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OFFICERS - 2012/2013
Stephen Lighthill
President
Daryn Okada
Vice President
Richard Crudo
Vice President
Kees Van Oostrum
Vice President
Victor J. Kemper
Treasurer
Frederic Goodich
Secretary
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MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD
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Stephen H. Burum
Curtis Clark
Richard Crudo
Dean Cundey
Fred Elmes
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Stephen Lighthill
Michael O'Shea
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ALTERNATES
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MUSEUM CURATOR
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American Society of Cine ma tog ra phers
The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but
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or ga ni za tion. Membership is by invitation
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di rec tors of photography and have
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Television cinematographers no longer feel obligated to qual-
ify the scope of their work as small screen. With the avail-
ability of high-definition home screens and production values
at an all-time high, todays top TV projects are now commonly
hailed for their compelling visual style.
To prove the point, were showcasing three such
productions in this issue, starting with the HBO telefilm Phil
Spector. Juan Ruiz-Anchia, ASC renewed his ongoing collab-
oration with writer/director David Mamet to dramatize the
first trial of the notoriously reclusive music producer, who was
later convicted of second-degree murder for shooting actress
Lana Clarkson in his California mansion. Phil Spector was the
first time David and I worked together on a television project, and it was our first digital
collaboration as well, Ruiz-Anchia tells writer Michael Goldman (Trials by Fire, page 28).
It was a different challenge for us, and I think it marked an evolution in our understanding
of the craft.
Michael Weaver, ASC has already been celebrated for his work on the half-hour Show-
time dramedy Californication, winning a 2009 Emmy Award (for the episode In Utero) and
a 2011 ASC Award (for the episode Suicide Solution). His approach reflects the nature of
the shows aptly named protagonist, writer Hank Moody: I think of Californication as a
comedy, but the visuals are always cued by the dramatic aspects of David Duchovnys char-
acter, Weaver tells Jay Holben (page 31). Every episode really has its own look and style
based on what he is experiencing.
On Chicago Fire, cinematographer Lisa Wiegand takes her cues from the blazes
battled by the shows courageous firefighters. In her quest for authenticity, she has studied
various ways to make fire scenes read well onscreen. Propylene is really beautiful when you
burn it or make a fireball, Wiegand tells Patricia Thomson (page 33). Its got a lot of texture
and creates black smoke within the fireball itself, but its dirty. Propane is cleaner and burns
easier, so its safer, but when you expose it, [the highlights] tend to burn out a lot quicker
because it doesnt have those black elements.
Our coverage of this years ASC Award honorees continues this month with Douglas
Bankstons entertaining and informative profile of Rodney Charters, ASC, CSC (Strong
Foundations, page 40), who was feted last month with the Societys Career Achievement in
Television Award for his work on such shows as 24, Dallas and Nash Bridges. Im flabber-
gasted that people feel I have that kind of body of work, he says. Ive been lucky to get
some interesting projects.
Curtis Clark, ASC was saluted with the Presidents Award, which recognizes an indi-
vidual who advances the art of cinematography. As chairman of the Societys Technology
Committee, Clark has led the industry to significant technical advances, including the ASC
Color Decision List and the Academy Color Encoding System, both of which earned Emmy
Engineering Awards last year. AC has often turned to Curtis for technical guidance and coun-
sel, and were proud to spotlight his achievements (Tech Savvy, page 50).
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
Editors Note
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The word heard less and less on motion-picture sets is, Cut. You know,
Action and Cut are the commands reserved for directors. Keep it
rolling is heard with increasing frequency, and we wonder where the produc-
ers are when it is said. Keep it rolling used to be reserved for those moments
when an actor needed protection from the interruption of a camera stop and
reset nudity or tears were usually involved but today, in the majority of
cases, there seems to be no acting or directing emergency prompting this
command.
We think producers should be alarmed, because keep it rolling is
an expensive expediency. We recently learned of a production on which the
time of recorded takes was doubled by the recorded moments of camera reset
and blather that should not have been recorded. It amounted to a terabyte of
data that the editor had to view in order to find and cull the real takes.
There are considerations apart from economic ones. The moments
between takes are most useful. Actors have time to recoup their energy and
focus their performances, and actually, that is true for everyone on set, includ-
ing the director. Stop the camera at the end of a take, think for a moment and
roll again. That is the discipline encouraged by film running through the
camera instead of ones and zeros.
Of course, the commands and other lingo used on set have been
bizarre from the beginning. For example, how silly is the command, Get me
400 feet of 35-millimeter film? Why mix two different standards of measure?
And today, filming is usually an inaccurate word, but we cant really substitute image capturing.
And what is an Abby, anyway? Why, its the second-to-last shot of the day, named after Abby Singer, the
legendary first assistant director and production manager.
A student from Europe recently complained to me that he was asked on a set to get a stinger and a Baby and put
it on that Cardellini. He had no clue what hed been asked to do.
Language can obscure or illuminate, but surely, we do not want to bring in a new technology and at the same time
throw out the solid procedures and craft we have all learned. Someone recently observed that film shoots were quieter and
more focused on the work than digital shoots. The luxury of digital cameras and recording with cheap media is not actu-
ally cheap, however. Data must be duplicated, moved into the post pipeline, sorted, catalogued, synced and protected.
And if on-set efficiency has really declined, how can that cost be quantified?
More importantly, how does it affect efficiency in the cutting room? A producer of television dramas recently told
me that his editorial staff had doubled because the amount of dailies had doubled. This was due in part to the keep-it-
rolling syndrome, but also to the fact that cheap media had encouraged more coverage of scenes, creating more footage
(goodbye to that quaint word). One-hour dramas are still one-hour dramas, but they now require more than one editor to
manage the volume of images.
More hands on the material do not necessarily make for improvements in storytelling. Send us your tales from the
cutting room or the set and help us propose suggestions for best practices in this new world.
Stephen Lighthill
ASC President
Presidents Desk
12 March 2013 American Cinematographer
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Die Antwoords Freek Show
By Iain Stasukevich
The jury for the Music Videos Competition at the 2012 Plus
Camerimage festival presented the Best Music Video award to Die
Antwoords I Fink U Freeky. Shot by cinematographer Melle Van
Essen, the video translates a number of American photographer
Roger Ballens still-life installations into dynamic moving images.
Van Essen has a lot of documentary credits to his name, but
they dont look like most documentaries. For instance, take Mama
Calle, a stylized doc from 1991 about the street children of Mexico
City. Some people think that once the cameras are rolling, youre a
fly on the wall, but I dont believe that, he says. I find it interesting
to give a documentary a signature look, and that all depends on how
you bond with the people youre filming.
In 2005, Van Essen collaborated with Ballen and Dutch direc-
tor Saskia Vredeveld on the narrative short Memento Mori, an exten-
sion of Ballens Shadow Chamber, a collection of black-and-white
photographs taken in an abandoned womens prison in South Africa.
Meanwhile, South African rave-rappers Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser of
Die Antwoord were using Ballens flash-blasted tableaux as inspira-
tion for the kitschy documentary fiction in their music, live perfor-
mances and music videos. Early last year, Die Antwoord asked Ballen
to co-direct (with Ninja) the video for I Fink U Freeky, and Ballen
asked Van Essen to shoot it.
On his previous films, Ballen had found himself working more
as an art director; he was happy to shoot stills with his Rolleiflex
6008 while Vredeveld directed and Van Essen lit and operated the
motion-picture camera. I was most concerned with the objects fill-
ing the screen and how they related to each other, recalls Ballen.
For I Fink U Freeky, Ninja focused on directing himself and the
other performers while Ballen focused on the animals rats,
ducks, bugs, all those things and their behavior.
Van Essen was tasked with translating Ballens work into
motion pictures: a pair of hands extending out of a bathtub, clutch-
ing a duck (Bathtub, 2011); a womans head in a cage with a white
snake curled around it (Caged, 2011); hooded bodies draped with
muddy newspaper (Retreat, 2009).
When Van Essen landed at Tambo International, he was
escorted to Marcias Studios, this weird warehouse in the suburbs
of JoBurg where some strange people were painting the walls and
making the sets, he recalls. I have to say, there was great energy.
Even I was painting things on the walls! Ballen and art director Ben
Crossman created a total of seven separate installations for the
shoot.
Van Essen hoped to shoot I Fink U Freeky on film or
with the Arri Alexa, but the projects budget led him to choose
a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. (He used Canon 16-35mm f2,
Short Takes
Cinematographer
Melle Van Essen
brought American
photographer
Roger Ballens still
photographs to
life for Die
Antwoords I
Fink U Freeky,
winner of Best
Music Video at
the 2012 Plus
Camerimage
festival.
I
14 March 2013 American Cinematographer
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16-35mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f2.8 zoom
lenses and Zeiss ZE primes ranging from
21mm to 100mm.) Until then, Id actually
tried to avoid the 5D, he reveals. Its too
small, and my fingers are too thick to handle
it. Its not my cup of tea, so to speak.
Digital-imaging technician Jonathan
OConnell handled all of the 5Ds settings,
which included the creation of a mono-
chrome color profile and bracketing each
lighting setup over and under by a stop to
help determine exposure. I know whats
happening with the camera, but I prefer to
have someone take care of the technical
settings so I can be free to frame and light
you know, the things people expect you
to do as a director of photography! says
Van Essen. 1st AC Andrew Greenen
rounded out the camera department.
Much of Ballens early work was set
outdoors and/or naturally lit, but, he notes,
the light in South Africa is so hot! One day
I was out taking pictures, and I knocked on
somebodys door. Then I went inside physi-
cally and psychologically, and I never came
back outside again! Since then, the places
Ive worked in have always been very dark
and dingy, and I have to use a flash.
Because Roger uses a flash, says
Van Essen, I thought of using a single soft
key light, but with shadows. The cine-
matographer points to the wide locked-off
shot of Vsser sitting in a chair while people
dance next to her. During the shoot, we
discovered a key light was all we needed.
Gaffer Clint Stone blacked out the
warehouse and lit the sets entirely from the
inside. Van Essen favored a 2K Blonde with
a Chimera and a lot of flags. The lighting
package also included 800-watt Redheads,
4-bank Kino Flos and 150-watt Dedolights,
and Van Essen decided that breaking the
light with solids and negative fill was better
than bringing in more sources.
Some scenes called for additional
decoupage. The Dedos offered camera-side
eyelight and were used in the kitchen and
trophy den to add interest to the back-
grounds. The Redheads were bounced into
bead board for ambience. Kino Flos with
Lee 251 diffusion were brought in for close-
ups and specials. The moldy bathroom
scene was lit with a 4-bank Kino overhead
without diffusion or a grid.
The creative team worked within the
16 March 2013 American Cinematographer
Top: Yo-Landi
Visser stands with
live rats crawling
on her shoulders
for a scene in the
video. Middle: A
photograph
entitled Caged
(2011) from
Ballens Asylum
series. Bottom,
from left: Melle
Van Essen, Visser,
Ninja and Ballen
on the set.
confines of the Roger Ballen aesthetic
while trying to honor concepts that are
unique to Die Antwoord. Every shot was a
lock-off, with lens changes between wides
and close-ups. An installation decorated
with newspapers, with Ninja and Vsser clad
in newsprint facsimiles of their signature
jumpers, is a parody of Ballens Retreat. With
a laugh, Van Essen recalls, At first, I lit that
set to be more shadowy on the sides, and
then Ninja came up and said he wanted it to
be Boom! I said, What do you mean,
Boom? He wanted a lot of lights and no
shadows at all.
Ballen shot stills with his own 5D
using Van Essens lighting. Melle has a
deep understanding of the lighting in my
images he understands my aesthetic,
notes Ballen.
Though Van Essen and Ballen were
accustomed to working with film negative,
they agree that using digital capture did not
affect their respective approaches. Ballen
usually shoots on Kodak and Ilford stock,
and he has used a Rolleiflex 6008 with Zeiss
and Schneider lenses almost exclusively
since 1982. The camera, the negative and
the chemistry have their own ways of trans-
lating reality, he observes. Its magic, and
thats why I love shooting with film.
Is it possible to make a distinction
between digital and analog cinematogra-
phy? Van Essen wonders. In the end, the
basics are the same. Whenever I shoot on
film, I dont even measure the light
anymore; after doing it for 25 to 30 years,
you just know what it looks like. The first
time I shot with a Red, I proceeded more or
less the same way I did with film, and it
worked out fine.
Overall, Van Essen is pleased with the
images he got from the 5D, though he
complains that we couldnt do any
[camera] moves tableaux only. Of the
Plus Camerimage honor, he observes, It all
comes back to the skills, but sometimes you
just end up on a project at the right
moment.
18 March 2013 American Cinematographer
Top: Ballens
Bathtub (2011)
shows a pair of
hands reaching
out of a bathtub
and clutching a
duck. Middle: A
bathtub is used
in one of
the seven
installations at
Johannesburgs
Marcias Studios.
Bottom: To
capture the
lighting required
for Ballens
aesthetic, the
crew blacked
out the
warehouse and
lit the sets
entirely from
the inside.
20 March 2013 American Cinematographer
A Teen View of Zealotry
By Jean Oppenheimer
History is written by the victors, proclaimed Winston
Churchill, but the Australian production Lore, set at the end of World
War II, is told from a very different perspective: that of a German
teenager, Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), whose family is committed to the
Nazi cause. Directed by Cate Shortland and shot by Adam Arkapaw,
the film was Australias submission for the 2012 Academy Award for
Best Foreign-Language Feature.
Lore begins in May 1945 as Lores parents, an SS officer and
his equally zealous wife, learn of Hitlers suicide. Knowing they will be
arrested, they direct Lore to gather her four younger siblings and take
a train to Hamburg, where their grandmother lives. But the trains
have stopped running, and the children must walk the 300 miles to
their destination. For part of their journey, they are joined by a myste-
rious young man (Kai Malina) who carries papers that identify him as
a Jew.
Lore was adapted from Rachel Seifferts book The Dark Room,
which was based on her grandmothers experiences during the war.
Arkapaw notes that the screenplay presented an interesting mixed
point of view. There is an emphasis on the childrens perspective, but
there is also an omnipresent one, that of an older person recalling a
traumatic period in her life. He and Shortland decided to shoot on
Super 16mm to give the images a kind of nostalgic feeling, he
adds.
Lore is filled with close-ups and extreme close-ups, usually of
the children or of nature: a part of a face, a bit of somebodys shoul-
der, a hand caressing a leaf. Other shots have an impressionistic,
dreamlike quality, as when Lores sister Liesel (Nele Trebs) is skipping
rope, or the twins, Gunter and Jurgen (Andre Frid and Mika Seidel),
are chasing one another through the woods. Filming in this
manner was our way of conveying the fragmentation of memory,
says Arkapaw.
By using Zeiss Ultra 16 lenses, which have a great minimum
focus, it was easy to get into very detailed work, he continues.
We liked the softness of the shallow focus; it was like how a
memory might not be crystal clear but, rather, seen through a thin
veil of time.
Arkapaw operated the main camera, an Arri 416. When a
second camera was needed, 1st AC Luke Thomas operated an Arri
16-SR3 Advanced. In addition to the prime lenses, Arkapaw used a
Canon 11:1 11.5-138mm zoom. He favored the primes, however,
especially the 25mm and 35mm. Those focal lengths are closest to
how the human eye sees the world, so we felt they would provide
a more human experience for the audience. The 25mm is also the
most versatile, allowing you to shoot wide shots and close-ups on
the same lens. Arkapaw was especially happy with the 416s new
eyepiece, which makes both lighting and finding focus a heap
easier than earlier models.
Although the story deals with one of humanitys darkest
hours, its focus is children, and Shortland didnt want the picture to
Production Slate
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The camera
maintains an
intimate
relationship with
14-year-old Lore
(played by
Saskia
Rosendahl)
throughout
much of Lore,
shot by Adam
Arkapaw and
directed by Cate
Shortland.
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22 March 2013 American Cinematographer
feel overly dark and heavy. Nature provided
a way out. Arkapaw elaborates: Amongst
all the human angst and tragedy, nature has
an enduring quality. Its lushness, beauty and
survival instincts are a way of [suggesting]
the future, so we emphasized the childrens
fascination with the insects, flowers and
foliage they encountered on their journey.
We simply shot the details that caught our
eyes and tried to add a lyrical element to
them to convey a childs perspective; we
used split diopters, slow motion and shal-
low focus to achieve that.
Another important design element
was the use of tungsten-balanced negatives
(Kodak Vision3 200T 7217 and 500T 7219)
in daylight situations without correction.
Cate and I just really liked that look, says
Arkapaw. Rather than equating blue with
coldness, they associated it with youthful
innocence, he explains. It also takes the
warmth out of skin tones, giving flesh a kind
of purity. The idea was to have a cool palette
punctuated by warm yellows, oranges and
ambers. We used various warming filters
81EF, Antique Suede and Chocolate to
vary the shade of blue. We also occasionally
used [Kodak Vision2 50D] 7201 to break
up the otherwise blue look of all the day
exteriors.
The films few day interiors were lit
through windows whenever possible to give
the actors maximum freedom. Our general
approach was to use tungsten lighting for
practicals and other indoor lighting and
allow the daylight through the windows to
remain at 5,600K, says the cinematogra-
pher. I sometimes added an 81EF filter to
bring the tungsten stock to a 4,300K base,
thus allowing the interior lights to feel
warmer and the outside light cooler.
The first shot in Lore provides a good
example of this approach. The camera is
tight on Lore in the bathtub as she combs
her tangled hair. She goes to the window
and sees her father arriving home. Natural
daylight comes through the windows,
augmented by a couple of daylight-
balanced practicals gelled with Lee Rose
Pink. The scene, which includes an outdoor
high-speed shot of Liesel jumping rope, was
shot on 7217 and has a pronounced blue
tint. Then, there is a cut to a high-speed
Steadicam shot (filmed on 7219) of Lore
descending the stairs to greet her father.
Arkapaw added an 81EF to the lens to
warm the room, which included two practi-
cal lamps along the staircase and a chande-
lier at the base of the steps. Gaffer Michael
Adcock put a 1,000-watt globe in a
Chimera pancake above the ceiling lamp
and dimmed it down to produce an even
warmer ambience. The use of slow motion
in that shot was intended to create a kind of
magical but macabre feeling, notes Arka-
paw. There is something beautiful and
Top: As her
younger sister
(Nele Trebs)
looks on, Lore
examines the
remnants of a
bonfire her
father set to
burn evidence
of his Nazi
affiliation.
Bottom: Lore is
unsettled by
Thomas (Kai
Malina), a
young, silent
man who joins
her family on
its journey.
24 March 2013 American Cinematographer
intriguing about it, but its also unsettling.
We wanted to ease the audience into the
nightmare they are about to undergo.
The 81EF stayed on the lens for the
next scene, which starts on a wide shot of
the foyer as Lore runs to her father. The
frame rate is back to normal, and the mixed
lighting combines simulated sunlight flood-
ing through giant windows and warm light
from interior fixtures. Although the scene
was shot during the day, Arkapaw decided
to tent the windows with Duvatyn and
create daylight with three 4K Pars bounced
into bead board. We did that so we could
shoot day and night scenes in quick succes-
sion, says Arkapaw, citing the tight shoot-
ing schedule.
That night, Lores father builds a
bonfire to burn evidence of the familys Nazi
allegiance. To create the illusion of bright
embers dancing skyward, Arkapaw
bounced two 12-globe Dinos off 4'x4' silver
reflectors. 4"-wide-by-4'-long strips of red
and yellow gel were mounted on a 4'x4'
knife frame to enhance the fire effect.
The next shot reveals Lore in the
center of the living room, confused and
frightened by her fathers actions. The room
is keyed by the bonfire. When I read the
script, one of the key images in my head
was Lore frozen in the room with only the
firelight from her familys burning sins play-
ing across her face, says Arkapaw. For this
part of the scene, the reflectors used with
the Dinos were mounted low on Turtles to
give the impression that the fire was below
and away from the house, says Adcock.
We played the effect through a dimmer-
control desk.
Almost all of Lore was shot hand-
held, which allowed the children to create
their own reality and allowed me to be in
the right place to find it, even if it was a
different place every time, reports Arka-
paw. The use of a B camera was especially
important for scenes that required the chil-
dren to be emotional. Night scenes in the
forest were shot day-for-night because of
the limited number of hours the young
actors could work.
The 40-day shoot moved across
Germany from Gorelitz to the Black Forest,
along the east coast, and then north to the
grandmothers house. Arkapaw brought his
key crewmembers from Australia and hired
the rest in Germany, and he and Adcock
have high praise for their German
colleagues.
Speaking of his Australian team,
Arkapaw notes, Luke is my favorite first
AC; he is extremely easygoing and a very
talented operator. Loader Melina Behle was
Top: Shortland
(third from right,
wearing blue
shirt), Arkapaw
(center, wearing
dark beret) and
their
collaborators
prepare to film
the children
bedding down
for the night.
Bottom:
Arkapaw and 1st
AC Luke Thomas
capture a close
shot of Malina.
an absolute angel and managed the work-
load of two second ACs. And I learned a
nice trick from Michael [Adcock] when the
sun came out while we were shooting an
exterior courtyard under an overcast sky.
Adcock covered the courtyard with 20'x20'
frames of Half Grid and placed black net
underneath them. It proved to be a perfect
match for the earlier overcast sky.
Arkapaw says he likes to soften his
light sources twice before they play on the
set. This is especially true when lighting
interiors from outside. Adcock elaborates:
If we used Pars, wed bounce them off
bead board or Ultrabounce and then push
the light through a frame of 251 or 252
diffusion. There was never any direct light
per se on any of the interiors, but more than
once, we had to [finesse] the direct light by
positioning exterior fixtures, usually 4K and
6K Pars, on goal posts at such a high, steep
angle that the light would bounce off the
interior floor. All bounced HMI light coming
through windows was put through or
CTB.
Arkapaw was unable to participate
in the DI process, which was done at EFilm
in Sydney, because he had to head to New
Zealand for his next project, Jane Campions
miniseries Top of the Lake. But he had
complete confidence in colorist Jamie Hedi-
ger, who had worked with him previously
on Animal Kingdom (AC Sept. 10).
Wonderful and unique is how
Arkapaw describes working with Lore direc-
tor Shortland. Cate is more concerned
with mood and emotion than narrative,
he says. One of my favorite quotes about
filmmaking is, A director is a person who
catches butterflies, and Cate embodies
that. Her eyes are always searching for the
butterflies in the scene.
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.85:1
Super 16mm
Arri 416, 16-SR3 Advanced
Zeiss Ultra 16, Canon
Kodak Vision3 200T 7217, 500T 7219;
Vision2 50D 7201
Digital Intermediate
Trials by Fire
Ruiz-Anchia discusses a shot inside the courthouse
with gaffer Nina Kuhn.
www.theasc.com March 2013 31
Californication (Showtime)
Cinematographer:
Michael Weaver, ASC
...[Im] never really all that inter-
ested, but I find myself telling her how
beautiful she is anyway cause its true
all women are in one way or another.
You know, theres always something
about every damn one of you. Theres a
smile, a curve, a secret. You ladies really
are the most amazing creatures. My
lifes work. But then theres the morning
after, the hangover, and the realization
that Im not quite as available as I
thought I was the night before. And
then shes gone, and Im haunted by yet
another road not taken.
The half-hour dramedy
Californication, which recently kicked
off its sixth season on Showtime, might
be subtitled The Tao of Hank Moody
thanks to its emphasis on its main char-
acters state of mind. Created by Tom
Kapinos, the show stars David
Duchovny as Moody,
a best-selling author
who plunges into the
depths of writers
block and escapes
into womanizing,
alcohol and drugs. As
he stumbles from one
sexual encounter to the next, he tries,
with sporadic success, to maintain good
relations with a significant ex, Karen
(Natascha McElhone), and their sullen
daughter, Becca (Madeleine Martin).
Michael Weaver, ASC, who won
an ASC Award last year for his work on
Californication, has been the series
director of photography from the
beginning. (Peter Levy, ASC shot the
pilot.) Weaver started in the industry in
an unusual way: as a paid intern for
aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
The options were to go into the news
station and work as a runner, or go
someplace like Lockheed and jump
right into shooting, recalls Weaver.
After I spent a summer interning, they
hired me as a full-time cinematogra-
pher, and I was constantly out shooting.
It was great, really. I had a whole studio
and lab at my disposal, and I could go in
and test anything. It was a phenomenal
education. I did that for a few years and
then came to Los Angeles in hopes of
being a cameraman. I was hired as a
gaffer and ended up working as a gaffer
for 14 years. But all the while, I was
shooting low-budget films and
commercials and doing second-unit
cinematography when I could.
While gaffing for Levie Isaacks,
ASC on Malcolm in the Middle, Weaver
got the opportunity to step up to
cinematographer when Isaacks offered
him the chance. Subsequently,
producer/director Barry Sonnenfeld
saw an episode Weaver shot and hired
him to shoot the ABC series Notes from
the Underbelly. Sonnenfeld then
brought Weaver onto Pushing Daisies.
When the unit production manager on
that show, Lou Fusaro, moved over to
Showtime to produce a new series
called Californication, he wanted to
bring Weaver along. Showtime was a
bit hesitant because I was a pretty big
unknown at the time, but Lou fought
for me, and I got the gig, says Weaver.
I think of Californication as a
comedy, but the visuals are always cued
by the dramatic aspects of Davids char-
acter, Weaver continues. Its about
what Moody is going through. If his
mood is light and funny, thats the
direction we go visually; if his mood is
dark and lonely, thats what sets the
overall look. Every episode really has its
Left: In this seasons Californication premiere, Hank recalls his first encounter with
Karen (Natascha McElhone) in New York City. Above: B-camera/Steadicam operator
Tim Bellen (left) and A-camera operator Andy Graham prepare to capture the
action as Hank goes toe to toe with his daughter, Becca (Madeleine Martin).
32 March 2013 American Cinematographer
own look and style based on what he is
experiencing.
Each episode is shot in five days
mainly on location in and around Los
Angeles. (The current season also
involved work in New York.) Were a
location-heavy show were usually
out two or three days a week, says
Weaver. We have a standing set or two,
but thats it. We have a warehouse stage,
not like a big studio, so we have to deal
with limited ceiling heights. We dont
have perms in there, so basically were
rigging right to the roof and theres not
a lot of room to work with. We have
specially-made space lights that are
shorter than normal so we can fit them
in there. We really use the sets a lot more
like practical locations with hard ceilings
and lighting with a lot of practical
fixtures it forces me to approach our
stage work pretty much the same as
location work, mostly from the floor.
Over the course of six seasons, the
production has run the gamut of digital
capture, starting with the Sony HDW-
F900 and then moving on to the Sony
F23, the Panavision Genesis, the Sony
F35 and the Arri Alexa, which has been
the main camera for the past three
seasons. HD cameras have certainly
evolved, and Ive been able to play with
a lot of them, says Weaver. That first
year of HD was really frustrating. The
F900 was top-of-the-line at that time,
but it had significant contrast issues, and
we spent a good deal of that season
shooting in a glass house! The contrast
problems got better with the Genesis
and the F35, but the Alexa has brought
us so much closer to [the capabilities] of
film. We can look out a window and
know that the highlights out there are
going to carry we dont have to bring
up the interior 3 stops to match! The
Alexa is also a big improvement in
terms of handheld and Steadicam oper-
ating. Its really the closest thing Ive
seen to a film camera in the digital
world.
Alexa footage is captured to SxS
cards in ProRes 4:4:4. We dont use any
look-up tables, notes Weaver. We just
shoot it the way it is and send it off to
[colorist] Tom Overton at Keep Me
Posted. Tom has been our colorist from
the beginning, and he has a great feel for
what I like to do. The production also
shoots some 16mm (with a Bolex) for
the shows interstitials, dream
sequences, fantasies and flashbacks,
which are a lot of fun to shoot, adds
Weaver.
Were pretty light on lenses, he
continues. We rely on Angenieux
Lightweight Optimo zooms most of
the time because at least half of every
episode involves handheld or
Steadicam. Apart from that, we carry a
few Cooke S4 primes: 75mm, 100mm
and 150mm. We use 12:1 [24-290mm]
Optimos when were in studio mode.
Thats about it. I tend to migrate to the
long end of the zoom for the more inti-
mate moments compressing the fore-
ground to background, and for the more
comedic moments, I go wider and put
the camera closer to the action. But we
dont hold too fast to those rules. I try to
avoid being formulaic and really just
reach for what best represents Hanks
mood at that moment.
Top: Key players in the sixth season include Atticus Fetch (Tim Minchin, left), a musician
collaborating with Hank on a rock opera, and Faith (Maggie Grace), a groupie who serves as
Hanks muse. Bottom: While directing the first episode of season six, Duchovny confers with
cinematographer Michael Weaver, ASC (seated on dolly) on location in New York.
Trials by Fire
www.theasc.com March 2013 33
His lighting for Californication
doesnt involve a lot of gags or elaborate
setups. I try to keep it simple. We use a
lot of Kino Flos, especially Image 80s,
and we use a lot of 18Ks or 20Ks
through windows. We have a lot of very
beautiful people on the show, which
makes that part of the job a lot easier.
Natascha McElhone is probably the
only one I take a different approach to,
and thats because Moody keeps Karen
high on a pedestal. To accentuate that,
we try to treat her with a little more old-
school glamour lighting, something
square between the eyes. David is a real
movie star and can take any type of
lighting; bounce a light off the floor, and
he looks great.
Weaver has collaborated with his
key crew on Californication, including
A-camera operator Andy Graham, B-
camera operator Tim Bellen and key
grip Vidal Cohen, for many years. He
adds, I worked with gaffer David
Morton for the first five seasons of the
show, until he retired, and Frank
Jacobellis joined me for season six. Were
a pretty tight-knit crew.
Last seasons ASC Award-
winning episode, Suicide Solution,
was directed by Duchovny. David and I
work well together we finish each
others sentences like an old married
couple, says Weaver. He is a very visual
director, and he comes in with a great
game plan. Theres a dream sequence in
that episode where Moody is writing a
letter to his daughter, and we mixed
16mm, HD, black-and-white and color
to create it. We mounted a Canon
[EOS] 7D to Davids body to get that
kind of surreal feeling. It was a lot of
fun.
Weaver has also taken his own
turn in the directors chair, so far for four
episodes. I cant say that directing is a
career transition for me, because I really
love being a cinematographer. Directing
means putting on a different creative
cap and approaching storytelling from a
different direction, and I think that
strengthens me as a cinematographer.
Jay Holben
Chicago Fire (NBC)
Cinematographer: Lisa Wiegand
Im a real believer that the best
fire effect is fire itself, says Lisa
Wiegand, director of photography on
Chicago Fire, a series about the firefight-
ers and rescue personnel of Chicago
Firehouse 51. Created by Dick Wolf,
the NBC series places a high premium
on authenticity, and this is reflected in
its locations, its vrit-inflected camera-
work and its conflagrations, which are
ignited on a burn stage at Cinespace
Chicago Film Studios.
I have to say, this is the most
challenging show Ive ever done, says
Wiegand, who had just finished shoot-
ing in a fierce December blizzard when
she spoke to AC. (That was brutal, but
its important for people to realize were
not shooting San Bernardino for
Chicago, she notes.) She was brought
aboard Chicago Fire by pilot director
Jeffrey Nachmanoff, with whom she
had worked on the series Detroit 1-8-7
(AC March 11), and she has shot all
episodes of the series so far.
Wolf issued several command-
ments to the creative team. The first:
Make the city a character. The second:
Never get ahead of your characters. Its
easy for a director whos new to the
show to suggest we place the cameras in
one location and have all the trucks
drive up [to it], says Wiegand. I have
to remind them that we have to be in
the trucks with the guys instead. Thats
not easy; it takes more time to arrive
with the characters. But it ups the
dramatic stakes, because these guys
never know what theyre in for when
they arrive at a scene.
To enhance her own understand-
ing of what firefighters encounter and
how fires behave, Wiegand obsessively
watches videos of fires. Some are
provided by the productions technical
adviser, Steve Chikerotis, a battalion
chief on Chicagos South Side. Others
she finds on YouTube, recorded by fire-
fighters wearing helmet cameras who
use them as learning tools.
The first lesson they provided,
she says, is that fire produces a lot of
thick, black smoke that makes visibility
nil. Thats not good for television, where
audiences need to see the actors faces.
Since the shows inception, the produc-
tion team has been on a quest to perfect
ways of making the fire scenes credible
while keeping the acting legible. They
tested fire, smoke and fuel. Propylene is
really beautiful when you burn it or
make a fireball, Wiegand says. Its got
a lot of texture and creates black smoke
within the fireball itself, but its dirty.
Propane is cleaner and burns easier, so
A firefighter has a close call in Chicago Fire.
34 March 2013 American Cinematographer
its safer, but when you expose it, [the
highlights] tend to burn out a lot
quicker because it doesnt have those
black elements.
Fortunately, the Arri Alexa has
the latitude to capture fire detail, even in
the most intense fireballs. (Thats not
the case with the Canon EOS 5D and
7D DSLRs, which are used only for
stunts that dont involve fire and for car
mounts.) The production typically
shoots with two Alexas and carries a
third for explosions and Technocrane
days. Footage is captured in ProRes
4:4:4 to SxS cards and transferred to
three hard drives; two serve as backup,
and one is sent to Universal Digital
Services in Los Angeles, where online
post is done. Offline is done at Wolf
Studios on the Universal lot utilizing a
FotoKem NextLab Mobile system.
Wiegand estimates that 90
percent of the series is shot handheld
either on foot or using a Creeper Butt
Dolly made by Carlos Boiles, a dolly
grip she worked with while doing
second-unit work on the series 24. Its a
padded seat connected with variable-
sized rods to an ultra-smooth, multi-
skate-wheeled base, she explains. The
unique feature is how smoothly the
wheels can change from one direction to
another.
Her workhorse lenses on Chicago
Fire are Angenieux Lightweight
Optimo zooms, which we use as zoom
lenses, not as variable primes. We are
constantly zooming within the frame.
They carry two 15-40mm, 28-76mm
and 45-120mm Optimos, plus two 24-
290mm for work in studio mode. In
addition, they carry 12mm, 14mm,
135mm and 150mm Cooke S4 primes.
Inside the burn stage, Wiegand
needs a fairly deep f-stop. I try to keep
it to 200 or 400 ASA when doing these
interior fires because I want to hold the
detail in the flames. I usually shoot
between T5.6 to T8, so any light
coming through those windows and
smoke has to be pretty intense. These
units range from 1,600-watt Jokers to
18Ks.
To augment the fire and flame
bars provided by special-effects supervi-
sor John Milinac, gaffer Tony Lullo
often utilizes Nine-light Maxi-Brutes
for bigger lighting effects. For more
detailed work, the team uses a covered
dragon, a type of covered wagon.
Wiegand explains, Its high-intensity
bulbs screwed into a board wrapped
with chicken wire, which is then
wrapped with intense orange gels. We
use 1
1
2 Full CTS to simulate the color
of the flames. Those lights are on their
own flicker generators.
Reza Tabrizi operates the A
camera, and William Eichler is on B
camera and Steadicam. Their division of
labor often does not follow the tradi-
tional wide-and-tight scheme, especially
when smoke is involved. If you add
smoke until youre happy with it on the
wide angle, theres just too much when
you go at it with the telephoto, and the
Trials by Fire
Top: Chicago Fires Lt. Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney, left) and Lt. Matthew Casey
(Jesse Spencer) find themselves pitted against each other after the death of a fellow firefighter.
Bottom: Cinematographer Lisa Wiegand checks the light.
36 March 2013 American Cinematographer
shots look like they dont match, says
Wiegand. So we either find ways of
doing things at similar focal lengths on
both cameras or, if were on a wider lens
close to the actors faces, well have the
other camera on the longer lens getting
shots like silhouettes in the smoke.
We use lots and lots of white
smoke on set because its safer to work
in than black smoke, she adds. Were
conservative about black smoke on set
and add whats needed in post.
Occasionally, a complex scene
involves bracketing and composites. For
instance, in a dramatic moment in the
pilot, a floor collapses in a burning
building and two firefighters fall
through it. Using a locked-off camera,
the filmmakers ran separate passes,
sometimes at multiple exposures, for the
falling stuntmen, flaming beams and
falling debris. We used a slightly wider
lens than we needed for the final shot so
we could push in and put a little hand-
held motion on it, says Nachmanoff.
Then, we composited them all
together and balanced out the exposure
so it looked right.
Most often, however, Wiegand
controls the exposure as the scene
unfolds in a double-fisted maneuver on
remote iris controls. I have my own
setup where I work off two 25
1
2-inch
monitors and a dual waveform system,
says the cinematographer, who does not
use a digital-imaging technician on the
show. In my hands I have both iris
controls. We have this aesthetic of
following the characters, and sometimes
it involves following them from outside
to inside, or from inside the fire truck to
a sunny exterior. Im often doing a five-
stop iris rack in one shot, and because
we have characters with different skin
tones, Ill often have to ride the iris just
to make sure I get enough detail on
everyones faces.
Despite the complexity of the
action, sometimes the best solutions are
low-tech. For the episode Rear View
Mirror, the team was stymied by one
scene that felt dramatically flat. In it, Lt.
Matthew Casey ( Jesse Spencer) and
two residents are trapped in an eighth-
Trials by Fire
Fire and
rescue
personnel from
Chicago
Firehouse 51
respond to
a call.
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Trials by Fire
38
From left: Mouch (Christian Stolte), Severide, Jose Vargas (Mo Gallini), Capp (Randy Flagler)
and Gabriella Dawson (Monica Raymund) arrive at the scene.
rescue at a church, there was a guy
hanging off the roof, and we put Reza
up in a 120-foot Condor just cresting
the roof doing handheld. That helped a
lot. Zooming on the barrel with your
hand can feel a lot more organic and
immediate.
Another signature of the show is
the fire-engine mounts. Fire trucks are
dream vehicles to mount [cameras] on
because theres stuff all over them, says
Nachmanoff. The poor guys who do
car commercials have gleaming
Porsches where do you stick some-
thing? Fire trucks have handles every-
where! During prep for the series, key
grip Mike Lewis walked around the
trucks with Wiegand to identify likely
spots. Mike is hardcore he likes to
build out of wood so he can screw stuff
all over it and modify it quickly, says
Wiegand.
A mount inside the cab is also in
frequent use. Wiegand explains, Mike
puts a 3-foot slider in there and locks it
down, and we put an OConnor 100
[fluid head] on it and get Reza in there
to ride it. We have one of the skinniest
and best first ACs in the business,
Lewis Fowler, who just shoves himself
between two of the seats. I have to pull
iris, so Im in there with a little monitor.
Theres often just a ton of us in that
truck, and when we land, we swarm out
to capture the firefighters running out of
it.
Patricia Thomson
Wiegand and
director Jeffery
Nachmanoff
confer on
the set.
40 March 2013 American Cinematographer
I
n a way, calculus and theoretical physics led Rodney
Charters, ASC, CSC to receive the ASC Career
Achievement in Television Award, mostly because his
grades were so low in that class at the University of
Auckland. I went there to study architecture. It was my
preliminary year, and the only compulsory subject was calcu-
lus, but I just got stumbled by the raw math, he explains. If
I had been able to graduate with proper marks in math, I
would have gone to architecture school, and my life would
have been very different. On my way to school, Id pass about
Strong
Foundations
Rodney Charters, ASC, CSC
receives the ASC Career
Achievement in Television Award.
By Douglas Bankston
|
www.theasc.com March 2013 41
eight cinemas, and over time, I ended
up going to four movies a day and
skipping class. That was my film
education.
Charters comes from a family
with a rich photographic history in
New Plymouth, a small town on the
Tasman Sea side of New Zealands
North Island. His father ran a photog-
raphy studio, and his grandfather was a
photographer and was in charge of
printing the local newspaper. Rodney
was swept up rather quickly into the
photography business, carrying bags to
wedding shoots on Saturdays and doing
black-and-white portrait touchups with
pencils directly on the negatives.
His father, Roy, had a Bell &
Howell projector, as well as a Bolex and
a nice fluid head, and when the New
Plymouth Film Society got the notion
to make a film of its own, Roy got the
call. They made a movie called The
White Goat, Charters recalls. They
needed an actor, and suddenly, I was in
it! Not coincidentally, he actually had a
white goat for a pet. It was the typical
boy-loses-goat, boy-searches-for-goat,
boy-gets-foot-stuck-on-the-railway-
viaduct-with-a-train-approaching-and-
is-rescued-at-the-very-last-moment
type of narrative. Thats what I grew up
around, so it was only natural that I
started asking my dad to borrow the
Bolex, he says.
When he was stumped by the
math at the University of Auckland, his
art-history professor advised him to
enroll in the art school and look into
film studies. At the same time, Charters
thought he would give the National
Film Board in Wellington a try. They
asked me if I wanted to be an editor, a
cinematographer or a sound person. I
said I actually wanted to do all of those,
and they said that wasnt the place for
me. They suggested I go back to the
university!
So, with his pride somewhat
Top: Charters
and his father,
Roy, take a break
between
weddings in
1956. Bottom:
Charters stands
over the Orinoco
River with an
Eclair ACL for a
documentary
about people of
the Bahai faith
in 1976.
42 March 2013 American Cinematographer
wounded, Charters returned to
Auckland and became the first person
to graduate from the photography
department as a filmmaker.
A short film Charters made in
school about two people on a Yamaha
motorcyle did well at a film festival in
Sydney, and he subsequently sold it to
Yamaha. I could mount the 16mm
Bolex and a 10mm lens all over the bike
and handhold it while sitting on the
seat, he says. My dear friend Bob
Harvey had a Fiat 500 with a canvas
roof, and we took the door off so I
could sit in the back and shoot out from
ground level. It was a great tracking
vehicle.
The short also got him into the
Royal College of Art in London, which
he attended from 1968-1971. The
filmmaking department was housed at
the Royal Natural History Museum. It
was a giant studio that had been used
for dissecting whales so bizarrely
British! he recalls. I was exposed to
some real equipment for the first time.
Charters landed several sound-record-
ing jobs while he was studying in
London, and after he graduated, he
continued to work in that field in Great
Britain. His gigs included commercials
for Ridley and Tony Scott, including
the very first spot Tony directed.
During a visit to the United
States in 1972, he had a chance
encounter with a Canadian film crew
Strong Foundations
Top: Charters
wields an Arri
16BL while
shooting a
student film
for Richard
Loncraine in
1969. Bottom:
Charters stands
over a group of
villagers in
Suriname for the
documentary
The Green Light
Expedition.
I ended up going
to four movies a
day and skipping
class. That was my
film education.
www.theasc.com March 2013 43
16mm, it ended up looking pretty
good.
In 1987, he began shooting the
series Friday the 13th. These were the
early days of TV drama in Toronto, and
the production was allowed to experi-
ment and push boundaries without
much corporate interference until
that suggested he look for work in
Toronto. There, he was promptly hired
by CTV as part of a two-man sound
crew, and was sent to Northern Ireland
one week after Bloody Sunday to cover
the fallout in Newry, a hotbed of Irish
Republican Army activity.
The producer scored an interview
with the IRAs second in command for
that region. The crew was loaded into a
cab, blindfolded and driven in circles for
40 minutes before being whisked into
the back room of a pub to meet the
man. Charters recalls, He had a turtle-
neck sweater pulled up over his face,
and we did an interview with him while
two armed men stood behind him. The
next day, we were filming the march,
and I locked eyes with a guy in the
crowd that I recognized to be the one
we interviewed he was a wanted
man, standing out in broad daylight. He
knew I knew who he was, so we had to
get the hell out of there!
Charters was stationed in CTVs
London bureau, which covered events
in England, Africa and the Middle
East. He worked with famed Canadian
broadcaster Michael MacLear. I real-
ized that to be taken seriously as a
shooter, I had to buy a camera, so I
bought an clair ACL and spent six
months in the Amazon jungle shooting
a documentary about members of the
Bahai faith living there, he says. When
he returned to CTV, he transitioned to
cameraman, bought an Arri 16SR, and
shot documentary and news footage
for the next decade. He became a
member of the Canadian Society of
Cinematographers in 1978.
In 1986, out of the blue, cine-
matographer and future ASC member
Mark Irwin, CSC offered Charters the
B-camera position on a hockey film
called Youngblood. Irwin needed some-
one who could follow the puck. I
hadnt shot 35mm before, Charters
says. I shot 90 fps most of the time on
a 300mm lens on the ice during games.
In dailies, we watched everything go
slowly out of focus. It was a total night-
mare for my focus puller, but we got
through it.
When Irwin decided to move to
America for work, he asked Charters to
take over for him as cinematographer on
the TV series Adderly. That show was
derring-do and spy-type stuff, says
Charters. I used my SR. I bought a
little 30-60mm T1.3 zoom, and wed
shoot the whole thing wide open. On
Top: Charters uses a dolly he built and shipped to Hafai to use in the Bahai Gardens and Shrines in 1980.
Bottom: Charters and fellow crewmembers stand behind John Huston following the shooting of
American Caesar, a documentary about Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
44 March 2013 American Cinematographer
they shot a scene depicting a throat-slit-
ting blood sacrifice in a church. The
show came under fire from a religious
group in Texas. They labeled us the
most un-Christian show on television,
and they went after our advertisers,
Charters recalls. We withered on the
vine after that, and the show died.
Next, Charters shot the 1990
telefilm Psycho IV: The Beginning and a
short-lived anthology series created by
Wes Craven called Nightmare Cafe. The
director of Psycho IV, Mick Garris, then
brought Charters aboard the 1992
supernatural thriller Sleepwalkers. Two
collaborations with producer Stephen J.
Cannell followed, the series The Hat
Squad and Traps. During that time, I
had an amazing opportunity to hang
with Connie Hall [ASC] for three days
while he was shooting Jennifer 8,
Charters recalls. Those were some of
the most influential days of my life as a
cinematographer.
When Charters shot TekWar and
TekWar: TekLords, telefilms that experi-
mented with 3-D imagery, he realized
right away that 3-D was a whole new
world to cinematographers. He earned
a Canadian Gemini Award nomination
for TekWar.
He took darkness to new depths
on Cannells production Profit (1996), a
series with enough double-dealing,
manipulation and revenge to feel right
at home among the current crop of TV
dramas. Coming from documentaries,
I was never afraid to mix color temper-
atures, he notes. Id crosslight tungsten
and HMI, and 35mm had a habit of
making it quite aggressive with the
contrast at 400 ASA.
John Nicolella came to Canada to
direct an episode of Charters next
series, M.A.N.T.I.S., and when
Nicolella began prepping a pilot called
Strong Foundations
Top: On the set
of Stephen
Kings
Sleepwalkers.
Bottom: Charters
stands with
crewmembers
on the set of
Kull the
Conqueror in
1996.
I had an amazing
opportunity to hang
with Connie Hall
[ASC] for three days
while he was
shooting Jennifer 8.
46 March 2013 American Cinematographer
Nash Bridges, he asked Charters to
come to San Francisco to shoot it. Says
Charters, I went to San Francisco
with director Rob Cohen to shoot an
outrageously expensive promo for the
show I think it was $4.5 million for
10 minutes! The network picked it up,
and I never went back to Canada.
Nash Bridges gave Charters a
healthy budget with which to work.
For example, Nashs apartment set was
built 18' off the ground in an old
flying-boat hangar on Treasure Island,
which allowed Charters to shoot from
the apartment balcony down into the
day or night TransLites. The
TransLites cost upwards of $290,000,
he recalls. Id never had that much
money to spend before, even on a
feature!
After shooting 13 episodes of
the series, Charters handed the cine-
matography duties over to Stephen
Lighthill, ASC, and joined Nicolella in
Bratislava to shoot the feature Kull the
Conqueror (1997). Several telefilms
followed, including Blind Faith,
directed by Ernest Dickerson, ASC.
Charters subsequently got back
into series work, shooting episodes for
20th Century Foxs The Pretender and
Roswell, and in 2001, the network
approach him about a new series called
24 (AC Feb. 04). I watched the pilot
[shot by Peter Levy, ASC, ACS] and
thought, Wow, this is good! I cant
believe Im being offered this!
Strong Foundations
Top: A day after
the Chicago
blizzard in 2012,
Charters stands
with crewmembers
on Shameless.
Middle: Gaffer
David St. Onge
joins Charters at
Melody Ranch for
the shooting of
They Die by Dawn.
Bottom: Charters
acts as director in
Mexico City for the
24 Internet spinoff
The Rookie.
I watched the
pilot for 24 and
thought, Wow, this
is good!
Charters met with pilot/episodic direc-
tor Stephen Hopkins. He notes,
Stephen liked my style and pushed me
like crazy to unmake myself, because its
easy to get into a tele-formula after
years of shooting.
Charters shot all eight seasons of
24, earning two Emmy nominations in
the process, and the shows signature
handheld, voyeuristic, snap-zoom
camerawork became an oft-imitated
style. I really have to thank my
remarkable operators, he emphasizes.
Guy Skinner was handheld on A
camera the whole time, and Jay
Herron, who was on B camera, devel-
oped an uncanny knack for the 3:1
zoom in interiors at T2.8 at 420mm,
whip-panning on a fluid head across
the set to find faces. My gaffer, David
St. Onge, and I pushed the film, effec-
tively giving us the ability to shoot L.A.
at night with a minimal package, but
we maxed out at about 1,000 ASA.
24 was an international hit. I
didnt have a profile at all before 24,
notes Charters. I once traveled to
Tokyo and ended up doing nine inter-
views in one day about 24, and I was just
the cinematographer! To be a part of
that show was such an extraordinary
experience.
24 also was the last show on
which Charters shot film. His next
series, Showtimes Shameless, was
captured with the Red One. For the
second season, we switched to the Arri
Alexa for its better black levels, and
David [St. Onge] and I reduced the
big lights from 20Ks to 1K Pars!
Charters next shot the pilot for
the Charlies Angels reboot in Miami. In
a remarkable coincidence, the gaffer,
Danny Eccleston, had been the gaffer
on Tony Scotts first commercial. We
didnt know each other when we were
both [working with the Scotts], says
Charters. With Charlies Angels, Danny
and I finally did a job together after
knowing about each other for years. We
Strong Foundations
48
Charters shooting in Landsberg, Germany, for the
2012 documentary Mosaic of Life, the story of
Holocaust survivor Jack Brauns.
immediately bonded over our love for
the remarkable low-light capabilities of
the Alexa chip, and we strove to work at
lower and lower light levels.
The next stop was TNTs reboot
of Dallas (AC July 12), which Charters
is also shooting on the Alexa. Coming
from documentaries, I tend to find the
light and augment it, he explains.
With digital capture, LEDs have
transformed how I can infinitely adjust
the light levels, and Im having a ball
doing it! I shot in a bar the other
night and was using the 3:1 zoom at
420mm and a 1,600 ISO, and the only
light we added was a string of LEDs
along the bar behind the bottles. Its
tremendously exciting to be a cine-
matographer at this time of technologi-
cal innovation.
After wrapping the first season of
Dallas, Charters shot the pilot for
Nashville, and when that was picked up,
he had his choice between the two
cities/shows. He opted to return to
Dallas because the production offered
him the opportunity to direct again.
Unfortunately, Larry Hagman passed
away, and the episode I directed became
the last one to feature J.R., he notes.
Charters became a member of
the ASC in 2004. He confesses he was
taken aback when he was informed of
2012 Emmy Awards Red Carpet (CBS)
2012 Olympics (NBC, BBC)
20/20 (ABC)
Academy Awards (ABC)
American Idol (Fox)
America's Got Talent (NBC)
Chopped (Food Network)
Good Morning America (ABC)
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)
MLB Network
Nashville (ABC)
Peoples Choice Awards (CBS)
The League (FX)
The Newsroom (HBO)
Squawk on the Street (CNBC)
Stargazing LIVE (BBC)
X-Factor (Fox)
. . . as seen on TV!
www.trucolorlighting.com
Pioneering Remote Phosphor lighting
the Societys decision to honor his career
achievements this year. I thought, Is it
over?! Im not done yet! he says with a
laugh. Im flabbergasted that people
feel I have that kind of body of work.
Ive been lucky to get some interesting
projects.
49
Charters at
work in North
Korea in 2008.
50 March 2013 American Cinematographer
L
ast month the ASC recognized the indefatigable efforts of
Technology Committee Chairman Curtis Clark, ASC by
presenting him with its Presidents Award. Under Clarks
leadership, the committee has had a strong impact on the
development of new technologies, thus protecting the prerog-
atives of the cinematographer and fulfilling the Societys
stated purpose: to advance the art of cinematography
through artistry and technological progress, to exchange ideas
and to cement a closer relationship among cinematographers.
Clark was born in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 1947. He
majored in theater directing at the Art Institute of Chicagos
Goodman School of Drama, and studied cinematography at
the London Film School. His professional career began in
Great Britain, where he photographed and directed short
films. His first feature credit as a cinematographer, Peter
Greenaways The Draughtsmans Contract (1982), was an indi-
cation of things to come. Clark and Greenaway met because
of a mutual interest in Super 16mm, a then-new format
invented by Swedish cameraman Rune Ericson. Clark worked
with Paul Collard and Kay Laboratories to test ways to maxi-
mize the quality of the format, making it a robust option for
independent filmmakers. Clark recalls that new Zeiss high-
speed lenses were an important part of the equation. I imme-
diately realized [the lenses] were an enabling technology
because I could work at lower light levels and with greater
depth-of-field. The Draughtsmans Contract was the most
expensive film the BFI had ever produced and the first film
Channel 4 had produced, and Peter and I knew we were
pioneering in a way that was very brave.
Collard supervised lab adaptations that included opti-
Curtis Clark, ASC, chairman of the
Societys Technology Committee, is
honored with the Presidents Award for
advancing the art of cinematography.
By David Heuring
|
Tech
Savvy
www.theasc.com March 2013 51
P
h
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t
o
s
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
C
u
r
t
i
s
C
l
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r
k
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cal-printer modifications and a unique
color-reversal internegative process.
Previously, no single lab had the capabil-
ity of handling a Super 16 project from
beginning to end.
The Draughtsmans Contract was
Clarks baptism by fire, and its success
taught him lessons about the intersec-
tion of technological breakthroughs and
artistic imagination. Super 16 became a
standard production tool throughout
Europe, and Clarks career gained
momentum. He shot Alamo Bay for
director Louis Malle, Extremities and
Dominick and Eugene for Robert M.
Young, and the IDA Award-winning
documentary Thy Kingdom Come Thy
Will Be Done for Antony Thomas. With
David Hockney and Philip Haas, Clark
made another unique documentary, A
Day on the Grand Canal with the
Emperor of China or: Surface Is Illusion
But So Is Depth, and he followed that
with two more films for Young, Triumph
of the Spirit and Talent for the Game.
Clark became a member of the
ASC in 1991 after being proposed by
Society fellows Stephen Burum, Allen
Daviau and Steven Poster. As his career
progressed, he began to focus more on
commercials, where his deft handling of
cutting-edge technologies in the service
of eye-catching looks came in handy.
In 1999, he founded NeTune
Communications, which provided inte-
grated broadband services for the
motion-picture industry by utilizing
digital satellite, terrestrial wireless and
fiber networking. That endeavor taught
him volumes about how high technol-
ogy is developed and adopted on both
personal and corporate levels.
In 2002, Poster, in his capacity as
ASC president, asked Clark to help him
revitalize the Societys Technology
Committee. At that time, the digital
revolution was embodied by the digital-
intermediate process, which simultane-
ously presented new creative freedoms
and a threat to the cinematographers
control of the image. Clark drafted a
detailed mission statement for the
committee that listed an array of digital
Opposite page: Curtis
Clark, ASC directs a
scene for his short
Eldorado (2012), a
demo for Sonys F65
camera. This page, top:
Director Louis Malle
(with cap), Clark (with
camera) and gaffer
Mike Banor (with light)
orchestrate a shot
while filming Alamo
Bay (1985). Bottom:
Clark is ready to roll
while filming the World
War II drama Triumph
of the Spirit (1989).
52 March 2013 American Cinematographer
Tech Savvy
technologies and called for cinematog-
raphers to understand and influence
how these rapidly evolving tools
affected their role. The list encompassed
technologies used in preproduction,
production, postproduction, theatrical
delivery and exhibition, and home
delivery and exhibition. Clark wrote
that without such understanding and
influence, our creative contributions,
which have been the cornerstone of
filmmaking since its inception, could
be marginalized.
Clark outlined objectives for
the Technology Committee. These
included making the ASCs opinions
and influence felt in the production
community and in standards-setting
organizations, furthering the education
of cinematography students, and creat-
ing greater awareness of the contribu-
tions cinematographers make. Soon,
the committee embarked on its first
major initiative: a collaboration with
Digital Cinema Initiatives, a consor-
tium of the major studios, on the
creation of standard test images to allow
for an apples-to-apples comparison
of DCI-compliant digital cinema
projectors.
Around that time, high-defini-
tion-video cameras were starting to be
used on theatrical features. The first
Camera Assessment Series, conducted
by the ASC and the Producers Guild of
America in January 2009, was a mile-
stone. The tests put a range of digital
cameras through their paces and
compared the results to 35mm nega-
tive. This huge undertaking involved
dozens of ASC members, equipment
manufacturers, rental houses and post
facilities. The collaboration with the
PGA was a breakthrough, says Clark.
It came about through shared interests
and concerns. The new camera tech-
nology was no longer a sideshow, and
we all needed to know if these cameras
were ready for theatrical production.
That was followed by the shift to
file-based imaging, which took digital
Clockwise from top: Clark arrives in Venezuela for a World Wildlife Fund PSA; takes a break with his son,
Jonathan, while shooting the sports drama Talent for the Game (1991); composes a frame for the same
film; and rides a crane while shooting Triumph of the Spirit (1989) at the Auschwitz-Birkenau
concentration camp in Poland.
image capture beyond the constraints of
Rec 709 color space. Meanwhile, a
strike by the Screen Actors Guild accel-
erated the adoption of digital cameras in
television production. By the time the
Technology Committee and the PGA
partnered on the Image Control
Assessment Series in 2012, the world
had changed dramatically. But partly
because of the ASCs efforts, cine-
matographers were now seen as crucial
to successfully integrating the new tools
and workflows.
Another important aspect of that
mindset shift was the Academy Color
Encoding System, a workflow and
encoding architecture that helps achieve
a more accurate and precise color
pipeline regardless of which camera or
resolution is used. An Academy of
Motion Picture Arts & Sciences initia-
tive that depended in part on expertise
from the ASC Technology Committee,
ACES provides a set of encoding specs,
transforms and recommended practices,
all designed to expand the creative
palette. In early 2011, the television
series Justified became the first
Hollywood production to use ACES in
its workflow (AC March 11). Today the
system is in widespread use.
The Technology Committee has
also developed a groundbreaking cross-
platform data exchange for primary
RGB digital color grading, the ASC
Color Decision List. The ASC CDL
enables primary color-correction data to
be passed from the set to dailies and
Tech Savvy
Clark frames up
over Paul
McCartneys
shoulder while
shooting a
music video.
54
editorial post, and among different
color-correction systems and applica-
tions. The bottom line is that the film-
makers creative intent is more likely to
survive through to the viewer. Both
ACES and the ASC CDL were
honored with Emmy Engineering
Awards last year.
The aforementioned are just a
few of the time-intensive projects the
Technology Committee has taken
on under Clarks leadership. The
committee has also hatched a number
of subcommittees, including those
studying Advanced Imaging, Camera,
Digital Display, Digital Intermediate,
Preservation/Archiving and Virtual
Production.
Of the ASC Presidents Award,
Clark says, Its a monumental honor to
get this kind of recognition. Ive always
been fascinated by the technology
underpinning our art form and the
impact it has on creative intent. What
this is all about is understanding the
limitations and maximizing the poten-
tial of what can be achieved creatively
with that knowledge. Without under-
standing digital-imaging technology,
you cannot influence its development
and, as a result, can be dealt a pretty
restrictive hand.
In 1919, the founders of the
ASC came together in no small part to
collaborate on solving the technical
challenges they faced, he adds. What
we have tried to do with the Technology
Committee, in the most volatile of
times, is in that same spirit.
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