroadcast metadata
and footage to other departments,
including video village.
We really put the Epics through
the wringer, and they performed
mous, he notes. The increased picture
clarity that comes with shooting 5K
images at 48 fps brings joys and horrors
simultaneously. The need for attention to
detail pervades every aesthetic aspect,
including hair, makeup, wardrobe and
art direction. One of the joys is creating
frames that are reminiscent of paintings
by Pieter Brueghel or Heironymous
Bosch.
Focus becomes even more criti-
cal, and we were blessed with great first
assistants: Colin Deane and Brenden
Holster on main unit and Dean
McCarroll and George Hennah on
second, continues Lesnie. They often
had to work in spontaneous situations.
Peter and I like moving the camera, so I
aimed to give them a fighting chance by
creating a working aperture of T4 for
most of the shoot thats T4 at 48 fps
in 3-D.
The first challenge for us was
keeping the cameras recording in sync at
a base speed of 48 fps, says Daley. He
and Hartley worked with Babak
Behesheti of Standard Deviation to
create a wireless sync pulse generator
that sent a constant, locked time code
and sync pulse to every rig, automatically
spot-checking back to the master with-
out the need for re-jamming or cabling.
A phase bar was also created that sat
beneath the slate. When cameras rolled,
the LEDs sequenced, allowing for
instant sync sign-off at the data-wran-
gler station. 48 fps doubled the chances
for things to go wrong, but shooting 1
petabyte [1,000,000 GB] of footage is a
testament to both the cameras and the
system setup, says Daley.
Achieving wireless rig control
over and above the competing din of
on-set wireless systems including
location sound, second-unit feed, light-
ing, Internet and Prestons required a
custom-created RS-422 controller.
This allowed utilization of the
Top: Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), Elrond (Hugo Weaving), Gandalf, Bilbo and Balin (Ken Stott)
confer in the Elven outpost of Rivendell. Bottom: Gandalf (far left) stops for some rest during his journey
with Ori, Oin (John Callen, behind tree branch), Dori, Kili (Aidan Turner), Bifur (William Kircher), Bilbo,
Dwalin and Gloin.
admirably, reports Lesnie. [Red
founder] Jim Jannard and his team went
into overdrive for us. We resolved the
sync issues early in the project, and they
never came between the story and me.
The footage from the cameras has given
us a lot to work with in post. I still have
some issues with electronic shutters, but
the Reds dynamic range has been good,
and I think the next generation of
sensors will eliminate any complaints
anyone has about them currently not
having the range of film.
In December 2010, Lesnie staged
a series of comprehensive tests at Stone
Street Studios. I wanted to shoot 3-D
on a 2-D schedule, and I was keen to get
things sorted before we started principal
photography, he explains. The reality
was that we never completely locked off
the tech development in the cameras
and rigs. We lived in a world of perpet-
ual upgrades!
Shooting in the sets for Bag End
and Gollums cave, the crew tested
cameras and rigs, slave motion-control
rigs, and on-set motion-capture systems.
Some of the issues were unique to The
Hobbit, such as cameras needing to be
synchronized at 48 fps, let alone 72, 96
and 120 fps! says Lesnie. We were also
looking for the most comfortable 3-D
viewing experience, so we tested every
speed at every shutter angle, while Park
Road Post struggled to accommodate the
massive influx of data. We shot a range of
material so we could study motion-blur
and strobing, amongst many other
things.
Shooting stereo at 48 fps with a
270-degree shutter, which provided an
equivalent film speed of ISO 250, was
determined to be the most viewable
combination. During ACs set visit, stere-
ographer Sean Kelly used a break
An Unlikely Hero
Gollum, a Stoor-hobbit of the River-folk, eventually loses the One Ring to Bilbo during their
famous Riddle Game. He was played once again by Andy Serkis, shown at far right in his
performance-capture suit.
between takes to describe the key differ-
ence between 24-fps 3-D and 48-fps
3-D: [With 24-fps 3-D,] the conver-
gence point is usually on the subject, but
the viewer remains aware of the envi-
ronment in the background and fore-
ground, and the brain subconsciously
attempts to fuse these two images
together while viewing the focused
subject. This is a major reason for
discomfort. By contrast, the smooth
motion-effect of 48-fps 3-D provides
for a much more comfortable and
appealing viewing experience; the lack
of strobing and movement artifacts
helps the viewer relax into a more
immersive experience. This meant I
could concentrate on creating shape in
the scene knowing that many of the
surrounding discomfort cues were all
but negated. The 3-D eye fatigue is
minimized without sacrificing depth.
Bilbos story begins at Bag End,
where the Hobbits peaceful life is shat-
tered by 13 rambunctious dwarves and
a wizard. Whats great about Bag End
is you meet every pivotal character thats
going on the quest, but whats not so
great is that they were all stuffed into
one set! laughs Lesnie. Even if youre
jammed in a closet, if its the shot you
need to tell the story, you just have to
work out how to light it. Finding hidey-
holes for small lighting units was a big
deal in Bag Ends curved wooden
tunnels.
A variety of Kino Flos, zip lights
and 1K nook lights from low angles
created the impression of candlelight
and firelight. A lot of the newer units
dont have the throw compared to a 1K
nook light, Lesnie observes. At the
same time, I wanted to maintain mood
and shape, keeping the blacks and
whites clean and the warmth in the mid-
tones. I also didnt want any extraneous
light because the combination of 3-D, a
5K sensor and 48 fps required so much
attention to detail.
As the night deepens and the
mood becomes somber, talk turns to the
dangerous journey, which will take the
characters through dark forests and over
inhospitable mountains. The banquet
at which the dwarves eat and drink
Bilbo out of house and home is high key,
but when the tone becomes serious, I
transition to lighting from low angles to
create a clandestine and covert feel,
Lesnie explains. But because there was
a large dining table and 15 characters
An Unlikely Hero
Top: CG technology was used to create trolls William, Tom and Bert (performed by Peter Hambleton,
Mark Hadlow and William Kircher), who fancy a spit-roasted feast. Bottom: A view of the set on a
greenscreen stage.
angenieux@tccus.coms www.angenieux.com
With the range of 16mm to 80mm at T:2.8, Optimo DP
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t he r t of di g i t al opt i c s
with their backs to the walls, the only
way to get from one end of the room to
the other was an undignified crawl
down the table! Removing the ceiling
allowed four Source Four Lekos to be
positioned overhead to create a strong
bounce off the table. Lesnie notes, I
have a great relationship with our visual-
effects supervisor, Eric Saindon, and he
was very supportive of my ideas for the
look of sequences. Knowing that the
banquet would be filmed with slave mo-
co rigs, and that most of the shots would
be visual effects, I bounced light off the
table to create the right mood. The art
direction that was overexposed was digi-
tally restored; some props and table-
cloths had burned out.
Not only did the Bag End scenes
require complex lighting, but there was
also the issue of scale namely, how to
make Bilbo and the dwarves appear
smaller than Gandalf (Ian McKellen).
Motion-control supervisor Alex Funke,
ASC says, Peter requested a scaled,
slaved motion-control system that was
silent, fast and, most important, able to
film all the actors in the scene at the
same time. Development of this system
continued right up until shooting
started. (General Lift in El Segundo,
Calif., was the principal contractor for
the system.)
Funke defines scaled motion-
control as a dual-camera, real-time
process to create a complete scene in
which the apparent sizes of characters
have been changed. Achieving this
required key grip Tony Keddy to set up
a greenscreen stage, with details scaled
up or down to provide the apparent size
difference, near the live-action set. The
actors playing the dwarves and Hobbit
were on the Bag End set, which was
built at the Hobbit-world scale, while
McKellen was placed in the small-scale
greenscreen set. The crane on the Bag
End set was operated as normal. Kuper
motion-control software took the
encoded positional data from the crane
move, creating a scaled-down but
geometrically identical move that was
sent to the slaved crane, which
performed in sync simultaneously. The
scaled move, coupled with the camera
on the slaved crane, which was propor-
tionally closer to McKellen, resulted in
Gandalf appearing larger than the other
characters.
To assist McKellen with the
complexity of 14 different eyelines, 2nd
AD Emma Cross devised a simple but
effective system. Photos of each charac-
ter were attached to light bulbs, which
were then positioned in the appropriate
eyelines around McKellen. The bulbs
were individually wired to a control box,
and when an actor on the actual set
spoke, his corresponding photo would
light up.
Scaled motion control provided
for instantaneous changes to any aspect
of the scene, including eyelines, perfor-
An Unlikely Hero
Closer views of the trolls at their campsite.
mance, lenses and composition. With
the use of a specialized video assist
developed by Glenn Anderson, Jackson
and Lesnie could see a real-time
composite of the entire scene with the
scales exactly represented in stereo.
Funke reports that the director
and cinematographer deliberately
designed complex master shots with the
dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf to persuade
the audience to easily accept the scale
relationships. Other shots in the scene
that were created with more rudimen-
tary techniques, such as using scale
doubles, or by putting one actor on a
riser, then went unnoticed.
For sets constructed in the studios
at Stone Street, Lesnie decided to create
ambience with Kino Flo Image 85s,
which were rigged under the gantries
for easy access, rather than space lights.
One of the main reasons for using
Images 85s was the comfort of the actors
playing the dwarves, notes gaffer Reg
Garside. Although they wore cooling
vests under their fat suits, prosthetics and
heavy costumes, they could have become
dangerously overheated under space
lights. The Image 85s also put out more
light, used less cabling and consumed
less power. In the long run, it was a
cheaper system. Each unit contained
four tungsten and four daylight tubes,
dubbed fruit salad, allowing quick
changes from day to dusk, morning, late
afternoon or night scenes. The 1,000-
plus Image 85s spread across several
studios were all DMX-controlled.
Garside also built G-Lights four
Image 85s banked together and run
through 9'x6' frames of Silent Grid
for soft fill.
For a sequence in which the
dwarves and Hobbit get caught up in a
boulder-throwing, lightning-inducing
game between rock giants in the Misty
Mountains, Garside operated Lightning
Strikes, while Image 85s were used to
create the effect of sheet lightning. Board
operator Reuben Morrison assigned
groups of Image 85s to flash keys, creat-
ing six minutes of random patterns that
were then looped and recorded to disc.
The Kinos flick on at 50 percent on the
dimmer, which suited the look perfectly,
explains Morrison. We essentially
An Unlikely Hero
Top: Bilbo takes in the sights along his path. Bottom: Middle-Earth sculptures adorn a greenscreen stage.
dissolve between one tube at a time, so
the ambience shifts without being too
apparent. We can also fade between
whole sections, so the backlight moves
around with the shot.
During their journey, the
company comes upon a hoard of treasure
and weapons stashed in a troll cave. The
cave entrance was lit as white but not
cool daylight, and as Thorin led the way
in with a flaming torch, Lesnie faded up
ground rows placed around the set. The
ground rows have a very low profile, and
four 1K bulbs in each unit meant that we
could gel them with various levels of
CTO and have them flickering to keep
the flame effect alive in the cave, he
says. We also had some Kinos as
extremely low ambience.
One of the items found in the
cave is Sting, the small sword Bilbo gives
to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring.
The blade glows blue when goblins or
Orcs are nearby, and for this effect,
Lesnie sought to use as much interactive
light as possible. Practical electrician
Rick Pease designed Sting Mark 2 to
generate its own light. A Kino tube plas-
tic housing cut to size contained a tightly
packed spiral of 5600K LED tape lights
that threw out a strong level of light. The
color was altered as desired by gel
sleeves, and a battery and wireless
An Unlikely Hero
Top: The crew sets
up a complex
move. Middle:
Bilbo makes his
way across a
rickety bridge.
Bottom: The
bridge setting
onstage.
control were built into the hilt, enabling
the sword to be turned on and off or
dimmed as required. (Pease also created
LED versions of Gandalf s staff crystal
and the famed Arkenstone jewel.)
The companys penchant for
landing in tight spots is again demon-
strated when they find themselves
stranded high in pine trees circled by
slavering wargs. Gandalf s response is to
arm the company with flaming
pinecones and bombard the creatures, a
tactic that sets fire to the surrounding
flora and further endangers the
company. The CG pinecones were
created by Weta Digital, and for the
interactive light that was needed on set,
Pease created wireless, battery-powered
pinecones out of conical, plastic spray
bottles purchased at a discount shop.
With the trigger mechanism removed,
the bottle was packed with a wireless
receiver, and AA batteries powering
LED tape lights wound around the
outside. Each LED was daubed with
heat-resistant orange paint for a warm
color temperature. During the scene,
the actors threw the cones with much
gusto, while down below, the crew
valiantly attempted to catch as many as
possible, Lesnie chuckles. It was a
sight to behold.
The productions largest set was
the forest home of Radagast the Brown
(Sylvester McCoy), a wizard who is at
one with the natural world and cares for
the flora and fauna of Middle Earth. In
a high-speed chase sequence filmed on
the set, he escapes from The
Necromancers fortress of Dol Guldur
on a sleigh pulled by large rabbits. At
400 feet long, Radagasts forest set was
much bigger than any of our stages, so it
was built in an old car factory outside
Wellington, says Lesnie. For ambi-
ence, Reg rigged space lights down the
length of the set. I wanted a strong
An Unlikely Hero
64
Fearsome goblins spring into action.
dappled effect of the sun penetrating
through gaps in the forest canopy, so we
ran 18Ks, 4K Molebeams, and 4K and
7K Xenons down one side of the set
aimed back through camouflage
netting, creating fractured beams of
light.
Smoke, which is not ideal for
either CG effects or 3-D, was also
added. The smoke, which was
augmented by Weta Digital, was put in
so the chase would repeatedly go
through bright beams into quite deep
shade, accentuating the impression of
speed, says the cinematographer.
The second unit, under Richard
Bluck with gaffer Giles Coburn, also
undertook a large section of the chase
sequence. Key grip Jay Munro mounted
Flight Heads operated by Peter
McCaffrey on Polaris six-wheelers and
tracking vehicles.
When AC visited Park Road
Post, senior colorist David Hollings-
worth explained, SGOs Mistika was
used for alignment, color grading and
dual-stream playback for our tri-weekly
3-D 48-fps screenings. The Mistika has
very strong stereoscopic tools, and we
worked with SGO to expand the color-
grading toolset to give us maximum
control of the image while operating in
real time at dual-stream 48 fps. Head
of technology Phil Oatley added,
Removing the artifacts of 24 fps and
shooting at 48 fps improves the viewing
experience with more clarity and
temporal resolution. There are only
advantages to combining a higher frame
rate and 3-D.
Throughout the shoot, Park
Road Post received 6-8 TB of data each
day; this was sent directly from Stone
Street Studios via fiberoptic links.
During the location period of principal
photography, LTO tapes were the
normal delivery method.
Regarding the final color timing,
Lesnie acknowledges that he has a
certain mandate to remain faithful to
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the look of Middle Earth we created on
film for Lord of the Rings. The 48-fps
picture is so clear and sharp, I tended to
light more gently. To maintain the look
he established on 35mm, he continues,
he and the grading team have softened
the curve of the Epics footage, rolling
off the shadows and highlights as well as
providing for a gentle, textural finish.
65
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-D Digital Capture
Red Epic M
Zeiss Ultra Prime,
Angenieux Optimo
A Musical
Revolution
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Danny Cohen, BSC
reteams with director
Tom Hooper on Les
Misrables, a grand
adaptation of the
Broadway sensation.
By John Calhoun
|
V
ictor Hugos epic novel Les
Misrables has been filmed at least
two dozen times, but it has taken
more than 30 years for the wildly
successful Broadway-musical adapta-
tion of his story to reach movie screens,
which finally happened last month. In
making the picture, director Tom
Hooper chose a daunting project for his
follow-up to The Kings Speech (AC Jan.
11). Cinematographer Danny Cohen,
BSC, who earned ASC and Oscar
nominations for The Kings Speech and
eagerly reteamed with Hooper on Les
Misrables, describes some of the chal-
lenges: This is a movie of a musical
thats been seen by 60 million people, so
its got that heritage. The musical
condensed Hugos thousand-plus-page
novel into a three-hour running time,
and the film had to be shorter than that.
So instantly, youve got to decide how to
strip the story down to the most impor-
tant stuff. I think what interested Tom
the most was the prospect of making it
as real as possible. Its a story about
social issues wealth, revolution and
social change but the story is told
through song. People dont talk to each
other; they sing to each other. By
making it as naturalistic as possible, we
thought the fact that everybodys
singing wouldnt create a wall between
the story and the audience.
All of my work to date has been
governed by almost obsessive levels of
cinematic realism, says Hooper, whose
credits also include The Damned United
(shot by Ben Smithard; AC Nov. 09)
Opposite: Inspector
Javert (Russell Crowe)
rides through Paris in Les
Misrables, directed by
Tom Hooper. This page,
top and middle: Jean
Valjean (Hugh Jackman)
takes pity on Fantine
(Anne Hathaway) and
her daughter, Cosette
(Amanda Seyfried).
Bottom:
Cinematographer Danny
Cohen, BSC keeps his
balance while taking a
meter reading in the
Parisian sewer set.
A Musical Revolution
and the telefilm John Adams (shot by
Cohen and Tak Fujimoto, ASC). I did
wonder whether the form of the
through-sung musical would give me
permission to loosen some of the some-
times-rigid constraints of being a realist;
yet, at the same time, I felt very much
that the key to making a musical work is
to ground it in the real world. That
tension between the desire to make it
feel compellingly real and the desire to
be more of an expressionist in some
choices was a key dynamic that I navi-
gated with Danny in the shooting.
Published in 1862 as a five-
volume work, Hugos novel has many
characters and plotlines, but its main
protagonist is Jean Valjean, a reformed
thief who is pursued for years by the
relentless Inspector Javert. Opening in
1815 and culminating with the Paris
uprising of anti-monarchists in 1832,
the novel is substantially set amidst
poverty, in grim streets and sewers with
stronger ties to medieval Paris than to
the modern city. Despite its beautiful
score, the Claude-Michel Schnberg-
Alain Boublil musical attempted to
preserve that grittiness, and so does the
film. As the title suggests, its not an easy
ride, says Cohen.
One of the major choices the film-
makers had to make was how to handle
the unique demands of narrative song,
and they chose a highly unusual
approach. Instead of recording music
tracks before the shoot and having the
actors lip-sync their songs during the
shoot, Hooper had the actors includ-
ing Hugh Jackman (Valjean), Russell
Crowe ( Javert), Anne Hathaway
(Fantine) and Amanda Seyfried
(Fantines daughter, Cosette) record
their numbers live on set. We did a few
tests early in prep where we shot a song
to playback and then shot it to live
music, and the difference in impact was
massive, says Cohen. You just get so
much more emotion from the live
performance.
But this choice had ramifications
that trickled down through the entire
production. Every take became a gig,
says Cohen, and anything the camera
crew could do to make the music and
song work was key, really. This led to the
consistent use of three cameras, often
handheld, to capture the action, and to
the practice of shooting entire sequences
without cutting. We didnt want to
sacrifice a good performance to some-
thing technical, explains the cinematog-
rapher. The idea of doing long takes and
working handheld was about creating
maximum flexibility so we could go with
what happened in the song. We didnt
want to tell the actor, You have to be on
this mark and in this light.
This kind of freedom meant that
the performers, who were accompanied
by a live piano on set, could vary tempos
between takes. Early on, recalls
Hooper, my musical supervisors pointed
out that if each take was a different
Top: Early in the film, an imprisoned Valjean endures his sentence of hard labor. Bottom: The sequence
was filmed in a dry dock in Portsmouth.
tempo, I couldnt necessarily cut one
take with another. Adds Cohen, The
beauty of having three cameras on the
main unit was that every single take was
treated as a live performance. We could
get the coverage in as few takes as possi-
ble. Hooper says that in Hathaways
number I Dreamed a Dream, for
example, We did six takes, and each of
those six takes could have been the one.
It honored the live performance,
because it was likely wed pick one
particular take all the way through.
Prep was vitally important. The
rehearsal period stretched over several
months, and Cohen was there most of
the time partly so I could sit in on
rehearsal and get an idea of how things
were blocked out. This definitely fed
into the set designs and the lighting
designs; for example, we knew that at a
certain point in a certain song, a shaft of
light would come through the window.
A-camera/Steadicam operator Zac
Nicholson also sat in on rehearsals,
learning the songs so as to coordinate
many of his moves with the musics
time signature.
But part of the prep, naturally,
involved normal cinematography
duties, like choosing a format. We
started out testing 3-D with the idea
that it might help create the sensation of
a live performance, Cohen recalls, but
in the end, 3-D fell by the wayside
because of the scale of the film. We had
to use three cameras in spaces that were
quite small, so the logistics didnt quite
add up. Also, we found that when
people have their mouths open for a fair
amount of time onscreen in 3-D, it
really feels like youre going to disappear
down into their stomachs!
The filmmakers also tested
65mm, but that was rejected as too
expensive, particularly for a multi-
camera shoot. Spherical and anamor-
phic 35mm were also tested, as was
digital capture with the Arri Alexa.
Anamorphic was rejected partly
because of Hoopers propensity for
using wide lenses and the close focus he
likes to achieve. Also, says Cohen, We
decided to go for a 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Top: The crew films
Jackman outside of
a church in
Oxfordshire as the
actor performs
Valjeans
Soliloquy. Middle:
The song continues
as Valjean
determines to
break his parole
and make a new
life for himself in
Paris. Bottom: Years
later, Javert catches
up with the
reformed Valjean.
because a lot of our locations had great
ceilings. Why throw that away?
So it came down to digital vs.
3-perf Super 35mm. In the end, we
decided that for a period film, the sharp-
ness of digital was not ideal, Cohen
says. We could have done something
about that in post, but our release date
had already been set, and there wasnt a
huge amount of time [for post]. The
more we could do in-camera, the better.
So film was the best option.
Hooper agrees that speed and
economy were key considerations, but
notes, The other reason I chose film is
that it matters hugely to me that I have
latitude in the capture. On location, I
didnt want to deal with digital burnt-
out skies, and in candlelit situations, I
didnt want the flames clipping out.
Cohen used four Kodak film
stocks: Vision2 50D 5201 and Vision3
250D 5207 for day exteriors on location,
Vision3 200T 5213 for night exteriors
on location and some studio day exteri-
ors, and Vision3 500T 5219 for most
studio work. Production started with an
Arricam Studio as the A camera and
Arricam Lites as the B and C cameras,
but as the shoot progressed, the A-
camera operator often switched to the
Lite as well. Handheld is just easier
with the LT, Cohen observes. On top
of that, when three camerapeople are
working in a small space, they can fit
easier if theyve all got the cameras on
their shoulders. He adds that the movie
has its share of Steadicam, dolly and
crane shots, and a number of compli-
cated setups, such as the opening
sequence, shot in a Portsmouth dry
dock, which involved a hydroscope
crane and underwater camerawork.
Overall, though, handheld
cameras and wide lenses were judged to
serve the narrative best. I didnt want to
abstract the characters from their envi-
ronments when they were singing,
Hooper explains. So we generally shot
close-ups on shorter prime lenses the
25mm, 27mm or 32mm. A full range
of Arri/Zeiss Master Primes was
employed, as were 17-80mm and 24-
290mm Angenieux Optimo zooms. But
Top: When
Fantines
coworkers
discover she has
an illegitimate
child, they
demand she be
thrown out of the
factory in disgrace.
Middle:
A-camera/
Steadicam
operator Zac
Nicholson frames
the action as A-
camera 1st AC
Peter Byrne (in
plaid shirt) keeps
it in focus. Bottom:
Fantine reflects on
her tragic position
in the song I
Dreamed a
Dream.
the A camera generally stayed wide.
Its weird, in a sense, not to be back on
long lenses making everything feel
fantastically beautiful, with soft back-
grounds, when people are singing, says
Cohen. But it just felt like the way to
tell this story was to be right there in
peoples faces, getting every bit of
emotion and energy in frame.
A-camera focus puller Peter
Byrne notes that the close-in camera
style was sometimes problematic
because camera noise could interfere
with the live recordings of the songs. He
recalls, I asked the tech at Arri, Andy
Taylor, to go through all the LTs and
STs to find the quietest ones. Once they
did, they tweaked them to make them
even quieter. In testing, we went a step
further and covered the camera bodies
in Tesa foam tape. Our sound recordist,
Simon Hayes, is a double black belt in
Jiu-Jitsu, so I knew it was in my interest
to do so!
The problem was amplified
during shooting of On My Own,
sung by ponine (Samantha Barks) in
the rain. There was polyethylene cover-
ing the camera and plastic rain gear on
the crew. All they could hear was the
sound of the rain on our waterproofs,
says Nicholson. We ended up wearing
white sheets, and Danny used us for a
bit of bounce as well!
The crew became quite adept at
disguising the cameras, as well as them-
selves. Because we shot three cameras
the whole time, we were often getting in
each others shots, says Byrne. Wed be
halfway through the shot, and Tom
would say, We can see the B camera.
Maybe you should just put a costume
on. From that moment on, the
wardrobe department would bring us
our long coats and hats in the morning,
and when we were outside, wed use a
roll of brown waxed cotton to cover the
camera instead of plastic. Though these
tactics helped hide the cameras and crew
during long takes on sequences like a
melee involving several hundred extras,
the costumes occasionally caused some
confusion. Halfway through take two,
when the students were throwing tables
and chairs out of windows and everyone
was running around shouting, I
suddenly realized the man I was running
next to wasnt my operator, says Byrne,
who was using a Preston remote focus
system. We were all dressed up so well
that Id lost him! There was nothing to
do but put the lens at 6 feet and hope for
the best.
The production was a roughly 50-
50 split between stages at Pinewood
Studios and locations in England. We
ended up doing just a weeks shoot in
France, says Cohen. There are almost
no medieval buildings left in Paris. The
filmmakers also wanted the control the
studio would facilitate, particularly for
large-scale setpieces like soldiers storm-
ing the barricades erected by students in
the streets.
That climactic sequence, along
with much of the other studio work, was
shot on the brand-new T stage at
Pinewood, a 200'-long, 50'-high space
that was filled with production designer
Eve Stewarts detailed 19th-century
Parisian street set. It was built diago-
nally across the studio and went all the
way up to the ceiling, says Cohen. It
was redressed for different periods and
lit for every possible lighting situation.
Lighting was facilitated by Caf de
Lumiere (formerly Light by Numbers),
a remotely operated lighting-control
system that was used to control 350
overhead space lights and at least a
Above: The
Greenwich Naval
College doubled for
the Place de la
Bastille. Right:
Nicholson and Byrne
show off some of
the period garb
they wore in case
they were caught
in another
cameras frame.
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dozen 24-light Dinos installed on the
stage. The system included roughly 900
2.5K and 150 5K dimmer channels and
could be run remotely from anywhere
on the stage by owner/operator Chris
Gilbertson, under the supervision of
Cohen and gaffer Paul McGeachan. I
could stand next to Paul and Chris and
say, I want those 50 space lights at 50
percent, that chunk at 10 percent, and
now bring up the Dinos , says
Cohen. Anything I could visualize,
Chris could literally do at the press of a
button. We could go from day to night
in seconds.
Id do a plan, and Chris would
do a CAD drawing with all the channel
numbers, explains McGeachan. Chris
could just walk around beside me with
his remote and tap in the numbers.
During the storming-of-the-barricades
sequence, which starts at dusk and
moves through night and into day,
Gilbertsons system was employed to
make changes nearly effortlessly. A
sunrise sequence was created with four
24-light Maxi-Brutes rigged up on a
gantry, some with spot bulbs and some
with wide bulbs, run at 35 to 40
percent, says McGeachan. The sun
covered the whole length of the street.
Cohen adds, We could create a cloud
rolling across the sun by fading the space
lights and then bringing up a big Dino.
The set also included the interiors
of spaces, such as the caf at the end of
the street. Because these interiors had
ceilings, lights had to be hidden in the
set to suggest period illumination, which
in the early 19th century would have
been confined to torches, candles and
other fire sources. On night exteriors in
the studio, says Cohen, it was basically
a few lanterns knocking around and
some space lights. The darkness defi-
nitely adds to the feel of the period, and
it also helps create mood, especially
when the soldiers assault the students
its a firefight in the darkness.
In the caf, says McGeachan,
There is a big fight sequence, and
action was running up and down stairs,
so there were cameras upstairs, down-
stairs and on the stairs. To light that, we
used about 40 No. 1 275-watt
Photofloods that we hid in the thick
beams on the ceiling and softened with
spun. Where we could, we hid Chinese
lanterns on the floor.
During this sequence and the
storming of the barricades, the three
camera crews were plunged into the
action, covering as much as possible
with the handheld LTs. As the soldiers
were advancing, we did a few takes from
behind and in front, traveling with them
and in different directions, Nicholson
recalls. A lot of it was quite freeform
and very different every time. By
contrast, a sequence that follows Javert
picking his way through the length of
the street and the resulting carnage was
Top: Hooper surveys a scene on the massive T stage at Pinewood Studios; behind him, Cohen checks
the light on a fallen soldier. Bottom: A crane arm extends down the stagebound street to capture an
angle during the storming-of-the-barricades sequence.
Film & Digital ARGO-ing Together!
Michael Condon, SOC
VP Digital Division
Andree Martin
VP Technical Services
Film and Digital do go together; just ask Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC.
For shooting Argo, Rodrigo chose Clairmont Camera to fulfill his
diversified camera needs. Rodrigos extensive package included
Arricams in both 4-perf and 2-perf configuration, Arri BL4 2-perf, Arri
435 2-perf, Arri 235, Alexa Plus, and a wide assortment of anamorphic
and spherical lenses. Kudos to Rodrigo and his creativity; thank you for
choosing our tools!
www.clairmont.com
a Steadicam shot, a kind of calm after
the storm.
Locations included Greenwich
Naval College, where an exterior space
doubled for the Place de la Bastille;
14th-century buildings at Winchester
College, which were lit with 4K Lunix
balloons, four Genie booms, three
Spiders with 10Ks and ulcers (a.k.a.
large gobos), and a cherry picker with
two Wendy Lights; and interiors and
exteriors at Boughton Hall, an English
country mansion where several
sequences were shot, including the
Beggars at the Feast number. After
shooting at these sites, the production
returned to Pinewood, where T stage
had been remade into the Thnardiers
inn (where Master of the House is
performed) and a nighttime frost fair
exterior. Balancing the cold night exte-
riors in the snow with the warmth of the
tavern has been quite fun, says Cohen,
who was in the midst of the final 2K
digital grade at Londons Company 3
when he spoke to AC. Cohen and
colorist Adam Glasman were pushing
the look into a realm I dont think youd
associate with a musical, says the cine-
matographer. Its quite rough-and-
ready, messy and grungy.
In the number Lovely Ladies,
shot on Pinewoods M stage, even
Hathaways beauty is dimmed down.
She looks amazing at the beginning of
the film, but not for very long, because
Fantine is a fallen woman, and she falls
quite a long way, says Cohen. By the
time shes on the Lovely Ladies dock-
yard set, shes had her hair shaved off,
and shes incredibly gaunt.
Cohen takes
stock of the set
on T stage. It
was built
diagonally
across the
studio and went
all the way up
to the ceiling,
he explains. It
was redressed
for different
periods and lit
for every
possible lighting
situation.
76
And, of course, a long sequence
toward the end of the drama occurs in
the Paris sewer system. Built onstage
from the template of a Victorian-era
London aquifer, this set had the tiniest
bit of lighting from overhead Par cans
and angled 1Ks bounced into the brack-
ish water for a ripple effect.
The thematic importance of light
touching the characters at certain
moments is crucial, notes Hooper.
Danny and I were fascinated by the
idea that light represents the presence of
God, he says. The existence of God is
presumed by all the characters, and a lot
of the songs I chose to stage as sort of
prayers, which contextualizes why
people are singing alone. I thought a lot
about the paintings of Turner, where
the presence of something greater than
us is represented by rays coming down
from an extraordinary sky. In this
framework, light anoints the charac-
ters, and puts them in contact with the
sublime, he says.
Cohen observes that light has the
same function in Hugos novel, wherein
its not passive, but brings power and
emotion to the story. This is preserved
to a great extent in the motion picture,
especially in Valjeans Soliloquy,
which is a moment of self-realization
and conversion for the character. The
song starts in a church interior (shot on
location in London), proceeds to the
church exterior (a location in
Oxfordshire), and culminates with
Jackman on a French Alp,
photographed by a handheld camera.
We were going to do the shot with a
Technocrane, recalls Cohen, but on
the day, we kind of turned it on its head
and ended up doing it handheld. The
camera operator leads him out of the
church, jumps onto a crane that pulls
back, and then heads towards the heav-
ens, towards the sun.
TECHNICAL SPECS
Super 1.85:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Arricam Studio, Lite
Arri/Zeiss Master Prime,
Angenieux Optimo
Kodak Vision2 50D 5201;
Vision3 250D 5207,
200T 5213, 500T 5219
77
Hitchcock, based on Stephen Rebellos book Alfred Hitchcock
and the Making of Psycho, tells the story of the production and
chronicles some behind-the-scenes drama involving
Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife, Alma (Helen
Mirren).
Director Sacha Gervasi, a documentary filmmaker
(Anvil: The Story of Anvil) making his first foray into drama-
A
lfred Hitchcocks Psycho (1960) was the directors most
commercially successful film, but also one of the most
difficult for him to make. Studios refused to finance it, so
he paid for it himself, using the crew from his television
show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to shoot quickly and inexpen-
sively. He also chose to shoot black-and-white, even though
color had been in vogue for more than a decade. The new film
An Auteurs
Angst
Hitchcock, shot by Jeff Cronenweth, ASC,
dramatizes the pressures the filmmaker endured
on and off the set while making Psycho.
By Jay Holben
|
tization, teamed with Jeff Cronenweth,
ASC to make Hitchcock. Cronenweth
recalls that when he first heard about
the project, I was working on commer-
cials and actually wasnt looking to do
another feature so soon, but my agent
sent me the script. It was so well writ-
ten, and Sacha had lined up such a great
cast, that I decided to meet with him
and see what it was all about. I was so
taken by Sachas passion and his intu-
ition about the script that I was inspired
to shoot the film. The fact that we
would be shooting in L.A. on a short
schedule made my decision that much
easier!
Much like Psycho, Hitchcock was
shot quickly, in 35 days, on a modest
budget. Initially, Gervasi was keen to
shoot 35mm, but after testing film and
digital workflows, production deter-
mined that digital capture would yield
considerable financial savings. Digital
was a real lifesaver for our budget,
says Cronenweth. However, Fox
Searchlight and Montecito [Picture
Co.] had never financed a digital
feature, and they were both a little
nervous about it.
In addition to the financial
considerations, I pointed out that this
was Sachas first feature, and we were
going to be shooting very quickly, he
continues. I thought digital would be
extremely beneficial in streamlining our
decisions on the set, because Sacha
would be able to see exactly what we
were getting on the monitor.
I also made the argument that
Hitchcock embraced new technology,
and I presume he would have been an
early adopter of digital because he
would have seen it as an exciting new
tool for storytelling.
Cronenweth chose the Red Epic,
which he had used on a number of
commercials and on part of David
Finchers The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo (AC Jan. 12). I framed Hitchcock
in 2.40:1 to create that Scope feel, but
without using anamorphic lenses. We
cropped 2.40:1 out of a 4K frame within
the 5K chip to give ourselves a little
room for repositioning and stabiliza- U
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Opposite page:
Legendary
director Alfred
Hitchcock
(Anthony
Hopkins)
addresses
viewers during
the opening
scene of
Hitchcock. This
page, top:
Director Sacha
Gervasi and
Hopkins analyze
the Master of
Suspense.
Bottom: Jeff
Cronenweth,
ASC (wearing
glasses) eyes a
setup while
camera operator
Dan
McDonough
checks the
frame.
tion. The release was made from a 2K
file. He teamed the Epic with Zeiss
Ultra Primes. I thought some slightly
older glass, with older coatings, would
help with the period look and the pros-
thetic makeup, which was extensive on
Anthony, he explains. The Ultra
Primes are a little softer [than Master
Primes], and they tend to pick up more
flares.
Prosthetics are always a chal-
lenge, especially when youre working
quickly and dont have the budget for a
lot of time in post, he continues. I
knew we would have to spend a certain
amount of time in the DI smoothing
out issues with the prosthetics that just
couldnt be fixed on set. That isnt to say
that [makeup artists] Howard Berger
and Julie Hewett and their respective
teams did a bad job. On the contrary,
they did phenomenal work, but there are
always some issues with prosthetics that
have to be fixed in post. There are always
changes in texture over time on the day,
and you have to blend lines [between the
prosthetic and the actors skin] that
become more noticeable as the day goes
on.
To help hide some of these
imperfections, Cronenweth chose to
capture a more compressed image.
After a lot of testing, we decided to
shoot at 6:1 compression [instead of 5:1,
the Epics lowest compression rate].
Left, top to bottom: Hitchcock responds to author
Robert Blochs horror novel Psycho; the directors
wife, Alma (Helen Mirren), is less enthused; Alma
enjoys a friendly flirtation with her writer friend
Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston). Top right:
Cronenweth and Gervasi confer between takes.

An Auteurs Angst
That slight additional compression
actually helped to soften the image
details and smooth out the imperfec-
tions a bit. In addition, I decided to use
[Schneider] Classic Soft Frost on
the lens most of the time. I typically
dont use any diffusion on the lens at
all; I tend to wait till post to decide
whether something is too sharp. But
we couldnt spend a lifetime in post.
Psycho was shot in 1959-60, and
to help suggest the period, the film-
makers strove to tailor their camera-
work to the era. We tried to stay with
[camera] moves that were possible
within that world, says Cronenweth.
To that end, we tried to stay away
from using Steadicam for most of the
movie and kept the moves as classical
as we could. Theres a lot of dialogue in
the film, not a lot of action, so we tried
to impart some energy through move-
ment and create coverage with camera
moves rather than separate shots.
Of course, when youre making
a movie about one of filmmakings
pioneers, its very tempting to steal
some of his concepts, he continues,
but we decided that we would only
tip our hat a couple of times. Viewers
who are looking for it will appreciate
those moments. One such shot
evokes the famous crane shot in
Notorious that ends in a close-up of
Ingrid Bergmans hand holding a key.
In Hitchcock, the director is haunted by
dreams of serial killer Ed Gein
(Michael Wincott), who presents
himself as Hitchcocks conscience.
When the filmmaker begins to suspect
that his wife is having an affair with a
novelist, Whitfield Cook (Danny
Huston), Gein points Hitchcock
toward evidence that confirms his
suspicions. The moment of discovery
is presented in a sweeping shot from a
high over-the-shoulder to a macro
close-up of the evidence.
Similarly, when Hitchcock
makes a phone call to Cooks cottage,
a shot reveals Cook and Alma outside
on the porch facing the beach, with
the ringing phone framed large in the
foreground. Its a classic Hitchcockian
Top: As crewmembers dress a Bates Motel interior set, Hopkins chats with Scarlett Johansson
(portraying Janet Leigh) and James DArcy (as Anthony Perkins). Middle: Johansson and Jessica
Biel (playing Vera Miles) rehearse as Cronenweth (reflected in mirror) observes. Bottom: Water
heaters and a crane-mounted remote head were employed to re-create the filming of Psychos
infamous shower scene.
shot that exaggerates the elements of
the narrative to emphasize an emotion.
Cronenweth used period-appro-
priate lighting fixtures as much as possi-
ble, but its really hard to find any
rationale for using arc lights today! he
notes with a laugh. Theyre hard to
maintain, theyre expensive and theyre
unreliable. I really couldnt justify going
that far. For the most part, I stuck with
tungsten fixtures, mainly Fresnels, units
that would have been used at that time.
The filmmakers also had to
tackle the challenge of re-creating a few
of Psychos key scenes. However, notes
Cronenweth, this movie was never
about replicating Psycho like, say, Gus
Van Sant did [with 1998s shot-for-shot
remake]. I was conscious of achieving
the same kind of feel as [Psycho] in my
lighting of the scene being shot, but
really, once you have your actors in
period makeup, period hair and period
wardrobe, and the set is dressed in a
period feel, there isnt much more you
have to do to re-create that look. In one
situation, it was really easy: when Vera
Miles [played by Jessica Biel] goes into
the basement to find Normans mother,
and the source is just a swinging light-
bulb no real challenge to match the
look and feel of the lighting there!
Some of the scenes in Psycho
have become so iconic, so seared into
peoples memories, that we had to get a
little closer to how they really look in
the film, he continues. I think the
closest we got in that respect was shoot-
ing Janet Leigh [played by Scarlett
Johansson] driving to the Bates Motel.
We replicated the rear-projection-
process scenes of her driving, and that
was fantastically fun. We used classic
projectors provided by [ASC associate]
Bill Hansard and acquired stock footage
of driving in the desert to play on the
screen. I tried to light Scarlett the same
way John Russell [ASC] had lit Janet
Leigh, and I ended up using a 1K
straight on. We cut off everything else,
making the hard beam very narrow; it
was pretty common back then to use
hard light in that manner. We used a
variety of 1Ks, 2Ks and 5Ks to light the
M
aking this movie was a rapid-fire
process. Our production schedule
was 35 days, and we went from the first
day of principal photography, on April
13, to locked, colored, scored and done
in six months. That only happens when
you get really lucky. We were on location
with two hours of prosthetics every day,
so it was very intense. But Hitchcock
only had 30 days or so to make Psycho,
with no money, and we were sort of in
the same position. If you want to make a
robot movie, they give you $100 million,
but if you want to do this kind of film,
they dont!
Fortunately, I came to this project
from a documentary that I made and
paid for myself [Anvil! The Story of
Anvil]. Obviously, a documentary is
different by its very nature because its a
real story, and production can unfold
over a couple of years. But in terms of the
energy of it, and the feeling you have to
create within your crew and around your
actors, its actually exactly the same.
Before starting Hitchcock, I thought, My
god, its such a big thing working with
actors, but after youve directed Lips
[Kudlow] and Robb [Reiner] from
Anvil, trust me, Tony Hopkins and
Helen Mirren are a walk in the park! It
was a madness making that film, just as
it was a madness making Hitchcock, but
in a good way, because creative people
thrive on that. Sometimes when youre
under pressure, you come up with your
best ideas. We were all in it together, and
no one was doing it for the money. We
were doing it because we loved the script,
we loved the subject, and we loved the
idea of telling a unique story about a
partnership in a marriage that no one
really knew about. We were trying to get
behind Hitchcocks mask. The notion of
doing a really emotional story about such
a central part of his life really intrigued
everyone.
Jeff Cronenweth [ASC] really
responded to the script, so we set up a
meeting. I had a very specific idea of
what I hoped the movie would look like
in my mind, it had three or four very
distinct visual worlds and Jeff brought
along some color references that
matched mine. So from our first meet-
ing, we were thinking about the film in
exactly the same way.
There is the world of the studio,
which is very lush, rich and romantic. To
Hitchcock, that was the only reality that
really mattered, so for him, it should be
the most exciting place to be. We
wanted to lend those scenes warmth,
scope, scale and color, and thematically
that approach worked well for the story
we were telling. Psycho was shot in black-
and-white, so showing that studio real-
ity in color created a really interesting
counterpoint.
Then we have the austere nature
of the Hitchcock home, which is a little
pocket of England in the middle of Bel
Air. Those scenes are very Merchant
Ivory, with dark wood, big staircases and
halls.
California during that era was
very distinct, so that became our third
[look]; we wanted to capture the purity
and the slightly surreal feel of the
California dream, with its beautiful blue
skies and sunlight. My references for
those scenes were movies like Betty Blue.
Finally, theres the world of the
serial killer Ed Gein. He represents
Hitchs dark side, so those scenes had to
be very moody and brooding.
From day one, Jeff and I agreed
we wanted a really dynamic range of
feeling in the film. This isnt just a movie
about Hitchcock making Psycho. Its
about his relationships with women, its
about his marriage, and its about his
obsessions. Above all, its about an artist
whos struggling and risking everything
in order to feel fully alive, not insulated
by his own success.
Sacha Gervasi
| Dramatizing the Master of Suspense |

An Auteurs Angst
stage, which we see around the car, and
we used a 2K as the projector light
behind the screen after the film loop
breaks, revealing Hitchs silhouette as he
walks by.
The shower scene was a whole
different beast. Because we shot in color
and Psycho is, of course, black-and-
white, theres a discernible difference in
the looks. Again, I just tried to emulate
the feel and let the actors, makeup and
set dressing sell the rest. Above the
shower, he bounced two Inkies into a
large beadboard that was further soft-
ened with a layer of Lee 129 Heavy
Frost. We also boxed [the beadboard]
in to keep the light off the walls. The
tiles of the shower were a much brighter
white than I hoped for, and Scarlett has
fairly pale skin. The two elements
together really lacked contrast, so the
toplight felt best.
I used a separate bounce source
when we turned around to see Hitch
sitting by the camera, and we used a Big
Eye 10K in the background to backlight
the stairs where the crew was standing.
Top: As Hitchcocks
stresses mount, his
dreams are invaded
by serial killer Ed
Gein (Michael
Wincott), the
real-life model for
Norman Bates.
Bottom left:
Hopkins and the
crew shoot scenes
in the Hitchcock
bedroom set built
on a Red Studios
soundstage in
Hollywood. Bottom
right: A bank of
fluorescents
illuminates a shot
of Gein in
Hitchcocks
bathroom.
We also had some makeup mirrors and
smaller practical fixtures in the back-
ground to give some texture.
When Hitch comes to the
shower and starts working with the
knife, I used a covered wagon on the
floor to uplight him a bit. We used
[covered wagons] several times on this
show; theyre correct for the period,
they have the right kind of color and
tone, and theyre very convenient, espe-
cially in small locations. They also have
a great feel.
Hitchcocks shooting schedule was
divided among practical locations in
Pasadena, Altadena and Beverly Hills
and sets built at Red Studios in
Hollywood. Additionally, two movie
theaters in downtown Los Angeles
were tapped for scenes involving movie
premieres; the Orpheum stood in for
the theater that hosted the Chicago
premiere of North by Northwest, a scene
featured at the beginning of Hitchcock,
and the Palace Theatre served as the
host of Psychos L.A. premiere.
The production utilized a house
off Bellagio Road in Beverly Hills for
many scenes set in the Hitchcocks
home, making use of the kitchen,
breakfast nook and study. (The
bedroom and bathroom were both
constructed onstage.) The study was
an old-school, mahogany room with
lots of shelves and a big, mahogany
desk, says Cronenweth. Night scenes
in there were really a challenge. I had to
be careful not to overlight the actors but
still bring all that dark wood out of the
blackness. That particular palette
presents so much contrast, and we
werent onstage, where I could have just
brought in large, soft sources.
I also strangled myself a little bit
by always trying to combine several
shots into one, which makes lighting
more difficult, he adds. I ended up
using covered wagons for wider shots or
shots that had a lot of movement. We
tucked them high against the ceiling,
and we used practicals as accents
around the room. Then, I tried to clean
up the close-ups when I could.
After collaborating with Light

An Auteurs Angst
A lighting
diagram
illustrates the
crews approach
to a scene that
replicates the
rear-projection
process used for
Janet Leighs
driving sequences
in Psycho.
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Iron Digital on both The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network
(AC Oct. 10), Cronenweth advocated
working with the facility again on
Hitchcock. Light Irons involvement
started with providing the production
with the Pix dailies system and a Lily
Pad on-set color-correction cart
equipped with ColorFronts Express
Dailies software. The Lily Pad was
manned by DIT/colorist Brandon
Lippard. We set looks together for
each scene, and that encoded informa-
tion would follow through to editorial
and all the way into the final grade,
says Cronenweth. Between the Lily
Pad and Pix, I knew the executives at
Fox Searchlight and [co-producer]
Montecito [Picture Co.] were seeing
dailies properly. Thats always a relief.
Pix is another amazing piece of
technology, he enthuses. It allows me
a lot more control over how I see my
images. I watched dailies every day with
[gaffer] Harold Skinner and [camera
operators] Peter Rosenfeld and Dan
McDonough, but we did it on our own
time. I use my laptop. Ive had it for
years, and its my litmus test for
whether things are working; if some-
thing is off, I can tell immediately.
When youre looking at dailies in some
random screening room, you never
really know what youre seeing. How
many footlamberts is the projection? Is
the projector lens good and clean? Ten
different screening rooms can show 10
different images. With Pix, everyone
was seeing our dailies in a consistent
form, and that really helped ease the
executives minds.
Light Irons involvement contin-
ued into post, when Cronenweth
reteamed with Social Network and
Dragon Tattoo colorist Ian Vertovec for
Hitchcocks final grade. We were
initially scheduled for a 10-day session,
but we wound up going 15, he recalls.
A good half of that time was spent
matching skin tones, smoothing out
prosthetics and makeup, and fixing
some things that might not have been
so challenging on a bigger movie. Items
that were not of the period, unwanted

An Auteurs Angst
Top: Hitchcock
attempts to save
potentially
controversial Psycho
scenes while
negotiating with
Geoffrey Shurlock
(Kurtwood Smith),
administrator of the
Motion Picture
Production Code.
Middle: Shurlock and
studio executives are
dismayed by a rough
version of Psycho.
Bottom: The married
collaborators finesse
their final cut.
Cronenweth notes that digital
grading is much more time-intensive
for the cinematographer, who is typi-
cally not paid for such work. With
photochemical timing, youd donate
reflections, and any bits of our own gear
that could not be kept out of frame were
masked or eliminated with color
changes, defocusing or power
windows.
Top, left and
right: During a
screening of
Psycho,
Hitchcock
awaits the
audiences
expected
screams of
terror. Middle
and bottom:
Hitchcock and
Alma enjoy
their moment of
triumph at the
movies
premiere.

An Auteurs Angst
your time when you were called to the
lab for a screening with the color timer,
youd give notes as the film was played
in its entirety, the timer would apply
those notes, and then, a couple of days
later, once the lab had struck a new
print, youd donate another couple of
hours to watch the film again. But in
todays world, youre sitting in the color
suite 12 hours a day, coloring every
frame. [Production] usually books the
room for two weeks or so, so you basi-
cally have to take two weeks off from
any other jobs to finish the movie. It
requires full days and full weeks, and its
a real liability to do it gratis. Luckily, I
was paid for this work on Hitchcock, but
thats not the norm in the industry, and
that has to change. Its up to the cine-
matographer to protect the image and
get the best image possible for the direc-
tor and producer, but thats becoming a
much bigger job than it used to be.
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Another Trip Down Sunset Blvd.
By Robert S. Birchard
When Sunset Blvd. was released on Aug. 10, 1950, Para-
mount Pictures touted it as another motion-picture masterpiece
from director Billy Wilder and the most unusual motion picture
in many years. Audiences were urged to come out to see the
film that reaches a new milestone of dramatic daring. The movie
tells the story of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a 50-year-old
silent-screen star who has been shunted aside by the advent of
sound and ageism on the part of Hollywood producers, and who
takes up with a man, Joe Gillis (William Holden), 20 years younger
than she.
Sunset Blvd. has indeed become an iconic picture, but the
film itself the original nitrate camera negative survived just
over a decade before it was lost or destroyed. The best surviving
film elements on Sunset Blvd. are a dupe negative and a fine-grain
master positive, both made in 1965, says Andrea Kalas, vice pres-
ident of archives at Paramount Pictures. Strangely, these
elements were not generated from the same source material, and
there are different issues and anomalies in each.
Although Paramount digitally restored Sunset Blvd. only a
decade ago, the studio decided to revisit the picture with the
latest 4K tools at Technicolor Hollywood. As we approached the
100th anniversary of Paramount, says Kalas, we felt this was
not only an iconic film, but also one that offered a vivid and
historic portrait of Paramounts Hollywood studio, with footage
shot all over the lot. We also wanted to revisit the imagery of the
films cinematographer, John Seitz, ASC.
According to Laura Thornburg, Paramounts executive
director of restoration and preservation for archives, the restora-
tion team consulted an original 1950 print in the Library of
Congress, as well as some other surviving 1950 print sources, to
get a feel for what Seitz was trying to achieve.
Tom Burton, executive director of restoration for
Technicolor Creative Services, says the Library of Congress print
provided the cornerstone for the look of this restoration. Unlike
some projects, where we have to cobble together the picture
from many sources, Sunset Blvd. was relatively straightforward,
with most of the image coming from the dupe neg. We only
resorted to the fine-grain in the transition scenes between the
golf course and Schwabs there was significant damage to
the dupe negative in that area and even a missing frame. The
scans from the fine-grain matched quite well in grain and image
quality.
The actual work took about four months, he continues.
Danny Albano was the lead restoration artist, and he supervised
the image-repair work done by the rest of the team. Our goal was
to get back to how the film looked on the screen the day it was
released. The repairs were rather subtle in the sense that there
Post Focus
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Above left: An enlargement of a pre-restoration frame from Sunset Blvd. exhibits multiple vertical scratches and printed-in dirt.
Right: The restored frame in full.
were no torn frames or major damage in
the elements we worked with, but there
were massive amounts of printed-in black-
and-white dirt, scratches and repeating
emulsion digs that had to be cleaned up.
Because we used the dupe negative for
most of the picture, we were seeing dirt
and abrasions from the original that had
been printed into the fine-grain, which in
turn had its own dirt and abrasion issues
before the dupe negative was generated
from it. And the dupe itself had seen
significant wear through the years.
Tim Peeler was our colorist on the
project, and he has a great deal of experi-
ence working with older black-and-white
elements, adds Burton. He brought
back the incredibly rich blacks and amaz-
ing gray-value range Seitz achieved.
The restoration, which was
conducted entirely at 4K resolution,
produced several deliverables, including
HD masters for Blu-ray, DCPs for theatrical
projection and two new 35mm negatives.
Burton explains, The dupe neg and fine-
grain elements were scanned via Scanity
to create 4K 10-bit log DPX data. Image
restoration was done on the 4K data with
a variety of both commercially available
and proprietary processing solutions.
Color grading was done at 4K on a
DaVinci Resolve. The DCDM [Digital
Cinema Data Master] and DCP were both
created at 4K, and two negatives, one
archival and one for printing, were filmed
out at 4K via Arrilaser recorders.
We filmed out to Fujifilm [Eterna-
RDS] 4791, which makes a very good
archival negative, and then printed on
Kodak 2302. Weve found this combina-
tion yields very good black-and-white
results that match the DI data extremely
well.
We could have made the DCPs
directly from our restoration files using
look-up tables, but we instead opted to
make a 4K DCDM, which provides better
long-term storage and allows us to further
refine the XYZ curves in our outputs,
adds Burton. We used Rec 709 color
space for the Blu-ray, and [Technicolor
color scientists] Josh Pines and Chris
Kutcka developed custom LUTs for the
filmouts.
HPA Honors 2012 Achievements

By Jon D. Witmer
The Hollywood Post Alliance hosted
its seventh annual awards gala Nov. 1,
recognizing creative and technical excel-
lence in an array of post disciplines. As HPA
Awards Committee co-chair Seth Hallen
told the packed house, These awards are
[given by] peers honoring peers, which is
high praise indeed. Judges for the 2012
awards included ASC members Denis
Maloney and Robert Primes, and associate
members Ron Burdett and George
Joblove.
HPA President Leon Silverman, an
ASC associate and the general manager of
digital studio for Walt Disney Studios,
served as the emcee. Contrary to popular
opinion, and that phrase that is too often
used to describe and minimize what we
do, were not just the folks who fix it in
post, Silverman noted. We are truly and
increasingly the ones that help to create
and design the images and sound that
serve to tell the story. We may not be the
ones that walk the red carpet or get sand-
wiches named for us at the delis, but we
are the ones who work way too long in
dark rooms! Now its time to shed light on
all the great work of our nominees.
Silverman turned the stage over to
Chris Brown, executive vice president of
conventions and business operations for
the NAB Show, the sponsor of the HPA
Engineering Excellence awards. As Brown
explained, the Engineering Excellence
awards recognize those companies that
are the true pioneers, having made new
and highly innovative contributions to our
industry. The four awards in this category
were presented to: Sony Electronics, for
the F65 CineAlta digital motion-picture
camera system; Crossroads Systems, for
the StrongBox file-based, fully portable
storage solution for long-term data reten-
tion; Dolby Laboratories, for the Dolby
Atmos theatrical sound-delivery and exhi-
bition system; and Cinnafilm, for the
Tachyon Standards Transcoder.
Bill Bennett, ASC and Peter Moss,
ASC, ACS presented the awards for
Outstanding Color Grading, sponsored by
Dolby Laboratories. The winners were: Joe
Finley of Modern VideoFilm, for Game of
Top: HPA
President Leon
Silverman takes a
call while hosting
the 7th Annual
HPA Awards.
Middle: Peter
Moss, ASC, ACS
(left) and Bill
Bennett, ASC
presented the
awards for
Outstanding Color
Grading. Bottom:
Siggy Ferstl (left)
won the color-
grading award in
the commercial
category, and Joe
Finley won in the
television
category.
H
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.
Thrones, The Prince of Winterfell; Rob
Pizzey of Company 3, for The Iron Lady;
and Siggy Ferstl of Company 3, for Chrysler,
Halftime in America.
Also nominated for Outstanding
Color Grading: Sean Coleman of Company
3, for Audi, Ahab; Tony DAmore of
Technicolor Creative Services Hollywood,
for Magic City, Castles Made of Sand;
Adam Glasman of Company 3, for The Best
Exotic Marigold Hotel; Lorraine Grand, for
Hatfields & McCoys, Night 2; Dave
Hussey of Company 3, for Ciroc, Rat
Pack; Tim Masick of Company 3, for
Captain Morgan, Secret Passage and
Elizabeth Arden, Wonderstruck; Stephen
Nakamura of Company 3, for Prometheus;
James Norman of 1000volt, for Once Upon
a Time in Anatolia; Tom Poole of Company
3, for Drive; Tony Smith of Encore, for
Castle, The Blue Butterfly; and Martin
Zeichner of Technicolor-PostWorks New
York, for Boardwalk Empire, 21.
Outstanding Sound awards were
presented to: Jimmy Hite of Margarita Mix
Santa Monica, for Nissan Leaf, Gas
Powered Everything; Mark Lanza, Larry
Mann, Alan Decker and Nello Torri of
Universal Sound, for Grimm, Pilot; and
Chris Ward, Brent Burge, Michael Hedges,
Christopher Boyes and Andy Nelson of Park
Road Post Production, for The Adventures
of Tintin.
Outstanding Editing awards, spon-
sored by Avid Technology, were presented
to: Chris Franklin of Big Sky Editorial, for
MasterCard, Tango; John Wilson, ACE,
of Carnival Film & Television, for Downton
Abbey, Series 2 Episode 7; and Thelma
Schoonmaker, ACE, of Sikelia Productions,
for Hugo.
Outstanding Compositing Awards
were won by: Benjamin Walsh, Dominik
Bauch and Nicholas Kim of Method
Studios, for Chevy, 2012 Silverado; Bob
Minshall, Mark Intravartolo, Jeremy Jozwik
and Carrie Smith of Encore, for NCIS: Naval
Criminal Investigative Service, Rekindled;
and Nelson Sepulveda, Alan Travis, Peter
Demarest and Chris Bayz of Industrial Light
& Magic, for The Avengers.
The HPA Judges Award for Creativity
and Innovation in Postproduction was
presented to Gradient Interactive for Sand-
box, a mobile, real-time previs system.
Returning to the stage, Silverman
introduced Walter Murch, ACE, who, Silver-
man noted, is the only person to [have
won] the Academy Award for both picture
and sound editorial. Murch presented the
Charles S. Schwartz Award for Outstanding
Contribution in the Field of Postproduction
Ray Dolby, recipient of the Charles S. Schwartz Award, is flanked by his son, David Dolby (left),
and Walter Murch, ACE.
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to Ray Dolby, founder and director emeritus
of Dolby Laboratories. If you look at what
we had in 1969, said Murch, harking back
to motion-picture sound prior to Dolbys first
forays into the field, compared with what
we have now, [the difference is] just aston-
ishing.
Murch went on to describe Dolbys
early work with magnetic soundtrack
recording and noise reduction, the impor-
tance of the theatrical stereo standards that
Dolby ushered into the industry, and the
steady increase of track options up to and
including Atmos. Murch then introduced a
video tribute, after which Dolby took the
stage. Im very happy to be a part of this,
Dolby offered. Im very happy about the
whole thing. Is there anything else I should
say?
Dolby shared the stage with his son,
David, director of Dolby Laboratories. Its a
privilege for us to collaborate with this
community of industry professionals on new
ways to create entertainment that moves
people, said David. Thanks to my fathers
vision, passion and commitment to excel-
lence, people at Dolby Labs are inspired each
and every day to advance the science of
sound and vision, and to build the tools that
you use to tell your stories.
94
Reflecting his role as general manager
of digital studio for Walt Disney Studios,
Silverman returned to the stage to remind
the audience that Disney is distributing
Lincoln.
Hurlbuts Unveil Revolution Cinema Rentals
By Jon D. Witmer
Hurlbut Visuals DSLR Cinema Rentals has been rebranded as
Revolution Cinema Rentals and has moved to a new facility in the
San Fernando Valley.
Founded by ASC member Shane Hurlbut, Mike Svitak and
Lydia Hurlbut (who serves as CEO), RCR grew out of the experiences
gained on the feature Act of Valor (AC Feb. 12) and other projects
that employed multiple DSLR cameras in run-and-gun configura-
tions and with other camera systems. The company has continued
to refine its camera rigs and workflows and offer expertise on
commercials, features and other projects. Were saying, Come
here, take our cameras, lets do a test together and see what you
want to put on your set, says Q Edwards, RCRs vice president
of marketing and operations.
Its a very collaborative environment, adds Lydia Hurlbut.
We take the time to have a customized experience with everyone
who comes through the door.
At the root of RCRs approach is a multiple-camera paradigm
in which different types of cameras, each designated for a particu-
lar purpose (such as handheld, Steadicam or high speed), stands
ready to roll throughout the shooting day, enabling a small crew to
move quickly. Even before we had digital, we would carry a sound
camera, a lightweight handheld camera and a high-speed camera,
says Shane Hurlbut. He notes that productions have also tradition-
ally employed different film stocks for different shooting scenarios.
In the digital realm, he says, he treats each camera as its own
emulsion. I try to use the best of what each camera does.
We want to be the go-to place if these Canon cameras are
going to be your emulsion, he continues, noting that RCR is a
Canon-centric facility, specializing in the 7D, 5D Mark II and III, 1D
Mark IV, 1D C, and C300 and C500. We take these bodies with
many buttons, load in our customized settings and picture styles,
and turn them into a camera system that looks and feels like a
motion-picture camera with a variety of accessories and supports
that are familiar to filmmakers.
New Products & Services
SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Please e-mail New Products/Services releases to:
newproducts@ascmag.com and include full contact
information and product images. Photos must be
TIFF or JPEG files of at least 300dpi.
RCR sees itself as a complement to rental houses where film-
makers might go for a film or digital camera for use on the same
production. Rather than a one-stop-shop paradigm, it can be two
stops now, says Shane. We can pack up our gear and deliver it to
Panavision, Otto Nemenz, Clairmont, wherever the customer wants
so they can prep their entire package at once.
For the cameras back end, RCR offers Convergent Design
Gemini 4:4:4 and Codex Digital Onboard S and Vault recording
options. On the front end, the company is investing in what it calls
its Vintage Glass Department. When you use an older piece of
glass with lower contrast, it takes away the [digital images] hyper-
crisp quality, and it starts to look a lot more like film, says Shane.
Weve taken Leica R mounts and engineered them to have EOS
mounts; we have old Cooke Panchros; and weve re-housed Kowas
so a camera assistant can work with them on a C300, C500 or
1D C.
RCR has been working with Duclos Lenses and other fabri-
cators to re-house and cine-modify many of these vintage lenses for
use with digital systems in a configuration that will be familiar to
camera assistants. Edwards enthuses, Were taking old glass that
has been sitting in warehouses, giving it a breath of new life and
repurposing it for a new market.
RCRs new facility also affords ample space for educational
events. Were trying to educate cinematographers and their crews
on how to use this hybrid multi-camera approach, says Shane. Part
of the trick, notes Edwards, is removing all the time you would
otherwise spend flipping a camera body from a studio to a
Steadicam configuration, for example. Take all that time out of the
day by having multiple cameras in multiple configurations always
ready to go, and you can start adding setups.
Through RCRs educational initiatives, Edwards continues,
were building a team of camera assistants and other filmmakers
who are out there working and are not afraid of rapidly evolving
technology. Were constantly encountering people who have been
let down by DSLRs on other jobs, and theyre afraid to use one
again. So they come here to be educated in an immersive environ-
ment.
RCR has also launched an internship program. Participants
work behind the scenes and on the prep floor in the rental house,
learning to set up and care for the cameras and accessories and
gaining practical experience for working on set. Additionally, interns
are involved with test shoots and taken out on actual productions.
Our interns are hungry, says Edwards. Theyre sponges. Theyre
motivated. They want to learn. What better environment for them
to learn in?
Revolution Cinema Rentals, 1102 Arroyo St., San Fernando,
Calif., 91340. For more information, visit the companys website,
www.revolutioncinemarentals.com.
Pursuit Systems Adds to Fleet
Pursuit Systems, the camera-car part-
ner of car-prep company Shelly Ward Enter-
prises, has expanded its fleet by adding a
fourth Porsche Turbo Cayenne, a traditional
insert car and a new process trailer along
with various tow dollies, stage cranes and
other specialty equipment.
Led by Shelly Ward, Mike Johnson
and Mike Majesky, Pursuit combines a full
line of camera-car equipment and services
with SWEs 35 years of experience in car
prep and stunt driving. From their base in
North Hollywood, the two companies offer
around-the-clock assistance with everything
from preproduction planning to stunt
driving and camera-car rigging. The addi-
tional equipment advances Pursuit and
SWEs joint mission to provide a one-stop
shop for a productions car and action film-
making needs.
SWEs car-prep services include basic
washing and waxing, complex brake and
headlight rewiring, paint and vehicle wraps,
peel coats and repairs. The company also
offers custom designs and fabrication,
mechanical effects, consultation on shooting
locations and conditions, and vehicle trans-
portation.
Pursuit Systems enables experienced
crews to maximize shooting flexibility while
providing efficient and safe use of a large
selection of camera cars and related equip-
ment. Pursuits fleet includes Porsche
Cayenne Turbo and Mercedes-AMG camera
cars, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, Mini Cooper,
standard plate cars, B1 Camera Bike, off-
road camera buggy, electric cart, gas camera
cart, process trailers, and multiple open and
enclosed vehicle transporters.
Pursuits camera vehicles are comple-
mented by state-of-the-art rigging such as
the companys innovative R1 Carbon Fiber
Arms and Pursuit Cranes. The companys
proprietary equipment is built in-house and
is operated by its team of experts in conjunc-
tion with SWEs stunt experts.
For additional information, visit
http://pursuitsystems.com.
Autodesk Flame Turns 20
Autodesk has released the Flame
Premium 2013 20th Anniversary Edition
software, which integrates visual effects,
editorial and real-time color grading. Flame
Premium 2013 streamlines complex tasks
and improves speed with a new creative
workspace, top-level editorial timeline inte-
gration and an enhanced GPU pipeline.
As an integral tool for the highest-
quality visual effects for film and television,
Flame has been used on numerous Super
Bowl commercials, top-rated TV shows,
and blockbuster movies from Titanic to The
Avengers, says Marc Petit, senior vice pres-
ident of Autodesk Media & Entertainment.
Flame artists are often called upon to do
everything. With changes to the industry,
they required an evolved toolset that would
allow them to oversee entire projects. The
Flame 20th Anniversary Edition is that
tool.
Flame Premium 2013 brings core
postproduction tools into a unified creative
environment where a full editorial timeline
is now closely linked to the popular Flame
Desktop, Batch and Action. The redesigned
workflow also features improved access to
media and a new task-based workflow
with one-click access to the main finishing
tasks and creative tools.
The redesigned timeline allows
artists to more easily work within the time-
lines context. Artists can now build time-
lines from scratch or match an offline cut
without leaving the desktop. With this new
integration, artists can more easily accom-
plish editorial tasks and move seamlessly
between creative and editorial functions.
Flame Premium 2013 also features a
re-engineered GPU/CPU processing pipeline
for faster compositing and visual-effects
development in Batch and Action. Addi-
tionally, the 20th Anniversary Edition adds
native support for the 16-bit, 4K-capable
Sony F65 digital cinema camera format,
using the necessary color transforms to
bring the raw format into the ACES-compli-
ant color space.
www.autodesk.com.
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Sony Expands CineAlta Family
Sony Electronics has unveiled two
new CineAlta 4K cameras, the PMW-F55
and PMW-F5. Both cameras feature a PL
lens mount, a modular and compact design
for easy configuration, and a new type of
4K Super 35mm image sensor with
4096x2160 resolution (11.6 million total
pixels).
These two new models join a family
of Sony large-sensor cameras that comple-
ment each other and deliver powerful new
capabilities to professionals working at every
level of production, says Rob Wilcox, direc-
tor of marketing for large-image-sensor
cameras at Sony Electronics. They fill a crit-
ical gap in large-sensor acquisition between
Sonys PMW-F3 camcorder and F65 digital
motion picture camera, and give content
creators new levels of flexibility and creative
options for acquisition and production in
HD, 2K, 4K and beyond. The total lineup,
with our new accessories, further under-
scores Sonys commitment to supporting
every aspect of the highest-quality profes-
sional workflows.
The F55 and F5 both offer support
for multiple codecs, including Sonys new
XAVC MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
format, the SR codec
(MPEG4 SStP) and the
XDCam 50Mbps 4:2:2
codec. Both systems feature
in-camera recording to
Sonys SxS Pro+ memory-
card media.
The F55 can connect
to the PVM-X300, Sonys 4K
30" LCD monitor, using four
3G-SDI interfaces for live
monitoring at 4096x2160 at
up to 60p while recording
XAVC 4K. Users can also connect directly to
Sonys 84" Bravia 4K (3840x2160) LED TV
for large-screen monitoring of the cameras
4K 60p images.
With Sonys AXS-R5 raw recorder,
enhanced high-frame-rate capabilities allow
shooters to capture slow-motion imagery in
up to 60p 4K raw on AXS memory (or, for
2K raw, up to 240 fps with the F55, and up
to 120 fps with the F5) without crop factor
or loss of angle of view.
The F55 also adds a global shutter to
eliminate rolling shutter skew and flash
band, delivering the same color filter and
ultra-wide color gamut as the F65 for true
color reproduction. The cameras are further
distinguished by wide exposure latitude (14
stops, according to Sony), high sensitivity
and low noise.
Both the F55 and F5 can dual-record
in a number of different configurations
depending upon codec selection and the
use of the optional AXS-R5 raw recorder.
Combinations include recording in parallel
to a single SxS Pro+ card, to both SxS slots
with the same or different codecs, and to
the SxS at the same time as to the AXS-R5
in raw. These features enable highly effi-
cient offline and online workflows, as well
as the archiving and repurposing of the raw
data.
The cameras accessories include a
new line of Sony PL-mount prime lenses
(comprising 20mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm,
85mm and 135mm); the DVF-EL100, DVF-
L700 and DVF-L350 electronic viewfinders;
the BP-FL75 battery pack; and Sonys latest
shoulder rig.
www.sony.com/35mm.
Arri, Zeiss Unveil
Master Anamorphic
Arri and Carl Zeiss have unveiled the
Arri/Zeiss Master Anamorphic lenses, the
first anamorphic glass designed from
scratch for modern digital cameras. The
lenses are also suited to film cameras.
The Master Anamorphics were
developed for the Alexa Studio, Alexa Plus
4:3 and Alexa M digital cameras, all of
which are equipped with a 4:3 sensor. The
lineup comprises seven anamorphic primes:
35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 60mm, 75mm,
100mm and 135mm. Each lens is fast (T1.9)
and compact, and most have a front diam-
eter of 95mm; the maximum lens weight is
less than 6.6 pounds.
The optical technology in the Master
Anamorphics features a newly developed
iris with 15 aperture blades, while the near-
telecentric design reduces color fringing
and shading at the image corners. Virtually
no image breathing or anamorphic mumps
are experienced. Additionally, a completely
new focusing mechanism overcomes time-
consuming mechanical readjustments on
set, and state-of-the-art lens barrels feature
improved dust and water protection.
The Master Anamorphics optimize
bokeh with evenly illuminated, oval, out-of-
focus highlights. Anamorphic blue streaks
are rendered in a fresh style with enhanced
flares and reflections for additional aesthetic
options.
The Master Anamorphics are color
matched to other Arri/Zeiss primes and
Arri/Fujinon zooms, and they rely on the
same mechanics and superior standards of
the award-winning Arri/Zeiss Master Prime
lenses.
www.arri.com and www.zeiss.com.
Anton/Bauer
Builds Confidence
with Direct VU
Building upon the success of its AB-
HDRF 5.8 GHz COFDM RF system,
Anton/Bauer, part of Vitec Videocom, a
Vitec Group Company, has introduced the
AB Direct VU COFDM diversity
receiver/monitor. The result of a collabora-
tion between Anton/Bauer and Vitec Group
sister company Integrated Microwave Tech-
nologies, LLC, the AB Direct VU offers a
compact, portable system that includes a
handheld monitor and receiver, all powered
using Anton/Bauer Gold Mounts and
batteries.
The AB Direct VU displays COFDM
video transmissions using an internal 9"
16:9-format screen. The bright, high-resolu-
tion (1200-NIT), 1080i HD LCD screen
makes the unit suitable for a variety of uses,
including ENG/EFP, sporting events and cine
production. The high-bright LCD screen is
easy to read in daylight. The unit also
features a simple-to-use menu-driven inter-
face.
Combining ease of operation with
MPEG-2/MPEG-4 auto-detect decoding, the
AB Direct VU can receive up to 12 camera
positions and send video over Ethernet to
remote software or hardware decoders as
well as stream shots live over the Internet via
IP. This allows multiple remote viewers to
monitor the same video simultaneously. The
receiver/monitor also features audio
connections as well as two speakers. The
bandwidth is customizable between chan-
nels 6, 7 and 8.
For advanced functions such as
changing frequency plans or unit naming, a
user-friendly administration software pack-
age is included. The administration software
package allows users to configure and store
up to 16 custom preset configurations.
These values can then be locked in place,
providing simple and reliable operation.
Additionally, access control ensures that
users will not inadvertently corrupt critical
production settings. The OSD display helps
the user navigate the local user interface
and features receiver statistics such as signal
strength, preset, modulation and remaining
battery life.
www.antonbauer.com.
PAGlink Powers Accessories
Camera-power and lighting-systems
provider PAG has introduced the PowerHub
and PAGlink Micro Charger.
The PowerHub powers camera
accessories from the PAGlink system of intel-
ligent, linking, high-power batteries, which
in turn is designed for high-load camera
setups the linked batteries provide up to
12 amps, enabling users to simultaneously
power the camera and multiple 12-volt
accessories. The PowerHub incorporates
four D-Tap output connector units, which
have been designed to be interchangeable
with other connectors of the users choice,
such as PP90 or Hirose (available separately).
The ultra-compact and lightweight
PowerHub draws power from contacts on
the face of the PAGlink battery, and it can be
sandwiched between two batteries or
connected to the rear battery, where an
accessory bracket can be mounted to the
units face. Additionally, the outputs can be
positioned to the left or right side of the
camera. A USB module (1 amp) has also
been incorporated, allowing users to charge
a smartphone.
The PAGlink Micro Charger is an
ultra-compact battery charger for PAGlink or
standard V-Mount Li-Ion batteries. Designed
to travel light inside of any kit bag, the Micro
Charger clips over the battery contacts and
is connected to a plug-in power-supply unit
that accepts a 100-240-volt AC input and
interchangeable plug adaptors for world-
wide use.
Using the Micro Charger, two fully
discharged PAGlink batteries will be fully
charged in approximately 8 hours; one fully
discharged battery can be 80 percent
charged in approximately 3 hours. The
charge status of each battery is shown on
its individual display.
The Micro Charger is smaller than a
PAGlink battery and weighs less than half a
pound. The unit features LED indicators for
charging, charge completion, faulty battery
and absent battery.
www.paguk.com.
Cel-Soft Probes Pixels
Cel-Soft, a specialist in high-perfor-
mance image-processing and audio prod-
ucts, has introduced the Pixel-Probe, which
allows TV cameras and program content to
be checked for postproduction analysis or
prior to acceptance.
Broadcasters have hitherto had
little option but to perform acceptance tests
visually, says Cel-Soft Managing Director
Robin Palmer. Detecting rogue pixels by
eye among the 6 million RGB elements in
images from HD cameras is almost impos-
sible.
Once a camera gets into the studio
or the field, pixel defects can appear at any
time as a result of age or temperature,
Palmer explains. Dust on the sensor or
optics can be another problem. An uncor-
rected pixel error can show as a colored
black dot. In single-sensor cameras, it can
appear as a tiny cross because of the way
the pixels are spatially sampled.
Our Pixel-Probe algorithm auto-
matically generates a statistical log of every
pixel, allowing a check to be made of rela-
tive response, Palmer continues. It can
then work out, over a short period of fluc-
tuating footage from the camera, if any
pixels are not working properly. Pixel-Probe
can also identify pixels that have changed
their behavior since the previous time the
camera was checked, or between different
shots in post.
The increasing use of digital single-
lens-reflex cameras for broadcast and even
cinema production, along with other low-
cost cameras, will make this sort of test
process essential, Palmer adds. Bigger
and better high-resolution displays are also
making uncorrected pixel defects more
obvious to television viewers.
Pixel-Probe is fully compatible with
Cel-Softs Reel-Check SoloQC live source or
file analyzer and Cel-Scope 3D real-time
stereoscopic test and measurement system.
www.cel-soft.com.
Monitor Yoke Mounts
International Marketplace
Contact Bill Turner at 818-766-3715 ext.110
or email: bturner@schneideroptics.com
Motion Picture Lens Service Tech Needed
Top lens/filter and optical accessory maker requires
precision technician. Duties include disassembling,
cleaning, lubrication, alignment, collimation and
general troubleshooting. Position requires minimum
3 to 5 years experience in fine opto-mechanical
assembly, calibration and repair of lenses and
related systems, ability to read engineering drawings
and assemble to specifications. Send resume to:
CLASSIFIED AD RATES
All classifications are $4.50 per word. Words set in bold
face or all capitals are $5.00 per word. First word of ad
and advertisers name can be set in capitals without extra
charge. No agency commission or discounts on clas si fied
advertising.PAYMENT MUST AC COM PA NY ORDER. VISA,
Mastercard, AmEx and Discover card are ac cept ed. Send
ad to Clas si fied Ad ver tis ing, Amer i can Cin e ma tog -
ra pher, P.O. Box 2230, Hol ly wood, CA 90078. Or FAX
(323) 876-4973. Dead line for payment and copy must be in
the office by 15th of second month preceding pub li ca tion.
Sub ject mat ter is lim it ed to items and ser vic es per tain ing
to film mak ing and vid eo pro duc tion. Words used are sub -
ject to mag a zine style ab bre vi a tion. Min i mum amount
per ad: $45
CLASSIFIEDS ON-LINE
Ads may now also be placed in the on-line Classifieds
at the ASC web site.
Internet ads are seen around the world at the
same great rate as in print, or for slightly more you
can appear both online and in print.
For more information please visit
www.theasc.com/advertiser, or e-mail: classi-
fieds@theasc.com.
Classifieds
EQUIPMENT FOR SALE
4X5 85 Glass Filters, Diffusion, Polas etc. A
Good Box Rental 818-763-8547
14,000+ USED EQUIPMENT ITEMS. PRO VIDEO
& FILM EQUIPMENT COMPANY. 50 YEARS
EXPERIENCE. New: iLLUMiFLEX LIGHTS &
FluidFlex TRIPODS.
www.UsedEquipmentNewsletter.com AND
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EMAIL: ProVidFilm@aol.com
CALL BILL 972 869 9990, 888 869 9998.
Worlds SUPERMARKET of USED MOTION
PICTURE EQUIPMENT! Buy, Sell, Trade.
CAMERAS, LENSES, SUPPORT, AKS & MORE!
Visual Products, Inc. www.visualproducts.com
Call 440.647.4999
SERVICES AVAILABLE
STUCK? BLOCKED?
Give me 30 minutes (at no cost to you):
212.560.2333. www.laurienadel.com
STEADICAM ARM QUALITY SERVICE OVER-
HAUL AND UPDATES. QUICK TURNAROUND.
ROBERT LUNA (323) 938-5659.
Advertisers Index
16x9, Inc. 102
3ality Technica 55
AC 76
Adorama 41, 71
AJA Video Systems, Inc. 47
Alan Gordon Enterprises 103
Arri 39
AZGrip 102
Backstage Equipment, Inc.
6
Barger-Lite 103
Birns & Sawyer 102
Blackmagic Design, Inc. 29
Brain Emo 102
Canon USA Video C2-1
Cavision Enterprises 63
Chapman/Leonard Studio
Equipment Inc. C3
Cine Gear Expo 101
Cinematography
Electronics 6
Cinekinetic 102
Clairmont Film & Digital 75
Codex Digital Ltd. 59
Cooke Optics 43
Creative Handbook 94
Eastman Kodak C4
EFD USA, Inc. 61
Film Gear 99
Filmotechnic USA 77
Filmtools 93
Fox Searchlight Pictures
17, 21
General Dynamics Global
Imaging Technology 85
Glidecam Industries 73
Grip Factory Munich/GFM 99
Hollywood Post Alliance 91
Kino Flo 48
Lee Filters 65
Lights! Action! Co. 103
Manios Optical 102
Matthews Studio
Equipment/MSE 102
M. M. Mukhi & Sons 103
Movie Tech AG 102, 103
NAB 95
New York Film Academy 87
Oppenheimer Camera Prod.
97, 102
Panther Gmbh 93
Paramount Pictures 5
Pille Film Gmbh 102
Pro8mm 102
Rag Place, The 6
Red Digital Cinema 30-31
Rosco Laboratories 49
Samys DV & Edit 45
Schneider Optics 2, 102
Sony Electronics, Inc. 27
Sony Pictures 7, 25
Summit Entertainment 13
Super16 Inc. 103
SXSW 64
Thales Angenieux 57
VF Gadgets, Inc. 103
Walt Disney Studios 9
Warner Bros. 11, 15, 19, 23
Welch Integrated 89
Willys Widgets 103
www.theasc.com 4, 91, 94
104, 105
104
Emmy Award-winning director of
photography Kenneth Lamkin, ASC died
Nov. 1 at home in San
Antonio, Texas, at the
age of 80.
Lamkin was born
on June 22, 1932, and
grew up in El Campo,
Texas. He joined the U.S.
Navy, and served aboard
the USS Chandler during
the Korean War. In
1954, after four years of
active duty, he was
honorably discharged.
Upon his return to Texas,
he began his motion-
picture career at a TV station in San Antonio.
His work soon led him to Los Angeles,
where he began working as an electronic
camera operator for an independent video-
tape production company.
As a cinematographer, Lamkin was
most active in TV, shooting commercials,
episodic series and telefilms. He applied film
techniques to videotape cinematography
and frequently adapted film-camera
supports and other technologies for increas-
ingly lighter-weight tape systems. Over the
course of his career, he was repeatedly
recognized with Emmy nominations, and in
1974, he won an Emmy for the This is the
Life episode Gift of Tears.
Lamkin became an active member of
the ASC on Feb. 1, 1982, after being
proposed for membership by Society fellows
Howard Schwartz and Joseph Biroc. In a
letter to the ASC Board of Governors, he
wrote, It is truly an honor and a privilege to
be part of such a group of distinguished
cinematographers. I shall do my utmost to
live up to the standards established by you
gentlemen.
In the early 1980s, Lamkin served as
president of Chaparral Productions, a
motion-picture-production company based
in Dallas. Later that decade, he worked as
vice president of rental company Cinecam,
Inc. While carrying out these duties, he
remained active behind the camera, shoot-
ing episodes of such series as Gloria and
Silver Spoons, and the telefilms Not Quite
Human and Once Upon
a Texas Train (AC Feb.
88).
Lamkin was espe-
cially proud of the 1988
telefilm Never Say
Goodbye. In a letter he
penned to the ASC, he
wrote, While the show
was done on a shoe-
string budget, it was not
done with shoestring
talent. Not only is the
photography something
I am very pleased with,
the story content and performances are
superb. It has a message for all of us. His
work on the project earned him another
Emmy nomination.
In the early 1990s, Lamkin worked
on the series Wings, and from 1993-2004,
he served as cinematographer on Frasier.
The comedy brought him three consecutive
Emmy nominations in 2001, 02 and 03.
After Frasier ended, Lamkin shot a few
episodes of Out of Practice before hanging
up his light meter and retiring to Texas.
In addition to his cinematography
credits, Lamkin worked as a technical
consultant and TV producer/director. He
was a member of the Directors Guild of
America, the National Academy of Televi-
sion Arts and Sciences, the National Free-
lance Photographers Association, the Amer-
ican Film Institute and the Information Film
Producers of America.
Lamkin is survived by his wife,
Dyanne; daughters, Vicki Berkenkamp and
Brenda Hardage; sister, Dolores Schroeder;
stepdaughters, Tiffany Joslin and Beverly
Lamar; stepsons, Buz Wolf, Robbie Joslin,
Dale Joslin, Hollis Joslin and Damon Joslin;
and numerous nieces, nephews and grand-
children.
Jon D. Witmer
Ken Lamkin, ASC, 1932-2012

In Memoriam
105
Foerster, Sher Join Society
New active member Anna J. Foer-
ster, ASC was born in Germany, where she
grew up in a family of musicians, inventors
and writers. As a teen, she worked as a
loader and camera assistant on student and
low-budget projects. After working as a
camera assistant for the Filmhaus in
Munich, she was accepted to the
Filmakademie Ludwigsburg, where she
specialized in cinematography.
While working in Germany, Foerster
met director Roland Emmerich, and she
came to Hollywood to serve as the visual-
effects cinematographer on his feature
Independence Day (AC July 96). She soon
found steady work as a visual-effects and
miniatures cinematographer, and then tran-
sitioned into shooting and directing second
unit, which in turn led to directing episodic
TV. Foerster reteamed with Emmerich on
Anonymous (AC Sept. 11), her first feature
credit as main-unit director of photography.
She won a Lola (the German equivalent of
an Oscar) for her work on the film. Foerster
recently shot White House Down, which is
slated for release later this year.
Lawrence Sher, ASC was born and
raised in Teaneck, N.J. While attending
Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.,
his interest in still photography evolved into
a passion for cinematography, and upon
graduating, he moved to Los Angeles,
where he began working as a camera assis-
tant and shooting student films and music
videos.
After co-writing, producing and
shooting the 16mm feature Captain Jack,
Sher worked on a string of low-budget
features, including the hit indie Kissing
Jessica Stein. Since then, his feature credits
have included Garden State, The Dukes of
Hazzard, The Hangover (and its two
sequels) and The Dictator.
Jannard Becomes Associate
New associate member Jim
Jannard was born in Alhambra, Calif. In
1975, he founded sunglasses company
Oakley, and in 2006, he founded Red Digi-
tal Cinema and launched the Red One.
Since then, Red has introduced the Epic
and Scarlet camera systems. The company
has also acquired Ren-Mar Studios,
rebranding the facility Red Studios Holly-
wood. Ive always been too dumb to
know what not to do, he says. Who
made these rules, anyway?
HPA Hosts Luncheon
The Hollywood Post Alliance
recently hosted a Sales Career Resource
Group luncheon at the Beverly Garland.
The event included a panel discussion
moderated by HPA President and ASC
associate Leon Silverman. Steven
Poster, ASC sat on the panel, which also
included Daniel Cahn, ACE; Larry Chernoff
of MTI Film; Michael Cioni of Light Iron;
Tom Vice of FotoKem; David Waters of
Technicolor; and Joachim Zell of Deluxe.
Clubhouse News
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From top: Anna J. Foerster, ASC; Lawrence
Sher, ASC; ASC associate Jim Jannard. Right,
left to right: Larry Chernoff; Michael Cioni;
Tom Vice; Leon Silverman; Daniel Cahn;
Steven Poster, ASC; David Waters and
Joachim Zell.
Academy Sci-Tech Council
Adds Members
ASC members David Stump and Bill
Taylor and ASC associates Ray Feeney, Josh
Pines and Beverly Wood recently joined the
Science and Technology Council of the Acad-
emy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Academy governor Bill Kroyer and
ASC associate George Joblove currently co-
chair the council, whose members also
include ASC members Peter Anderson,
Richard Edlund, John Hora and Daryn
Okada, and ASC associates Craig Barron,
Denny Clairmont, Milt Shefter and
Garrett Smith.
Lighthill, Deming Speak
at Createasphere
Createasphere recently presented its
Fall Entertainment Technology Expo in
Burbank, Calif., offering an array of educa-
tional panels, exhibitions and a gear alley
that spotlighted new tools and technology.
The event also featured the premiere of the
Digital Process Workflow Lab, an integrated
cloud environment involving Dell, Adobe, 5th
Kind, Arri, Codex, FilmLight, Levels Beyond,
Pixelflow, NewBlueFX, Technicolor, Quantum,
Signiant and Scayl. ASC President Stephen
Lighthill participated in a Meet the Experts
session in the DPW Lab, which offered a look
at the evolution of content creation, distribu-
tion and management.
Additionally, Peter Deming, ASC
participated in a conversation with AC
contributor Jim Hemphill. The chat covered
the arc of Demings career, from his first jobs
as a loader and camera assistant to shooting
for such directors as David Lynch, Wes Craven
and Sam Raimi. Deming recently wrapped
Raimis 3-D feature, Oz: The Great and
Powerful.
ASC Hosts Breakfast
The ASC Breakfast Club wrapped up
its 2012 interview series with appearances by
Society members John Schwartzman,
Richard Edlund and Claudio Miranda.
Each cinematographer sat in conversation
with AC associate editor Jon D. Witmer and
then took questions from the audience.
Schwartzman screened clips from The Rock,
Seabiscuit, The Rookie and Pearl Harbor;
Edlund focused on clips from Ghostbusters,
Multiplicity and Angels in America; and
Miranda discussed scenes from The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button and Tron: Legacy
before sharing a few minutes of footage
from The Life of Pi.
For information about upcoming ASC
Breakfast Club seminars, visit
www.theasc.com.
Elswit Leads Hamptons
Master Class
The recent Hamptons International
Film Festival included a Kodak-sponsored
master class with Robert Elswit, ASC.
During the event, moderated by film critic
David Frear, Elswit screened and discussed
clips from Boogie Nights; Good Night, and
Good Luck; Michael Clayton; and There Will
be Blood.
Lachman Joins NYFF
Artists Academy
The 50th New York Film Festival
featured the debut of the NYFF Artists Acad-
emy, a filmmaker-development initiative that
offered an immersive creative experience for
12 up-and-coming filmmakers. Ed Lachman,
ASC joined writer/director Paul Schrader and
avant-garde filmmaker Robert Lepage in
sharing case studies and giving talks that
delved into their creative processes and artis-
tic collaborations.
Hurlbut Visits Hollywood DI
Hollywood DI recently hosted a
Collaborative Workflow open house on
The Lot in West Hollywood. Participating
companies included Aberdeen Systems,
Assimilate, BlackMagic Design, Christys
Editorial, Codex Digital, ColorFront, Dolby,
FilmLight, LumaForge, MTI Film, Revolution
Cinema Rentals, Solve Engineering, Sonnet
Technologies and Sony Electronics.
Shane Hurlbut, ASC presented two
keynotes focused on camera etiquette,
workflows, color correction and accessories
for Canons 4K camera platforms. He also
presented a color-correction demonstration
using image files from a Canon C500 and a
BlackMagic Cinema Camera.
Romanoffs Photos on Display
The Prospectus Gallery at the Pacific
Design Center in West Hollywood recently
hosted Nicholas Ray at the Chateau
Marmont, an exhibition of photos by ASC
associate Andy Romanoff. The exhibition
featured black-and-white photographs
Romanoff shot on a Bronica camera with an
80mm lens in May 1973 during the comple-
tion of Rays We Cant Go Home Again.
AC Wins 4 Folios
American Cinematographer recently
won four 2012 Folio: Eddie Awards in the
category Business to Business, Media/Enter-
tainment/Publishing. The June 12 and Dec.
11 issues won the Gold and Silver Eddies,
respectively, for Best Full Issue. Additionally,
associate editor Jon D. Witmer won the
Gold Eddie for Best Single Article for his June
12 story on The Avengers, and European
correspondent Benjamin Bergery won the
Silver Eddie for his Aug. 11 story on The
Tree of Life.
Left to right:
Peter Deming,
ASC; John
Schwartzman,
ASC; Claudio
Miranda, ASC;
Robert Elswit,
ASC.
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impres-
sion on you?
There was no single film that wowed me it was the medium. As
a child, seeing Lawrence Of Arabia (1962),
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and even The
5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T. (1953) were mystical
experiences.
Which cinematographers, past or present,
do you most admire?
I admire so many it feels unfair to name only a
few. I watch the work of [ASC members] Gregg
Toland, Conrad Hall and James Wong Howe
and still have no idea how they did what they
did. Today there are so many brilliant ones
[ASC members] Roger Deakins, Emmanuel
Lubezki and Robert Richardson are just the first
who come to mind.
What sparked your interest in photography?
From the very beginning, I was entranced by the power of images. I
drew, I painted, and by the time I was in high school, I had bought a
Super 8 camera and was making little movies. Although I still loved
painting, the power of moving images was taking over.
Where did you train and/or study?
I spent a year at Hampshire College and then was granted a fellow-
ship at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Who were your early teachers or mentors?
I think my biggest education came when I traveled the world making
documentaries. I learned not only about cinema, but also, more
importantly, about life.
What are some of your key artistic influences?
Initially, painting and avant-garde filmmaking. Of course, I love
Vermeer, de la Tour and Carvaggio like every other cinematogra-
pher! but I was also influenced by Kenneth Anger and Maya
Deren. Today my biggest influences are my children, Kiana and Milo.
How did you get your first break in the business?
My transition into narrative storytelling was catapulted by the brilliant
Haskell Wexler, ASC. Haskell wanted to make a feature, Latino,
based in part on my documentaries. He was gracious enough to ask
me to photograph it, in spite of the fact I had virtually no feature
experience.
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?
Three Kings. It was a very risky recipe of cinematography, and there
were those who said it would be a disaster. When I finished timing
the answer print, and the ideas worked, it was greatly satisfying. I
guess I could say the same for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Have you made any memorable blunders?
So many they are no longer memorable. I like to
live on the edge and take risks. Thats great in
the case of something like Three Kings, but
when it doesnt work, oh, boy, can it be ugly.
On one of my first movies, I tried putting
colored nets on the back of the lens. A little
more testing was in order!
What is the best professional advice
youve ever received?
Find a way to keep shooting, no matter what.
That is how I have learned and how I have
grown.
What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?
I was fascinated with Beasts of the Southern Wild and loved The
Intouchables. At the moment, I am re-reading The Once and Future
King.
Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to
try?
I love science fiction. Theres something very alluring about being
able to create your own world, with its own rules. Im also attracted
to period films because they allow you to explore another time in
history. At the end of the day, whatever the genre, its the content
that matters most.
If you werent a cinematographer, what might you be doing
instead?
I cant imagine doing anything else; its been my whole life. But I
would have loved to be a musician.
Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for
membership?
Haskell Wexler, Sandi Sissel and Roger Deakins.
How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
I think it is critical that we have an organization like the ASC. Cine-
matographers dont usually work with other cinematographers, so
we need to be proactive about coming together as colleagues and
as friends. The role of the cinematographer is changing rapidly, and
we need the ASC as a haven to discuss and promote our ideas.
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC Close-up
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MI HAI MAL AI MAR E , J R .
ONFILM
To order Kodak motion picture lm,
call (800) 621-lm.
Eastman Kodak Company, 2012.
Photography: 2012 Douglas Kirkland
The goal of all cinematographers is to create
images that will be printed forever in the
audiences mind. Everything you do and
everything you see will come through in your
approach. I use the meaning of a certain
color, contrast, or diagonal in the frame
to manipulate or channel the audiences
feelings. I might not be consciously
thinking of these things, but it comes from
somewhere inside me. Im fascinated by still
photography, and I love the various formats
that have developed over the history of
photography. When it comes to format,
the more choices we have, the better. We
chose to lm The Master on 65 mm lm
with photochemical processing because the
characteristics of the images echoed the
iconic still photography of that period. The
images are amazing.
Mihai Malaimare, Jr. is a native of Romania
who attended the National University of
Theatre and Film in Bucharest. His work
can be seen in promotional spots for Drake,
Eminem and Nicki Manaj, and his feature
credits include Francis Ford Coppolas Youth
Without Youth, Tetro and Twixt, as well as
Paul Thomas Andersons The Master.
For an extended interview with Mihai
Malaimare, visit www.kodak.com/go/onlm.

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