2014 09

$5.
95
Canada $6.95
SEPTEMBER 2014
The International Journal of Motion Imaging
On Our Cover: A reluctant alliance of interstellar rivals embarks on a heroic mission

in Guardians of the Galaxy, shot by Ben Davis, BSC. (Film frame courtesy of Marvel
Studios.)
FEATURES
38
54
70
82
Space Cases
Ben Davis, BSC heightens sly humor in sci-fi adventure
Guardians of the Galaxy
Brain Power
54
Thierry Arbogast, AFC boosts cinema IQ of Lucy
Windows to the Soul

Markus Frderer achieves directors vision for I Origins
Framing a Family Conflict

John Christian Rosenlund, FNF braves Kabul while shooting
70
A Thousand Times Good Night
DEPARTMENTS
10
12
14
22
98
104
116
117
118
120
122
124
Editors Note
Presidents Desk
82
Short Takes: Blood Pulls a Gun
Production Slate: 24: Live Another Day James Camerons Deepsea Challenge 3D
Post Focus: Restoring My Fair Lady
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
ASC Membership Roster
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Kenneth Zunder
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Ron Garcia, ASC
S e p t e m b e r
2 0 1 4
V o l .
9 5 ,
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and PUBLISHER

Stephen Pizzello
EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR Jon D. Witmer
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andrew Fish
TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, John Calhoun, Mark Dillon, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray,
David Heuring, Jay Holben, Jean Oppenheimer, Iain Stasukevich, Patricia Thomson
ART & DESIGN

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Kramer
PHOTO EDITOR Kelly Brinker
ONLINE
MANAGING DIRECTOR Rachael K. Bosley
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PODCASTS Jim Hemphill, Iain Stasukevich, Chase Yeremian
BLOGS
Benjamin B
John Bailey, ASC
David Heuring
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CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 94th year of publication, is published monthly in Hollywood by
ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A.,
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American Society of Cinematographers

The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but
an educational, cultural and professional
organization. Membership is by invitation
to those who are actively engaged as
directors of photography and have
demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC
membership has become one of the highest
honors that can be bestowed upon a
professional cinematographer a mark
of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS - 2014/2015
Richard Crudo
President
Owen Roizman
Vice President
Kees van Oostrum

Vice President
Lowell Peterson
Vice President
Matthew Leonetti
Treasurer
Frederic Goodich
Secretary
Isidore Mankofsky
Sergeant At Arms
MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD
John Bailey
Bill Bennett
Curtis Clark
Dean Cundey
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
Michael Goi
Matthew Leonetti
Stephen Lighthill
Daryn Okada
Michael O Shea
Lowell Peterson
Rodney Taylor
Kees van Oostrum
Haskell Wexler
ALTERNATES
Isidore Mankofsky
Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Robert Primes
Steven Fierberg
Kenneth Zunder
MUSEUM CURATOR
8
Steve Gainer
Our annual focus on international production is as

wide-ranging as ever, offering behind-the-scenes
insights from projects shot in England (Guardians of
the Galaxy and 24: Live Another Day); France and
Taiwan (Lucy); New York and India (I Origins);
Afghanistan, Kenya, Morocco and Ireland (A Thousand Times Good Night); New South Wales (Blood
Pulls a Gun); and the South Pacifics Challenger Deep,
the deepest known point in the Earths seabed
hydrosphere (James Camerons Deepsea Challenge
3D).
Since Guardians of the Galaxy takes place
primarily in the far reaches of space, cinematographer
Ben Davis, BSC worked mainly on London soundstages amid some highly detailed practical sets. As
Davis notes in Douglas Bankstons coverage (Space Cases, page 38), That was the exciting thing for me, getting these crazy concepts of mad worlds and figuring out how we would
[realize them in front of the camera]. Fortunately, we had the time in prep to work out how.
On Lucy, French cinematographer Thierry Arbogast, AFC reconnected with frequent
collaborator Luc Besson to tell the mind-bending story of a reluctant drug mule (Scarlett
Johansson) who accidentally absorbs a powerful drug that rapidly increases her mental agility,
transforming her into a superhuman being of limitless potential. Arbogast tells ACs senior
European correspondent, Benjamin B (Brain Power, page 54) that he relies on good preparation to keep up with Bessons notoriously fast pace on the set. Now that I know Luc, I can
anticipate what he might ask for. I plan everything out ahead of time so that we can move
quickly, and I have backup options ready to go so we dont get caught.
I Origins required director Mike Cahill and his key collaborators to make a six-day trip
to Delhi, where cinematographer Markus Frderer discovered that some of the equipment
he needed was in short supply. Mumbai is really the big movie city [in India], he observes
in Jay Holbens piece about the production (Windows to the Soul, page 70). To get equipment in Delhi, everything had to come by plane. It was very challenging to get a big crane!
Fortunately, Frderer didnt have to brave the kinds of perils faced by John Christian
Rosenlund, FNF on A Thousand Times Good Night. In a piece by Mark Dillon (Framing a
Family Conflict, page 82), the Norwegian cinematographer reports that tensions ran high
in Kabul, Afghanistan, where the crew spent five days grabbing pickup shots to lend their
movie some of its authentic ambience. Rosenlund wisely opted to capture the Kabul footage
with a smaller, less obtrusive Canon C300, noting, I needed something that didnt look like
a gun.
This months issue also marks some changes to our editorial staff. Former associate
editor Jon Witmer is now the magazines managing editor, and former senior editor Rachael
Bosley has been promoted to managing director of the ASCs website, theasc.com. Were
also welcoming a new associate editor, Andrew Fish, who joins another recent hire, photo
editor Kelly Brinker, as part of the AC team. Both Andrew and Kelly possess the winning
combination of professionalism and enthusiasm that helps the magazine maintain its high
standards.
10
Stephen Pizzello
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher
Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.
Editors Note
For many of our readers, September not only marks back-to-school time but back-tofilm-school time. With a seemingly endless list of institutions and services to choose from
nowadays, aspiring cinematographers face a daunting task in seeking out the proper fit.
There are surely some fabulous opportunities for learning out there; the top-tier institutions,
known to all of us, are usually worth the time and expense. At the opposite end of the
educational spectrum are the puppy mills, fly-by-night operations staffed by inexperienced
hucksters who are happy to put a meaningless stamp of approval on people who are thoroughly unprepared to make it in the real world. This situation is a sad reality that can often
derail an enthusiastic young person before he or she is even out of the gate. Its also something were vigilantly on the lookout for at the ASC. As with most things in life, and especially in this case, let the buyer beware.
But heres another piece of reality that might surprise the members of this years Lighting 101 class: even if you go all the way and pick up an advanced degree from a legitimate
source, you will be qualified to do only one thing when you first set foot on a major-league
set: start at the bottom.
This statement isnt meant to discourage anyone. In fact, if youre put off by it, you
probably dont have what it takes to make it in the business anyway. Its also not so inflammatory when you realize that until the number of film schools began to radically increase
some 20 or so years ago, beginning your day with a surface gauge (i.e., a broom) in hand
was the only way in. As unimaginable as this may sound to todays instant-gratification generation, from the 1930s through the
1960s it was common practice for aspiring cinematographers to spend a decade or more in each of the subordinate camera-crew
positions before moving up to the next level. Are you sitting down? Robert Moreno, ASC spent more than 29 years rising through
the ranks before taking the lead chair and he was far from an exception. This rigorous vetting process guaranteed that the person
in charge was fully qualified to handle any challenge thrown at them. It also allowed qualified cinematographers to produce a generally refined body of work, even if they only rated among the journeymen and lesser-known names. Just tune in to the Turner Classic Movie channel at any time of the day and youll see what I mean.
Certainly, no one is going to endure apprenticeships like that anymore I know I wouldnt. However, there is a great wisdom
in taking the time to master ones craft. Notice I didnt use the term learn. Any ASC member can relate to you the basics of cinematography in a couple of hours. Could they teach you to actually be a cinematographer in that time? Thats a lifetime pursuit, one
which none of us will ever fully complete because the learning, growing and evolving never stops. Im not sure the film schools are
getting that message through clearly enough, though the concept should be pretty obvious.
So whats the real key to success for the motivated student of cinematography? The simplest answer is passion, an intangible that can neither be taught nor instilled. It can be inspired, though and no institution in the world is better suited to that
purpose than the ASC.
As the new term begins, I urge educators and students alike to look to us for guidance. The level of knowledge and experience held by our members and associates is truly staggering and it can often be accessed simply by asking. Our website,
theasc.com, is currently undergoing a complete makeover, but remains a tremendous resource. Visit it regularly! Our Friends of
the ASC section is something I wish had existed when I was starting out. Join up and learn from the best! Our ASC Manual is
jam-packed with vital information covering everything there is to know about what we do; for more than 80 years it has been
called the industrys bible. Get a copy and read it! Our Clubhouse hosts many educational events that are open to the public.
Come visit us!
If you havent figured it out yet, shepherding the next generation is a big part of our mission. To all the students, I say: Study
hard, work hard and avail yourselves of the ASC!
Richard P. Crudo
ASC President
12
September 2014
American Cinematographer
Photo by Douglas Kirkland.
Presidents Desk
Short Takes
Fugitive Motel
By Simon Gray
Fourteen-year-old Alice (Odessa Young) halfheartedly helps

her dad run a ramshackle motel far beyond the city limits. As she
daydreams and pilfers mementos from guests, archetypal bad-boy
Blood Lieberman (Josh McConville) checks in and sends Alice into a
spiral of curiosity. Directed by Ben Briand and shot by Jeremy Rouse,
the coming-of-age short film Blood Pulls a Gun tells Alice and Bloods
ultimately tragic tale.
The film, which premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest
Film Festival, marks Briand and Rouses first collaboration. Ben
favors subjective filmmaking and wanted to tell this story through
Alices teenage eyes, says Rouse. He adds that an important aspect
of the camerawork was to make the audience participants in Alices
voyeurism. We wanted to pull the audience through her new experiences and show them what it literally looks and feels like to her as
she discovers this new adult world, which is both romantic and
dangerous, he says. However, we still wanted the characters to
feel like they were in the same film together, so there was no
dramatic shift in camera style between Alice and Bloods worlds. A
mix of handheld, graphic wide shots and intimate close-ups was
used for both characters.
Framing for the 2.40:1 aspect ratio, Rouse shot Blood Pulls a
Gun with a Red Epic MX in 5K resolution with 5:1 compression,
recording to Red Mini-Mags. I chose [Arri/Zeiss] Master Prime lenses
because they are high speed and I have always liked the look they
14
September 2014
provide, he says. There is an ongoing discussion about using

vintage glass with digital cameras because newer lenses are often
considered too sharp and crisp. I think there is a lot of truth to that,
and older lenses offer unique characteristics that I love, but I also
think knowing what the lenses have to cope with is important. I
knew I was going to be pushing the lenses really hard there
would be a lot of heavy flaring, lots of shooting straight into
windows, and I like how [the Master Primes] handle that, even wide
open. Older, vintage lenses would have just blown out and had too
much soft flare for the look I was after.
Ben wanted a mood that expressed fragile, emerging sexuality colliding with dirty, cheap motel sex, Rouse explains. We
opted for a warm palette in order to underscore how Alice has
constructed a lie about her own life. She lives a dull existence and
attempts to escape the stifling boredom by romanticizing her life:
smoking cigarettes, listening to swirling music and reading glossy
magazines while sunbathing. She wants to be in her own
Casablanca. As Alices daydreaming takes on a darker, more obsessive tone with the arrival of Blood and his companion, the sultry
Mysterious Woman (Tess Haubrich), it was as simple as shifting
between states of light and dark to illustrate how Alice and Blood
exist in different worlds, the cinematographer says. Alices romantic look is sun-drenched and golden, while the scenes with Blood
tend to be darker and more mysterious.
To develop the feeling of mystery surrounding Blood,
Rouse continues, we used longer lenses and obscuring objects in
the frame, so the audience never really gets a good look at Blood
Unit photography by Scott Lowe and Andrew Peters. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of the filmmakers.
Alice (Odessa Young) experiences a rush of teenage awakening in the short film Blood Pulls a Gun.
Alice lives a dull existence at her family-run motel until Blood Lieberman (Josh McConville, third from
top) checks in. Top right: Director Ben Briand (left) and cinematographer Jeremy Rouse discuss a scene.
16
September 2014
until the moment he confronts Alice for

watching him having sex with the Mysterious
Woman. His look to her then is a true POV
[from Alices perspective], straight into the
lens. Also, much of the story is told from the
perspective of Alice watching Blood and the
Mysterious Woman from afar. Their arrival at
the motel is a good example of this. We used
long lenses such as the 150mm to glimpse
them with a distanced, voyeuristic feel. I then
used the 35mm or 40mm to create a closer,
more intimate feel for Alices reactions.
While Rouse often prefers to use standard-length lenses in the 35mm to 50mm
range, Briand had some specific requirements for wider shots. Ben likes to use wide
establishing shots to open scenes, but he
prefers a slightly longer lens than normal
for instance, a 50mm rather than an 18mm
or 25mm. This created a graphic, painterly
image that also flattened the characters
onto the oppressive motel architecture, reinforcing the idea that they are all not only
defined by their location, but also trapped in
it.
The filmmakers spent several months
scouting for that all-important location. The
hotel we envisioned dictated every aspect of
Blood Pulls a Gun, recalls Rouse. It had to
be a dilapidated paradise that was visually
representative of Alice. We finally chose a
motel in Swansea [in New South Wales],
because it had such an oppressively claustrophobic feel, which was only added to by the
overgrown grass and trees surrounding
it. The interior was decked out in peachy,
flesh-colored tones, which helped to determine our color palette. Visual tension was
created by shooting the ramshackle motel in
a romantic haze a golden, almost fauxtropical glow.
Rouse avoided using predetermined
look-up tables on set, preferring to light by
eye. I really like responding instinctually to

the image, he says, so I used the Epics
basic gamma and constantly toggled
between that and raw. Once I know whats
actually being captured, Im happy to tweak
the monitor settings: brightness, contrast
and saturation.
For filtration in front of the lens,
Rouse consistently employed Tiffen Black
Pro-Mists, ranging in strength from to 1.
The scene in which Alice listens to Blood
and the Mysterious Woman fighting was
shot against a very hot sky, Rouse notes.
The filter helped lower the high contrast a
little and soften the highlights for a more
pleasing, softer look.
During preproduction, the filmmakers found particular inspiration in the work
of photographer Todd Hido. Rouse notes,
Ben and I were primarily interested in and
inspired by [Hidos] choice to photograph
the backs of motels, rather than the fronts.
These mundanely domesticated parts of the
motel were a more likely place to find our
characters [and] a truthful point of view
from which to tell this story.
The filmmakers primary camera
support was a 3' slider mounted on a Chapman/Leonard PeeWee dolly, which Rouse
describes as a great way to get small
moves quickly. When Alice is inside the
motel, the camera is mostly static to show
that her world inside is safe but also stagnant. This is in contrast to when she is
outside, where the camera was handheld to
reflect the excitement, trepidation and at
times panic that Alice was feeling.
Rouse occasionally used a tripod with a
loose head or a [Cinekinetic] CineSaddle to
create a light, floating feeling that maintained the dreamy, romantic tone.
Rouses workhorse light was a 6K
Alice
approaches
Bloods room,
where she
catches him in
an intimate
moment with
the Mysterious
Woman (Tess
Haubrich). Top
right: Rouse
leads Young
with a
handheld Red
Epic MX.
18
September 2014
Top two: Alice encounters Blood. Bottom two: Alice whiles away her time daydreaming,
smoking and stealing from guests.
20
September 2014
Par, which the cinematographer describes as

a quick and versatile source. We had a
limited budget and the 6K was perfect to
quickly move from scene to scene. The 6K
was used for most of the interiors, often
bashed into the curtains or blinds to create a
glowing window source falling into the
room. With that approach, I rarely felt the
need to key-light actors faces. The scene
where the Mysterious Woman and Blood
have their altercation shows this technique
particularly well. Rouse also used Kino Flo
Image 80s or 4' four banks with a mixture of
daylight and tungsten tubes, as required, on
interiors.
For night exteriors, Rouse and Briand
sought to create a streetlight source that
would not be mistaken for moonlight. Ben
and I really wanted a color we dont often
see, the cinematographer recalls. Gaffer
Mark Kavanagh and I tried a couple of different gel packages before settling on a combination of teal and cyan on a daylightbalanced source, which contrasted really
richly with the tungsten warmth of the
motel exterior.
Blood Pulls a Gun was color-timed in
2K anamorphic by Billy Wychgel in Blackmagic Designs DaVinci Resolve 10 at Definition Films in Sydney, Australia. Briand and
Rouse also had a DaVinci system set up in
one of the motel rooms to view dailies on
location. We watched rushes each day with
[digital-imaging technician] Ben Blick-Hodge
for a tech-check, and we also made some
basic tweaks to the LUT, Rouse recollects.
As the cinematographer explains, the
directors non-traditional workflow played a
key role in production. Ben really likes to
work across many departments while
putting the film together, says Rouse. For
instance, the score was written before principal photography so the music could be
played as we set up shots. The music also
helped us find the mood of the grade very
quickly. We did a temporary grade on the
rough cut that was just a quick, instinctual
response to the images. This turned out to
be great for the editor and sound designer,
as they could feel what I like to term the
viscosity of the images. When we eventually went back to do the final grade, there
were only a handful of detailed tweaks left
to do, mostly around the saturation levels.
Production Slate
24 Returns
By Michael Goldman
When Fox resurrected the 24 television franchise with the 12episode special event 24: Live Another Day, the writers moved the
shows setting to London and gave battle-scarred Jack Bauer (Kiefer
Sutherland) one of his most impossible challenges to date. A hunted
fugitive without his usual resources, Bauer had to dodge the CIA,
save London from bombardment by terrorists who had seized control
of American drones, protect the president, ferret out a traitor, and
confront old Russian and Chinese enemies who very much wanted
him dead.
Despite a four-year hiatus between season eight and Live
Another Day, Bauer pulled off his return with both aplomb and solid
ratings. His efforts were equaled offscreen by the crew, who, cinematographer Jeffrey Mygatt says, was tasked with producing the
exact same show that ran for eight years, but with an entirely new
crew and [acquisition] format, while working overseas with almost
no setup or rehearsal time.
Nearly all of 24s original run was photographed by Rodney
Charters, ASC, CSC, who worked with original series operators Guy
Skinner and Jay Herron to establish the shows signature style, in
which the A camera was always handheld and the B camera was
always on a long lens. Jon Cassar, a producer and frequent director
of 24s first eight seasons who returned to executive produce Live
22
September 2014
Another Day and direct six of the 12 episodes, knew it was crucial
to emulate that way of working. Accordingly, despite Foxs mandate
that the new production employ a British crew, he insisted on bringing a cinematographer who knew the show and could teach our
visual style to the British operators. Charters was unavailable, but
Mygatt had worked on the original series as a camera operator for
both the 1st and 2nd units, and had stepped in as cinematographer
for 10 episodes. Mygatt had also worked with Cassar on other
projects, including the Fox series Terra Nova.
After eight years in L.A. with virtually the same crew, this
was going to be a whole new kettle of fish for us, Cassar says. I
had to have a cinematographer with me who could pull off our
unique visual style, and Jeffrey was that guy, for sure.
Cassar recalls being concerned with how 24 would look in
HD, especially considering that the show relies so heavily on closeups, and that during 24s eight-season run, film had been considered central to the shows dark, noir style. Mygatt, though, knew
just how he wanted to handle the matter. When they hired me, I
said, If were doing it in HD, I wont shoot this show with anything
but the [Arri] Alexa, the cinematographer recalls. The Alexa is
really close to film for this kind of work. The camera handles light
really well. For night exteriors, you can shoot at 800 ASA or even
1,600 ASA and not have a big problem with noise. Also, its lightweight and versatile, which we needed for our workflow.
That workflow was strategically designed for the series run-
24: Live Another Day photos by Daniel Smith and Christopher Raphael, courtesy of Fox Broadcasting Co.
Jack Bauer
(Kiefer
Sutherland),
now a hunted
fugitive, returns
to action to foil
a terrorist attack
on London in
the 12-episode
series 24: Live
Another Day.
Top left: Bauer trains his signature stare on a new predicament. Bottom: Grip Andy Woodcock (right),
wearing a custom equipment-filled backpack, assists A-camera operator Oliver Loncraine. Top right:
Producer/director Jon Cassar (left) consults with cinematographer Jeffrey Mygatt.
and-gun style, with its compressed schedule

which required shooting two episodes at a
time over a period of 16 days. The process
encompassed sets built onstage in the old
Gillette factory in Brentford, West London
where the production made its headquarters and dozens of locations
throughout the city. As data manager Laura
Redpath details, Live Another Day was shot
with two Arri Alexa Plus cameras, which
recorded Log C, ProRes 4:2:2 HQ to
onboard SxS cards. Redpath used Sonnet
Echo Express SxS readers to download the
24
September 2014
cards on set via Thunderbolt connection to

two Retina Display MacBook Pro laptops,
and immediately backed up data to two
1TB G-Technology G-RAID hard drives
attached via USB 3.0.
I used Pomfort Silverstack [software] to manage the data, QC the footage
and create a full metadata report, Redpath
explains. One drive was then sent to
Encore London for dailies color and to be
uploaded to Encore Hollywood, where the
final grade was completed by Kevin Kirwan,
via [the Dax remote collaboration platAmerican Cinematographer
form]. Mygatt would then give notes from

files sent to him via Dax. The other drive
remained at the production office as an
overnight safety copy, Redpath says.
Dailies were returned each day as QuickTime files on specially configured iPads.
To monitor the digital image, set his
exposure and judge framing, Mygatt used a
Leader LV5330 monitor that was fed a wireless Rec 709 signal from the Alexas. The
Leader is a really good monitor, and it keeps
steady color throughout the shoot, he
says. I adjust the color temperature on the
camera to get the look close, so theres not
much change from what I see on set to
what I see in dailies. I just make sure we
always have the ability to change the look
without having to go back and reshoot
something because it was too dark or too
bright.
Cassar, meanwhile, wanted to direct
his episodes in his usual fashion, in close
proximity to his actors. Mygatt therefore
arranged for Cassar to carry a 7" OLED
handheld monitor that received a wireless
signal which the filmmakers say was reliable within 30' from a Teradek Bolt Pro
transmitter.
A-camera 1st AC Rene Adefarasin
adds that the compact, latency-free
Teradek transmitter also helped me dance
around the action and the camera while
always having a live feed attached to my
lens-control system. The action could disappear down a corridor, or a crowded room
might squeeze me out, but Id still be able to
check my work. All the skills we have always
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used [as focus pullers] still apply [in the digital world], but wireless monitoring has
proven to be a new treat, and it really helped
on this show.
For the handheld A camera, the
production relied on three lightweight Angenieux Optimo zooms: 15-40mm T2.6, 2876mm T2.6 and 45-120mm T2.8. On the B
camera, they primarily used the Optimo 24290mm T2.8 zoom, as well as a Vantage
Film Hawk 150-450mm T2.8 zoom.
As Cassar explains, We are not a
show that does 10 takes we do two or
three. And there is a great physicality to the
work from the operators point of view. They
have to be sensitive to the material, be able
to go with the emotionality of the acting,
and understand that they have the freedom
to change a designed shot. If the actor
suddenly goes sideways, and the performance gets more emotional than it was in
rehearsal, the operator has the freedom to
grab the zoom and get right in there, to be
organic with the camera.
A-camera operator Oliver Loncraine
says that such physicality was particularly
demanding when he had to follow the
actors through grueling action scenes.
Making it easier for him to accomplish these
shots was a special backpack designed by
London equipment house Ice Film. Containing the wireless transmitter for the Cinetape
readout, the video transmitter, the camera
batteries and other devices, the backpack
could be worn by grip Andy Woodcock,
significantly lightening Loncraines load.
Andy and I were tied together by an umbilical cord, the operator explains. He was
the eyes in the back of my head, and without him, I could not have completed the
show in one piece I could not have done
shots running down the stairs backwards or
chasing Kiefer across roads with live traffic.
Andy gave me the confidence to give the
show the energy it needed. Teamwork is
always vital, but on this show especially we
really needed to act as one.
Whereas the Los Angeles-based
production of 24s initial eight seasons
tended to utilize nondescript neighborhoods, warehouses, back alleys and piers
that could stand in for locations in other
cities, Live Another Days producers sought
to take full advantage of the London backdrop, setting key scenes at or near Wembley
Top: Simone
Al-Harazi (Emily
Berrington)
eludes Bauer in
a London
Underground
tunnel. Middle:
Bauer races
through the
streets. Bottom:
The crew preps a
scene onstage
in the old
Gillette factory
in Brentford,
West London.
26
September 2014
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Top: President Heller (William Devane) pays a visit to Londons Wembley Stadium. Bottom (left
to right): Dolly grip Jac Hopkins, camera operator Jonathan Chunky Richmond, Cassar and 1st
AD Lydia Currie prepare to shoot the scene.
Stadium, prominent Tube stations, Trafalgar

Square, Harrods and other recognizable
sites. However, Cassar notes, It was a bit
difficult to turn over permits as quickly as
we needed them in London it was something they were not used to doing. We lost
some locations and got to others and were
told we couldnt do what we wanted to do,
and then had to think about solutions at
the last minute.
Mygatt says those solutions included
lots of creative angles, cheating backgrounds and even shooting the reverse at a
different location. The saving grace is that
the show is always one camera handheld
and one camera [with a] long lens. It was
just about using the location and figuring
28
September 2014
out ways to put the camera in places where

normally people would not want to put it.
Cassar adds, 24 has always been
fantastic at saying, We go through this
door at this location, down the hallway at
that location, and then this other location
leads us back to a set weve built. Our
production designers are always focused on
what exactly the camera sees. So we would
deal with location problems that way we
would figure out how they could lead us
back to our sets where we would have
more control.
Mygatt strove to maintain the same
lighting philosophy that guided 24 since its
pilot in 2001. The objective, he says, is to
make it look like we are really on the
street. Real places have both darkness and

light. We dont put a huge wash against the
background so we can see everything; we
just bring the levels up enough to be able to
shoot.
Following that credo, Mygatt and
gaffer Andrew Bailey created a number of
streetlight effects for the productions exteriors. In particular, Mygatt explains, I
used a lot of Litepanels [1x1 bi-color LEDs]
with Chimeras to get edge lights on the
actors. They ran on batteries, so we didnt
have to worry about cables. We could put
them on stands, stick them just outside the
edge of the frame, and get the edge [light]
we wanted without any long setup time.
Bailey says the production also
carried a fairly standard location package of
Fresnels, Arri Pars and M-Series HMIs, and
additional Tungsten units for particular situations. When night exteriors required larger
sources, the gaffer says they employed
Wendy Lights and remote 18Ks on 50meter aerial platforms. He also created a
Par-can rig based on a design from
Mygatt on an aerial platform for locations that needed even more light. We
used eight to 10 Par cans, Mygatt says,
no color and no diffusion, usually close
over the set, and got pockets of light in
areas to make it feel as though the streetlights were lighting the set. We used this rig
in the shootout with the Russians in the last
episode, and with Audrey [Kim Raver] in the
park.
Cassar says Live Another Day was
meant to be a one-off, and he has no news
to share about whether Jack Bauer will ever
get another mission. But both he and
Mygatt are proud that, whether or not this
is the franchises finale, their team achieved
the classic feel of 24. My personal feeling
is that we made it look seamless, like the
show never stopped, Mygatt says. We
had the same look, the same style, the same
frenetic moves they had for eight seasons
and, of course, a great storyline.
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.78:1
Digital Capture
Arri Alexa Plus
Angenieux Optimo, Vantage Film Hawk
Deepest-Sea Explorers
By Iain Stasukevich
There are two narratives at play in

the National Geographic documentary
James Camerons Deepsea Challenge 3D.
One tells the story of the young Cameron,
child of the 60s and avid viewer of The
Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,
developing a keen interest in ocean exploration. The other is a document of
Cameron, the Oscar-winning filmmaker
and explorer, preparing to make an historic
descent to the deepest point on the planet,
the South Pacifics Challenger Deep. Reach30
September 2014
ing the bottom would make Cameron one

of only three human beings to do so, after
explorers Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard
made their descent in the Trieste some 50
years earlier.
The films main focus is the expedition, from its early development to the
construction and launching of the manned
Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cinematographer John Stokes, ACS spent a year
filming the construction of the submersible,
but departed the project in the wake of codirector Andrew Wight and U.S. underwater cinematographer Mike deGruys deaths
in a helicopter accident during the testing
stage of the expedition. With a tight

window of opportunity for the dive, a new
cinematographer and co-director were
needed. Producer John Bruno (Ghosts of
the Abyss; AC July 03) took Wights place
at the helm, and Jules OLoughlin, ACSs
camerawork on another Cameronproduced 3-D project, Sanctum (AC Feb.
11), made him the ideal candidate to take
the cinematography reins.
John knows how to cover sub
launches and recoveries, and the various
activities on the ship deck, and Jules knows
how to shoot good 3-D, says Cameron.
Between the two of them, we were
covered.
Much of Stokes crew, including
gaffer/key grip Aaron Walker, stayed on for
the expedition, sailing aboard the multipurpose vessel Mermaid Sapphire. OLoughlin
and camera operators Chris McHattie and
Justin Hanrahan employed multiple platforms across an integrated 3-D system
designed by Cameron-Pace Groups Vince
Pace, ASC. Stereographer Manning Tillman
pulled focus and set interocular and convergence for a handheld Red Epic MX Fusion
rig from CPG, while 3-D camera systems
engineer John Turner set convergence and
interocular for two Sony HDC-P1 Fusion rigs
(one on the upper deck and one on the
James Camerons Deepsea Challenge 3D photos by Mark Thiessen, courtesy of National Geographic and Deepsea Challenge 3D.
Additional images provided by Jules OLoughlin, ACS and John Bruno.
Oscar-winning
filmmaker James
Cameron
successfully
completed a
solo dive to the
South Pacifics
Challenger
Deep, the
deepest point
on the planet.
The preparation
and dive are
documented in
the National
Geographic film
James Camerons
Deepsea
Challenge 3D.
Top: The one-man

deep-submergence
vehicle Deepsea
Challenger rests
aboard the
Mermaid Sapphire
before carrying
Cameron
underwater.
Bottom left: The
crew conducts the
first 2.5-mile test
dive off the coast
of Papua New
Guinea. Bottom
right: During a test
dive off the Ulithi
atoll, the Deepsea
Challenger is
photographed
1,100 meters below
the surface by an
unmanned lander
built by Scripps
Institution of
Oceanography/
University of
California,
San Diego.
main) with the assistance of focus puller

Sam Winzar, who also took on the duties of
a 2nd AC and data manager.
It was a small roster for a 3-D
production 10 out of an overall expedition crew of 40 but shooting Deepsea
Challenge in 3-D was always a given. Its
32
September 2014
more of an immersive experience for the

audience, OLoughlin remarks. Lets put
the audience right there in the drama, experiencing it on the boat, in the water and in
the sub with Jim.
Once assembled in Papua New
Guinea, the expedition plan was to perform
a series of test dives near the township of

Rabaul in the relatively shallow New Britain
Trench (26,791') before descending
35,787' into the Challenger Deep. What
would happen along the way was anyones
guess, so it was up to OLoughlin to prepare
the ship and equip his crew to capture any
unexpected critical moments.
One of the big challenges of the
expedition was taking a feature-film mindset and adapting it to the documentary
mindset, says OLoughlin. We can make
a rough plan based on the days schedule,
but running and gunning with heavy 3-D
rigs is still challenging and takes longer to
set up, and on a documentary shoot
time can make the difference between
getting a great shot or just an okay shot.
The Fusion rigs beam-splitter configuration allowed for variable interocular
settings, enabling the camera to get in close
to the action. The Epic Fusion was equipped
with synchronized Angenieux Optimo 1540mm T2.6 or Optimo 28-76mm T2.6
zoom lenses and recorded 5K Full Frame
(with a 1.9:1 aspect ratio) at 5:1 compression (6:1 when extended recording times
were needed) to onboard magazines,
making it the most versatile option aboard
the Mermaid Sapphire. The HDC-P1 rigs
Cinematographer Jules OLoughlin, ACS (bottom

and top right, wearing plaid shirt) operates a
Red Epic Fusion rig. He is flanked by
gaffer/key grip Aaron Walker (in beige jacket) and
1st AC/stereographer Manning Tillman.
used Fujinon 6.3-101mm f1.8 zooms and

recorded 4:2:2 at 23.98p to a single SR tape
for both eyes via tethered HDCam-SR VTRs,
which limited movement to their respective
decks, although independent cables
running to different parts of the vessel
allowed the crew to reposition the cameras
with minimal wrangling. A self-contained
ENG-style Sony PMW-TD300 was OLoughlins most maneuverable 3-D option, but its
fixed interocular meant keeping a distance
of at least 8' from the subject.
Dry equipment included an SI-2K
in a side-by-side configuration on a
Steadicam for specialty shots, and a singleeye Arri Alexa Classic. (The SI-2K recorded to
a 1 Beyond Wrangler Mini 3D using the
CineForm Raw codec, while the Alexa
footage was recorded in ProRes 4:4:4:4 to
SxS cards.) Several GoPro Dual Hero kits
were positioned about the vessel, including
34
September 2014
atop the crane hook that lowered the

Deepsea Challenger into the water. The
GoPros were great because we could put
them in places where our full-sized 3-D rigs
didnt fit, but they were also limited by their
size, fixed interocular and image quality,
OLoughlin explains, noting that no GoPro
footage made it into the Imax version of the
film. Theres some in the TV release. On
television its easier to get away with mixing
different cameras.
Submersible dives and recoveries
were also covered by aerial-unit director of
photography Ian Thorburn, ACS and underwater camera operators Simon Christidis,
ACS and Charlie Arneson. CPG manufactured a custom underwater housing for the
Epic Fusion, and a single-eye Canon EOS 5D
Mark II was used in an underwater rig for
additional coverage.
Operating with limited resources in
an unpredictable environment meant the
filmmakers couldnt afford to be precious
about technical perfection. Consequently,
the film contains more stereo post-conversion than initially planned. We didnt plan
for any, says Cameron. But then we
ended up converting about 20 percent of
the film, which I think is perfectly valid for a
documentary. The most important thing is
to get the shot.
After waiting out days of inclement
weather, on March 26, 2012 the Deepsea
Challenger was finally ready to make its 7mile descent to the bottom of the Mariana
Trench. For this journey, the filmmakers

needed a specialized 3-D camera system
that could operate at full ocean depth,
where the pressure reaches 16,500 pounds
per square inch. No system yet existed, so
Cameron, Pace, submersible co-designer
Ron Allum, electrical engineer Blake Henry
and imaging technical lead Adam Gobi
created one, turning the Deepsea Challenger into an integrated stereoscopic imaging platform.
Our goal was to create a small,
lightweight camera no bigger than the size
of your fist, says Cameron. Henry designed
the camera electronics out of his lab in California, while Gobi led a development team
in Sydney, handling the imaging workflow,
optics and housing design. The product of
this research and development is the minicam, a solid-state HD imager built around
a 1/2.3" 10-megapixel Aptina CMOS
sensor inside a 2-pound titanium housing.
During the dive, four external and
two internal imagers output a 24-frame 10bit 1080p signal over 1.5G HD-SDI singlemode fiber multiplexed with camera control
from the pilot sphere. Stereo pairs were
fixed at a 55mm interocular with convergence at 6'. Outside the submersible, clear
acrylic domes protected the mini-cams Smount optics, a combination of Evetar and
Lensation lenses, the 35mm-equivalent of
which were approximately 28mm at f2.0.
Inside the cramped 43" pilot sphere, the
focal length was approximately 24mm at
Underwater camera operator Simon Christidis, ACS

wields the camera rig, which is safely encased in
Cameron-Pace Groups underwater housing.
36
f1.6. Focus was remotely controlled via a

piezoelectric motor.
With these types of lenses, which
are mainly used for CCTV applications, the
only focus control you have is back focus,
says Gobi. You move the entire lens with
relation to the image sensor, requiring less
than a millimeter in overall travel.
One of the external stereo pairs was
mounted to a remote pan-and-tilt head on
the end of a 2-meter carbon-fiber boom,
so the sub could do a selfie, Cameron
quips, which also proved to be a great
diagnostic tool for the ballast system,
manipulator arm and dive lights.
Two other mini-cams were mounted
to the submersibles hydraulic manipulator
arm. One was equipped with a 28mm lens
for wide shots, and the other with a 90mm
f1.6 for macro shots of any jellyfish, sea
anemone or amphipods that might be
encountered. A stills mode enabled
Cameron to take full advantage of the
imagers 10-megapixel sensors.
Gobi admits that the mini-cams
designers never got around to measuring its
native ISO. Signal gain was adjusted from

the pilot-sphere based on a built-in
histogram. Its a compromised image
compared to what you can get with the
dynamic range of a Red Epic, says
Cameron, but we couldnt put two Epics
on the end of a boom, so it was the right
compromise to make.
The first half hour of the Deepsea
Challengers descent was filmed by a GoPro
mounted to an Israeli arm at Camerons eye
level through the pilot spheres 1'-thick
acrylic viewport, after which it was swapped
out for a single-eye Red Epic rated at ISO
800 with a Nikkor 10-24mm f3.5-4.5
zoom. The full 5K image covered the viewports 80-degree field of view, while allowing us to crop a 2K image from the center,
says Gobi.
The mini-cams filmed continuously
during Camerons nine-hour dive into the
Challenger Deep, recording 1080p ProRes
4:2:2 HQ to an onboard array of nine
750GB Atomos Samurai recorders. The Epic
was able to record up to five hours of 5K
raw to four onboard 512GB SSDs specially
developed for the expedition by Red.

A perennial challenge of filming in
near-freezing deep-sea temperatures is the
condensation that comes from the pilots
breath and collects on the inside of the
viewport. To address this, mechanicaldesign engineer David Bleads attached a
sealed, heated optical flat to the inside of
the dome port with a purge valve for dry
nitrogen. Nothing could condense on the
outside of the optical flat because it was
heated, and the dry nitrogen had no water
vapor, so nothing could condense on the
inside of the port, Cameron explains.
With the submersible floating vertically in the water, the long beam section
offered an ideal baseline for mounting a
lighting array. I wanted to light the place
up like a football field, says Cameron,
which prompted Allum to install 30 75-watt
LED bricks into a 7'-long pressure-balanced
bank on the submersibles front face.
Later in the submersible design
process, hydraulic-systems engineer Ty
Boyce introduced Cameron to a custom
735-watt LED spotlight, which provided an
output comparable to a 1,000-watt halogen. Four Ty lights were used: three

high beams to augment the LED array,
and one on a second 2-meter carbon-fiber
boom, extending the submersibles visibility
to almost 100' in clear water.
Though destined for National
Geographics theatrical Imax and television
documentaries, the high-resolution 3-D
images captured at the bottom of the Challenger Deep also held great scientific value.
At hadal depth, which is anything below
6,000 meters, the sea life is sometimes hard
to catch, so the only record of a new species
might be an image, Cameron explains.
Certainly it will be the only record of one
alive and functioning, because none of
these creatures can survive the pressure
drop or the transition into warmer water.
Photogrammetry of the stereo pairs
allows scientists, such as the ones at Scripps
Institute of Oceanography in San Diego,
Calif., to calculate the size of an organism
based on its range from the camera, angle
of view, and the number of pixels it occupies. In this fashion, 68 new species were
identified in footage returned to the surface

by the Deepsea Challenger.
The objective of exploration isnt
going by yourself, Cameron muses.
Thats a closed-loop, solipsistic thing to do.
Exploration is going and bringing back the
story, and bringing back the story means
bringing back the images.
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.78:1
3-D Digital Capture
Red Epic MX; Sony HDC-P1,
PMW-TD300; Silicon Imaging SI-2K;
Arri Alexa Classic; GoPro HD Hero,
HD Hero 2; Canon EOS 5D Mark II;
custom mini-cam
Angenieux Optimo, Fujinon, Evetar,
Lensation, Nikkor
37
Space Cases
Ben Davis, BSC blasts off for the
intergalactic superhero adventure
Guardians of the Galaxy.
By Douglas Bankston
|
espite having first appeared on pulp in 1969, Marvels

Guardians of the Galaxy comic books were unfamiliar to
cinematographer Ben Davis, BSC before he signed on
to shoot the big-screen incarnation. He was quickly
brought up to speed with the concept, though, when director
38
September 2014
James Gunn took him for a stroll through the art department
early in preproduction. The design work was flabbergasting,
Davis says, still with a sense of awe. It blew me away. Concept
work that is only limited by imagination can set a very high
bar, and my job was to bring it to life. That challenge, for me,
was the most enjoyable aspect.
Unlike Marvels usual fare, which hangs Earth in the
balance as superheroes square off against equally powered
villains, Guardians is at its core a space adventure, set in the
distant cosmos and populated by humans, humanoids and all
manner of strange aliens. In the film, crafty space pilot Peter
Quill (Chris Pratt) whose chosen moniker of Star-Lord
does not precede him as far as he thinks daringly swipes a
powerful orb only to find himself the subject of an all-out
bounty hunt led by the evil Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace).
With the fate of the galaxy threatened by Ronans plans, the
intergalactic police force known as the Nova Corps pressures
Unit photography by Jay Maidment, SMPSP. All images courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.
Quill into an alliance with his rivals: the

green-skinned Gamora (Zo Saldana);
a tree-being of limited vocabulary called
Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel); a
weapons-wielding raccoon named
Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper); and
a tattooed and scarred mass of muscle
known as Drax the Destroyer (Dave
Bautista). And thus the titular team is
born.
Guardians of the Galaxy marks the
first collaboration between Gunn and
Davis, as well as their first foray into
what Marvel has dubbed its cinematic
universe. (At press time, Davis was
hard at work on his second Marvel
movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron, with
writer/director Joss Whedon.) Davis
began his career at the Samuelson
Groups camera house in the U.K. and
rose through the ranks to photograph
such features as Layer Cake, Stardust,
Kick-Ass, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,
Wrath of the Titans and Seven
Psychopaths (AC Nov. 12).
For the U.K.-based Guardians
shoot, Davis opted to work with Arri
Alexa XT cameras rented from
Panavision London. He framed for a
2.40:1 release and recorded in the
ArriRaw format off of the 4:3, 2.8K
sensor to the cameras onboard Codex
Opposite (left to right): Gamora (Zo Saldana), Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Rocket, Drax the Destroyer
(Dave Bautista) and Groot team up to save the universe in director James Gunns Guardians of the
Galaxy, shot by Ben Davis, BSC. This page, top: Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) opposes the galactic
heroes. Bottom: Davis (kneeling) finds a frame.
recorders. Im traditionally a photochemical fan, he says, but going with

the digital format was the right way for
this movie. Technically, all the digital
cameras are good; I just felt the Alexa
[provided] the right look for this particular film.
www.theasc.com
Before launching into space, the

film opens with an earthbound
sequence that features a young Quill.
For these scenes, Davis employed JDC
Cooke Xtal (Crystal) Express anamorphic prime lenses, which began their
lives in the 1930s and 40s as Cooke S2
September 2014
39
Space Cases
Quill, who goes
by the self-given
moniker StarLord, steals a
mysterious
artifact sought
by Ronan.
and S3 spherical lenses but were

rehoused and modified with anamorphic elements in the 1980s by Joe
Dunton Cameras. I picked the lenses
that didnt go off the shelf much, the
cinematographer notes, adding that the
Xtal Express lenses had more anamorphic artifacts and aberrations, which I
felt added something. We had a 50mm
that said T2.8 on it, but it was more like
a T4 and had a lot of edge distortion. I
liked the look of it.
For the rest of the film, Davis
switched to spherical Panavision
Primos. When asked about the switch to
spherical lenses for the widescreen film,
Davis notes, Marvel likes to have a bit
of room for visual effects [to reposition
the frame in post]. When we shoot
anamorphic, there is not a lot of frame
height to play with, whereas if we extract
2.40:1 from a 4:3 image, there is a lot of
room to maneuver. Shooting spherical
was the right decision.
The filmmakers favored wider
lenses to take in the characters and
surroundings. James wanted Guardians
to be an intimate film, so we stayed close
to the actors on, say, a 24mm as opposed
to being 10 feet away on a 50mm,
Davis says. We worked a lot in the
range of 17.5mm to 27mm in order to
show off the sets, which were very large.
The film was mostly shot in the T2.8 to
T4 range, and if there were parts of a set
we wanted to see more of, I would float
40
September 2014
more light there.

Two Alexas were employed the
majority of the time, with a third and
fourth added on occasion. I dont mind
working with two cameras at 90 degrees
from each other, Davis says. If its
three, Ill work a wide and a tight down
one axis and the third camera at 90
degrees. Over the years Ive become
much more adept at lighting for multiple cameras.
Davis emphasizes that Guardians
was largely filmed on highly detailed,
practically built sets as opposed to
expanses of green- and bluescreen
although both frequently served as trim
for set extensions in postproduction. To
realize the extraterrestrial environments,
Davis worked closely with production
designer Charles Wood. The cinematographer enthuses, That was the
exciting thing for me, getting these
crazy concepts of mad worlds and figuring out how we would [realize them in
front of the camera]. Fortunately, we
had the time in prep to work out how.
The cinematographer was particularly struck by the number of practical
lighting sources that were evidenced in
the concept drawings. To carry this idea
into the sets, the crew wired upwards of
15,000 DMX dimmer channels to
control the built-in fixtures. I made a
Ronans bounty
hunters chase
after Quill. The
exterior set was
surrounded by
bluescreen so
visual effects
could extend the
alien terrain in
postproduction.
www.theasc.com
September 2014
41
Space Cases
creative decision to not use any traditional lighting fixtures your typical
Fresnels or HMIs on this film, the
cinematographer explains, wryly adding,
In prep, that sounded like a great idea.
42
September 2014
For a space movie, any fixture that is in

shot has to feel like its futuristic. At the
same time, I didnt want to go with what
you so often see in space movies: bits of
white Perspex with lights behind them.
We spent a lot of time trying to source

fixtures that looked like they could be
part of a world set in the future, and a lot
of those were predominantly LED or
tube fixtures. We visit worlds that are so
disparate that I felt having a unified
lighting strategy would bring them
together with a continuity of look so
that the film felt as one piece.
One of these worlds houses the
Kyln, an intergalactic prison where
Quill and his future teammates are held
after being captured by the Nova Corps.
The set was built in the 300'-long stage
at Longcross Film Studios, a former
Ministry of Defense construction and
testing facility for tanks, located in
Surrey. (The production also worked
out of Shepperton Studios.) The Kyln
set comprised a multi-level system of
tunnels lined with prison cells that led to
a main yard anchored in the center by a
four-story watchtower. I was very
adamant that [all of the lights] come
back to a central dimmer desk because
Opposite: Cast
and crew ready a
scene on the set
of the Kyln, an
intergalactic
prison. This page:
This final frame
reveals the
addition of CGI
characters Rocket
and Groot.
Bottom: The
lighting diagram
for the Kyln
prison set.
we had different scenarios to play

within that space, the cinematographer
says. We had a day look and a nighttime lockdown setting [with the practicals at a low level or off completely], and
we wanted to see that transition. When
the Guardians break out of prison, there

is also a red emergency-light/alarm
setting.
For a base ambience over the
yard, Davis and his longtime gaffer,
David Smith, sought to create the feel
www.theasc.com
of light emanating from space. To

achieve this, they devised a series of
overhead soft boxes filled with Panalux
FloBank tungsten fluorescents gelled
with CTB and aimed through Full
Grid textiles that had been dyed with
September 2014
43
Space Cases
Top: Concept art

for the Kyln.
Middle and
bottom: The
multi-level set
was lined with
prison cells that
overlooked a
main yard with a
four-story
watchtower.
Lee Filters 728 Steel Green. (Davis and

Smith decided that Steel Green would
be the de facto color for all space-originating light in the movie.) The ambient
light was about a stop and a half below
the rest of the set lighting.
Additionally, the art department
constructed massive, 660-pound ring
lights that could appear on camera as
set pieces. Smith explains, Each circle
had nine Par 64 bulbs in it, and we clustered them together on electric motors
below the soft boxes so we could take
them up and down. When we were on
a wide shot, we could drop them in to
break the frame. They worked for a
mid-ground, on-camera set piece as
well as providing great light. We ran
those lights at 25 percent, so they were
really quite warm in terms of color
temperature.
Hoverbots, each sporting a
searchlight, serve as prison guards in the
Kyln, and although the bots themselves
were CG visual effects, the searchlight
gags were created in-camera with
Philips Vari-Lites and 189-watt Clay
Paky Sharpy moving fixtures. The lights
were suspended around the set, and
some were mounted on tracks for additional movement. Panalux also made us
a joystick so we could put a Sharpy on
the end of a camera crane and manually
point the light rather than [pre44
September 2014
program its movement], says Smith.

We moved the crane and the light like
you would a remote head.
Various other tungsten-balanced
lights were also rigged throughout the
set. The art department would make a
shape, and wed put a fixture inside it,
whether it be a fluorescent, LED or Parcan bulb, says Smith. We had about
8,000 DMX channels in there by the
time we finished. Some of the fixtures
we used were RGB LED so we could
create different colors in areas, and some
of them had 75 channels per fixture.
Davis adds, If [the actors] were
being hit by colored light, wed let it play.
Color is really important in Guardians.
You see a lot of space movies that are
quite monochromatic, but we looked at
a lot of images from the Hubble
Telescope and were struck by how much
color was in them. Wed sometimes use
contrasting color to pull the talent away
from the background. I generally tried
to bring the flesh tones to something
more normal with neutral key light.
However, what qualified as a
normal flesh tone was relative, considering the various hues of the films
aliens, including the green-skinned
Gamora. I cannot tell you how many
tests we did to get a shade of green
The Guardians take flight in Quills spaceship, the Milano.
makeup that we felt worked, Davis

recalls. If we shot [Saldana] in a wide
shot, shed generally be half to twothirds of a stop down from every other
character in the scene the green just
absorbed the light. I would try to make
sure she was closest to the key light in a
scene or that it at least favored her. A lot
of times I would have a Source Four
Leko on her if I could put one in. In
post, there was quite a bit of work to
window her and pull her out.
Unfortunately, the cinematographer continues, the green we came up
www.theasc.com
with that was most photogenic was not

far removed from chroma-key green. If
we had time, wed drop a bluescreen in
behind her. But for visual effects
considering they were creating a walking, talking tree and a raccoon keying
Zo off a greenscreen was probably the
least of their problems!
Even when we thought we
werent shooting a visual-effects shot on
one of our four-wall sets, we were
reminded that we had two lead characters who are visual effects, says Davis.
So almost every shot was a visualSeptember 2014
45
Space Cases
Top: Quill and
co. pilot the
Milano through
space. Middle: A
two-level Milano
set was built
onstage, with
the flight deck
positioned
above the lower
living quarters,
allowing the
actors to move
freely within a
scene. Bottom:
The cockpit
could also be
removed and
placed on a
gimbal for battle
sequences.
effects shot. We had Sean Gunn

[ James brother] down on his knees in a
blue suit playing Rocket. Groot didnt
have many lines, so we had a stick with
a tennis ball on the end [to provide] an
eyeline. Wed run a pass with those two,
and then wed do a pass without.
The Guardians travel in Quills
spaceship, the Milano, the interior of
which was built onstage as a two-level
set with a flight deck positioned above
the lower living quarters, enabling the
actors to move freely from one deck to
another within a scene. The cockpit
could be removed from the rest of the
set and placed on a gimbal for battle
sequences. Davis notes that the cockpit
was a compact set with a lot of characters in it. The idea was that it should
light itself with practical lighting.
Smith adds, Everything [in the
cockpit] was [primarily] fluorescent or
LED, with barely any tungsten lamps
maybe the occasional Source Four or
Dedolight to pick something out.
Otherwise, wed put in 2- or 3-foot T5
tubes and strips of LED ribbon run
back to dimmers.
For shots looking out from
within the cockpit, its large, bowlshaped glass canopy was left in place so
that reflections of the Guardians could
be captured. However, when the camera
looked into the cockpit from outside,
the canopy was removed in order to
avoid unwanted reflections of equip46
September 2014
Space Cases
Top: The Guardians travel to Knowhere, a frontier community on the skull of a long-dead god
floating in space. Bottom: The crew preps a shot as Bautista steels himself for action.
ment. (The greenscreen surrounding

the cockpit was illuminated with
Panalux FloBank fluorescents.)
Above the cockpit, for scenes
when the Milano is in space, Smith and
Davis employed a soft box of fluorescent
Panalux HighLites through Full Grid
dyed with 728 Steel Green. They also
devised a number of interactive lighting
elements to simulate the ships transition into the Earth-like, daylight
48
September 2014
atmosphere of Xandar, the utopian

home of the Nova Corps.
We built a horseshoe-shaped rig
21 feet high that went from one side [of
the cockpit] to the other, Smith
explains. The cockpit, he adds, was
about 14 feet off the stage floor, and the
horseshoe rig incorporated a series of
side-by-side 2'x2' Panalux TekTile 60
daylight LED panels. We could chase
those lights backwards and forwards to
make it look like the cockpit was spinning, the gaffer continues. We also
had TekTiles going along the top of the
ship, so we were able to chase them as
though the ship was going in a forward
motion. Above that we had a roof of
silked daylight fluorescent HighLites
that we also chased to give a feeling of
movement. On either side of the cockpit, we had 12 Martin Mac Viper
Profile [moving fixtures], which we
could swipe through to give us a little
more movement. And above the ship
we had Vari-Lites rigged to sweep
across. My desk operator [Onkar
Narang] got worked!
Additionally, a 20K was positioned on a crane arm to serve as a hard
sun source, and Panalux HiLo
Softsource fixtures were mounted to the
end of a Grip Factory Munich GF-16
Crane, capable of up to a 50' reach, to
move around the cockpit as a key light.
The newly developed LED light has a
progressively adjustable color temperature range between 3,000K and 6,000K.
We were really the first show to put the
Panalux HiLo to the test, Smith says.
They were originally designed to
compete with the space light, but we
ended up having stirrups made for them
and using them on stands as a conven
tional light.
Space Cases
Davis adds that the HiLo
Softsource is dimmable without any
flicker. I liked [the fixture] so much that
I put several of them together and put
them through a large frame for a big soft
source for key lights for other setups.
The Guardians also fly the
Milano to Knowhere, one of the more
unusual settings found in any sciencefiction movie. Knowhere isnt a planet in
the proverbial sense, but rather the skull
of a long-dead god floating in space.
The surface has sprouted a kind of frontier community of prospectors who
mine the skulls yellow cerebral fluid.
Because it is in the shadow of a black
hole, Knowhere exists in endless night.
A street on Longcross Studios
back lot was dressed as the frontier
outpost and dolloped with pools of
yellow fluid. Davis initially planned to
light the street with soft boxes hung
from cranes, but the British summer
brought high winds, so instead the cinematographer opted for two 70' sections
of truss, each suspended 35' high by
cranes, one at each end of the street. On
each truss, 30 weatherproof housings
were mounted perpendicular to the truss
at 4' intervals; each housing was fitted
with two daylight fluorescent tubes
gelled with 728 Steel Green.
At street level, Davis says, there
were a lot of open storefronts, so I used
a lot of practical lights. I wanted the
street to light itself from practical
fixtures a lot of tubes on the walls and
small tungsten fixtures. The street ran
The crew films on

the greenscreen set
where the
Guardians come
face-to-face with
Ronan the Accuser
and his loyal
lieutenant, the
assassin Nebula
(Karen Gillan).
50
September 2014
Space Cases
Gunn (left) directs his brother Sean, who wore green or blue bodysuits
as he stood in for Rocket during filming.
52
along the side of a soundstage, atop

which the crew installed a 200' walkway
where they could position Nine-light
Maxi-Brutes fitted with CP60 spot
bulbs; dimmed to a low level of light
just enough to register the globes
were aimed straight down to pick out
particular areas of the set.
The Boot of Exitar bar serves as
Knowheres main hub of activity. We
built 2-by-2 TekTile LED panels into
the entrance [of the bar], says Smith.
The art department dressed them with
grills to make a semicircle of light.
Inside, there were a number of fluorescents and Par cans behind grills to make
it bright and vibrant.
Davis adds, Charlie built these
wonderful light casings into the set.
They were made of metal so they could
cope with the heat from the lights we
used Par 64 bulbs in them. We also used
a Martin Mac Aura RGB LED. I
generally dont like RGB LEDs; Im not
particularly keen on the wavelength of
the colors. Id rather use a tungsten lamp

and gel it, but I was limited with what I
could place in the structure, and the
LED fixtures didnt generate much
heat.
Smoke and haze typically permeated the sets, providing a level of diffusion in the air without the need for
diffusion filters on the lenses so that
the colorful worlds were more believable and less cartoony. The challenge
with shooting multiple cameras in those
situations is balancing the cameras,
because the amount of smoke [varies]
between the subject and each camera,
Davis explains. In post you try to
balance through contrast, to deepen the
blacks on the cameras that are farther
away and thus have more smoke
between them and the subject.
Davis viewed projected sync
rushes from the edit rooms at
Shepperton. He says he was careful not
to get bogged down in on-set image
tweaking. For example, he says, I had
one particular CDL that covered the

whole of the Kyln sequence. Because I
come from a film background, I prefer
to have a print-emulation LUT. With
digital cinematography, it is very easy to
get lured into spending all your time in
a little black tent.
The final digital grade was
conducted in 2K at Technicolor in Los
Angeles. Davis had his hands full
shooting Age of Ultron, but he would
stop at Technicolor U.K. after wrapping
for the day for a transatlantic session
with colorist and ASC associate Steven
J. Scott. The cinematographer notes,
Though most of the color is in the
photography and the design, we
selected particular colors to push in the
DI. What I didnt want to do was take
color collectively and saturate it, because
I think that is a very nave approach, a
sledgehammer approach, to color. We
took a particular color, keyed that color
to separate it, and then wed push that
color up. That may have been done with
two or three colors in each shot, so there

was a lot of work done in the color
timing.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Digital Capture
Arri Alexa XT
Panavision Primo,
JDC Cooke Xtal Express
53
Brain Power
T
Thierry Arbogast, AFC teams
with director Luc Besson on Lucy,
a sci-fi thriller about a woman
whose mental abilities escalate off
the charts.
By Benjamin B
|
54
September 2014
he film begins with a shot of a prehistoric primate. A

female voice ponders, Life was given to us a billion
years ago. What have we done with it? The question is
uttered by Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), the eponymous
heroine of Luc Bessons latest film, shot by cinematographer
Thierry Arbogast, AFC.
Lucys philosophical musing leads us into a montage of
modern-day Taipei. There, she is abducted by murderous
goons who work for the villainous Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik).
Lucy wakes up in a hotel room, discovering to her horror that
she has been chosen to be a drug mule, with an exotic
substance sewn inside her abdomen. After one of her captors
beats her, some of the drug leaks into her body, rapidly transforming Lucy into a superhuman being.
The films conceit is that the drug makes Lucy use more
and more of her brain, while the rest of us use only 10 percent.
Unit photography by Jessica Forde, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Additional images courtesy of Thierry Arbogast, AFC and EuropaCorp.
As the percentage of her brain usage

increases, she develops an array of
powers, including super intelligence,
telekinesis and the ability to perceive
and decode electro-magnetic signals.
Discovering that she cannot survive
without the drug, she flies to Paris,
where she consults a scientist, Prof.
Norman (Morgan Freeman), to help
her better understand and harness her
new abilities. As her brainpower accelerates toward 100 percent, the film
leads to a climax of metaphysical
proportions.
Arbogast first collaborated with
Besson on the classic French action
thriller La Femme Nikita, in which a
drug-addicted young woman becomes
a trained killer, and they have since
worked together on such projects as
The Fifth Element (AC May 97),
The Messenger, The Extraordinary
Adventures of Adle Blanc-Sec and The
Family. The cinematographer says he
Opposite: In the
feature Lucy, the
eponymous
heroine (played by
Scarlett Johansson)
gains new powers
when she unlocks
her minds full
potential. This
page, top: Prof.
Samuel Norman
(Morgan Freeman)
attempts to
comprehend Lucys
predicament.
Bottom:
Cinematographer
Thierry Arbogast,
AFC.
and Besson both started working in the

film industry at a young age. We didnt
go to film school; were both self-taught.
Luc believes that we can always do
better, and he is constantly seeking to
make progress, to evolve by making
different films. I like to work with him
because I also want to evolve in my
work.
www.theasc.com
When AC meets Besson in Paris,

the director explains that Lucy is
intended as a superhero movie with a
philosophical twist. The story takes an
ordinary person and puts her in an
extraordinary situation, he says.
Because Lucy gets to 100 percent, shes
the person with the greatest power on
earth, but she ends up saying, I dont
September 2014
55
Brain Power
know what to do with it. She has no
goal, no one to avenge, no one to save,
nothing to win. Thats one of the questions of the film that interested me: If
you have all this power, what do you do
with it?
Lucy was shot over 12 weeks,
with the production spending two
weeks in Taiwan and several weeks in
Paris and other European locations.
The rest of the film was shot on soundstages at the new Cit du Cinma facility outside Paris, which Besson helped
to design and create.
The film was Bessons first
entirely digital production. During
prep, the filmmakers shot comparison
tests with an Arri Alexa XT, a Red Epic,
a Sony F65 and 35mm film. The
The light has to be

natural, but it also
has to be beautiful.
Otherwise, why
bother?
Lucy is abducted
by thugs in the
employ of Mr.
Jang (Choi Min-sik,
bottom), a drug
trafficker who
surgically implants
a potent chemical
substance within
her for transport.
footage was then projected in a blind

test for Besson, who chose the F65
because he felt the image was a little
sharper, with good contrast. Arbogast
had come to a similar conclusion, and
also cites what he regards as the F65s
superior color space, and its finesse in
rendering skin tones and the green hues
in nature.
1st AC Ren-Pierre Rouaux
organized the tests and managed the
equipment prep before production, and
he was joined by 1st AC Vincent
Richard halfway through the shoot.
Rouaux prepared two F65s: an A
camera operated by Besson and a B
camera for Steadicam operators
56
September 2014
Lorenzo Donati and Larry McConkey.

The A camera was usually outfitted
with an 18-80mm Arri/Fujinon Alura
T2.6 zoom, which Arbogast says he
selected because there was no stop loss
at longer focal lengths. For the
Steadicam, Rouaux gathered and tested
a set of Cooke S4 lenses comprising 16
different focal lengths from 12mm to
180mm. Arbogast says he chose the
Cooke S4s because they are gentler
than other lenses. For exteriors, the
cinematographer also employed an
Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm T2.8
zoom.
The production recorded Sony
Raw 4K with SR-R4 recorders in
widescreen 2.40:1. Rouaux notes that
the 4K image was very demanding in
terms of focus, with less depth of field
than he was used to in 35mm. He estimates that about half the scenes were
shot with two cameras, often with a
Steadicam adding a complementary
movement or angle to the A camera. He
adds that a few picturesque scenes were
shot with an Imax Wilcam IW5A, and
that the Parisian car chase stunts were
filmed with a mixture of F65s, Alexa
XTs and Epic MXs, all set at 22 fps to
give a slight acceleration to the action.
By all accounts, Besson is a decisive director who arrives on set knowing
the shots he wants, and who works very
quickly. As the director explains,
When I get to the set in the morning,
Top and bottom:

Lucy is held captive
in a warehouse,
where Arbogast
underscored her
brutal situation with
harsh lighting from
above. Middle: The
filmmakers used
this rotating set to
achieve the
in-camera effect of
a gravity anomaly
after the drug
releases into
Lucys system.
www.theasc.com
September 2014
57
Brain Power
Lucy confronts two taxi drivers in a night-exterior scene lit in part with 12 daylight-balanced
industrial fluorescents (top photo, in background) and a yellow sodium fixture in a Chinese
lantern (lighting Johansson).
Ive already made my decisions. I tell the

grip, The first shot is here, the second
shot is a dolly. After that well go into
angle-reverse angle. Then I go take
care of the actors, who have already
rehearsed the day before. We get into
place, we warm up, we shoot eight to 10
takes, and then we move on to the next
shot. It goes fast. On average we shoot
25 shots per day and we never go into
overtime!
The productions speed was
further facilitated by Arbogasts preparation and lighting methods. The cinematographer explains that he begins by
58
September 2014
placing his light sources outside the set.

Theres no other way with Luc he
needs the freedom to move the camera,
and he doesnt like lights on set. And I
prefer that, too, because it creates more
natural lighting. The light has to be
natural, but it also has to be beautiful.
Otherwise, why bother?
For daylight interiors, the cinematographer often generated soft fill
light, either with 12K Pars bounced off
Ultrabounce frames or with 12K
Chimeras, and then sometimes added
direct sunlight with 18K Fresnels. I
like Chimeras because they are the size
of windows and simulate their soft

lighting. I dont see how you can do
sunlight on a stage without a Fresnel. I
like the soft, directional lighting that
the big lens creates, and its soft-edged
shadows. I need a lot of power for
daylight, but when we move to night
its a lot lower. I can work with a total
of 15K for night, but I need 80 or 90K
for day situations.
Arbogast and his crew prelit all
the soundstage sets so that the production could move quickly. Now that I
know Luc, I can anticipate what he
might ask for, the cinematographer
says. I plan everything out ahead of
time so that we can move quickly, and
I have backup options ready to go so we
dont get caught.
Gaffer Gregory Fromentin
admires Arbogasts speed and ability on
the set. It takes talent to create beautiful lighting quickly and efficiently, he
says. For me, Thierry is the best at
that. He can prepare a reverse shot with
two superstars in 10 or 15 minutes!
Fromentin notes that Arbogasts
approach of lighting from outside the
set implies powerful units and the
crew that goes with them when
shooting day interiors. At the beginning of a new set, the gaffer explains,
I have the prelight crew join us for the
first half hour. So there are 15 electricians to start things off, because were
Brain Power
Director Luc Besson frames up the Sony F65 for a shot of Johansson in an airplane set.
A custom Rosco ring light was mounted around the cameras Arri/Fujinon Alura zoom lens; outside
the set, key grip Jean-Pierre Mas maneuvered a K5600 Alpha 18K to create a floating sunlight
effect through the windows.
60
September 2014
dealing with big units you need four

people to move an 18K on a big stand.
Then, once we start shooting, we may
send the prelight crew to build up or
tear down another set.
The films commitment to naturalism meant that Johansson might
sometimes be shot in awkward top- or
sidelighting. Arbogast wanted to be able
to add an eye-light sparkle in the actress
eyes, and also occasional subtle fill to
reduce the contrast if necessary. He
achieved this by placing dimmable
LED ring lights on the lens of each
camera.
Fromentin thanks Rosco for
building two custom ring-light units
with diameters large enough to fit
around the Alura zoom and the Cooke
S4s. The gaffer also arranged to have a
custom wireless DMX dimmer built so
that he and Arbogast could change the
ring lights intensity during the take
for example, when the actress
Brain Power
approached the camera.
Besson operates the A camera on
his films, and he prefers to use a fluid
head, usually on a bazooka, whose
height can easily be re-adjusted, unlike
a tripod. I have a physical relationship
to operating, he says. I like to hug the
camera, which is why I prefer a fluid
head. He adds that he likes to use a
slider because it allows you to almost
instantly compensate for the actors
positions, especially in widescreen,
where you have a lot of width to the
frame.
The director explains that operating is also a way for him to work
closely with the actors. He prefers to
shoot with a video monitor, rather than
I couldnt direct
watching a monitor
15 meters away
from the actors.
an eyepiece, because it allows him to be

more present. He explains, When I
operate, I can be a meter away from the
actor, and this allows me to enter into
the scene with them, and sometimes to
modify the scene while were rolling. I
may ask them to take a breath and start
again. I cant imagine shooting any
other way. I couldnt direct watching a
monitor 15 meters away from the
actors. He sometimes reframes the
zoom by hand during the scene when
I sense that the emotion is coming.
One emotional scene takes place
in a Taiwanese hospital when Lucy calls
her mother to describe her radically
expanded consciousness. The lengthy
scene was filmed in one continuous
shot, and Besson had the head
mounted sideways so he could intro-
Numerous camera
vehicles, including a
Pancam (bottom)
mounted with five
Red Epic cameras,
were utilized for
filming a car
chase on the
streets of Paris.
62
September 2014
Brain Power
This page:
Arbogast (top,
right) and gaffer
Gregory
Fromentin (not
pictured) created
a unique lighting
setup for a scene
in which the
passage of time is
represented by
the rapid,
repeated
movement of the
sun from dawn to
dusk. The effect
was simulated
with a rig that
included 30 LED
lights in a halfcircle, each
programmed at a
different color
temperature.
Opposite: The
lighting diagram
for the time-lapse
set.
duce slight Dutch angles. He also did

small zooms and dolly moves. The
entire shot continually moves and
breathes. Its very gentle.
After her abduction, Lucy is
chained to a wall in a big, bare warehouse room that serves as a prison cell.
Here, she is beaten by a guard and the
drug releases into her system, imbuing
64
September 2014
her with powers. Later, Lucy goes into

convulsions and the film cuts to a shot
of her lying against the ceiling. Besson
chose to shoot this effect in-camera,
rotating the entire set upside down, a
trick that evokes the spaceship set in
2001: A Space Odyssey.
The lighting for the cell was
accomplished by building six transluAmerican Cinematographer
cent rectangular panels into the ceiling,

with daylight Kino Flos behind them.
This toplight was offset by the ring
light, an occasional bounce fill, and a big
white frame in place of the sets missing
wall. When the action wasnt situated
under one of the ceiling panels,
Arbogast positioned an LED panel,
with a quality and color that matched
the ceiling units, on a boom above the
actors. In general, the cinematographer
prefers cool fluorescents because they
have more punch, he says, and he
accented their green-blue hue by setting
the F65 to 3,200K.
The cells harsh, greenish lighting
underlines the brutality of Lucys
predicament. Arbogast laughs and
offers, This is not a beauty shoot! I took
a similar approach on Nikita. Its a bit
rough on [ Johanssons] face, but I added
a softer touch with the ring light.
The cinematographer stresses
that his collaboration with production
designer Hugues Tissandier was crucial
to ensuring that practical light sources
www.theasc.com
September 2014
65
Brain Power
Prof. Normans research on the brains potential makes him the perfect candidate to assist Lucy in
understanding and harnessing her rapidly developing powers.
66
September 2014
were integrated into the sets, and that

the position of windows allowed for
well-placed external sources. Arbogast
adds that Besson was very involved in
this design process, which involved test
shoots to validate the lighting.
Jangs residence in Taiwan
comprised several sets. His first
encounter with Lucy takes place in his
office, which features a large, rightangle picture window that is covered by
thick, translucent curtains behind and
around Lucy. Arbogast explains that
this arrangement enabled an impressive
10-meter wraparound soft-light source
that he created from outside the set by
bouncing HMIs and positioning big
Fresnel units to punch a stronger
front-light accent.
The set for Jangs spacious living
room included light wells sunken into
the ceiling and decorative, hanging
Chinese lamps. The light wells were
filled with dimmable Kino Flo flatheads, with dozens of cool fluorescent
tubes. Arbogast requested that the large
picture window be removed to avoid
unwanted reflections of his ring light
and of a large Chimera OctaPlus he
aimed at Johansson from afar one of
the rare on-set lights, introduced to
complement the toplight.
When Lucy wakes up in a hotel
room with a bandaged stomach, she is
backlit through curtains, with a touch of
sunlight on the wall from a 12K Fresnel.
A frontal soft light was provided by a

575-watt HMI and a 1K tungsten
Redhead bounced off a small poly
board. The cinematographer dimmed
the Redhead by eye to arrive at a
slightly warm color.
Arbogast sought to make the
Taiwanese exteriors more colorful than
the rest of the film. When Lucy
confronts two taxi drivers with a gun in
a night exterior, the crew hung a dozen
daylight-balanced industrial fluorescents as background practicals, and
sidelit Johansson with cool Kino Flos
on one side, and on the other with a
The most important

thing in the film is
the energy that
Scarlett gives to
her character.
yellow sodium fixture in a Chinese

lantern that stood in for a streetlamp.
Inside the taxi, Johansson was
shot by a car-mounted camera
through a window that reflected the
colorful Asian cityscape. Arbogast
used two programmable RGB LED
sources outside the car: a flat panel and
a string of LEDs wrapped around the
lens. These lights washed the actress
face with quickly changing saturated
colors, which the filmmakers
controlled wirelessly from a separate
car to roughly match the window
reflections.
When shooting a scene with
Lucy on an airplane, Arbogast wanted
to create the effect of the morning sun
coming through the windows. I
wanted a low sun to appear in the 10
windows of the plane set, so I needed
the sun to be far away, at least 15
Brain Power
Besson (gesturing) consults with Johansson during the filming of a hospital scene.
meters [50 feet] to get parallel rays, and

I wanted the sun to float a little, to go up
and down like it does in a plane. The
sunlight was created by a lightweight
K5600 Alpha 18K on a dolly-mounted
68
crane, which key grip Jean-Pierre Mas

slowly moved up and down. The sky
behind the sun was provided by an
expanse of white cotton fabric lit by a
row of 4K Cine Pars.
The production of Lucy involved

many effects, including greenscreens,
which were managed by visual-effects
supervisor Nicholas Brooks. Fromentin
recalls that Brooks requested that the
greenscreens be illuminated with HMIs
rather than tungsten lights, because the
daylight lamps create less green spill on
the foreground.
The most unique lighting setup
on Lucy was created for a scene where
the flow of time is represented by simulating the rapid, repeated movement of
the sun from dawn to dusk. After testing different techniques, Arbogast and
Fromentin created a setup with some 30
LED lights in a half-circle, backlighting
Johansson in a chair. Each of the lights
was programmed with the color of the
sun at a time of day, going from a warm
2,500K at dawn to 4,200K at noon and
warming back up for sunset. The lights
were then programmed to dissolve
quickly from one to the other via
DMX, creating the illusion of the sun
moving quickly in a semi-circle above

the actress.
When speaking of his preparation, Besson compares himself to a
chess player. I spend a lot of time on
the sets before shooting, he says. As
soon as the walls are up on the stage, I
start pacing around, looking at the
distances. I start to see where I can use
wide lenses or longer ones. I integrate
all that and I live with it inside my head,
like a chess player who after a while no
longer needs a board to play out a game.
The first thing I try to determine are
the camera positions, and where the
dead spots will be, where we can put
equipment. Sometimes there are no
dead spots on the set!
For every scene, I always have
two or three masters that Ive imagined
for some time, sometimes even when I
wrote them, the director continues. I
arrange the other elements around
those. A businessman once told me that
20 percent of the work yields 80 percent
of the revenue. I find that to be true in

life, and in cinema. So I always try to
take care of the heart of the scene first,
and find the right emotion, the right
frame, the right focal length. We start
with that, and then we can elaborate.
Besson concludes, The most
important thing in the film is the energy
that Scarlett gives to her character. First
we take care of that, and do everything
we can to help that, so that after watching the film, the first thing people will
say is that Scarlett was incredible. Then,
afterwards, maybe theyll say that the
lighting was beautiful, the framing was
good, and so on. But I wont relent on
that first necessity. I want everything to
service her performance.
Asked about his relationship with
Besson, Arbogast laughs as he remembers some early-morning encounters.
Sometimes I came to the soundstage
very early in the morning because I
needed to think about the problems of
an upcoming set, so [I would be] there
one hour before the crew. And who do I

bump into? Luc! That has happened to
us a few times, because we both have the
same approach. We both need to reflect
on what we will do.
For additional Lucy coverage, visit
www.theasc.com/asc_blog/thefilmbook.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Sony F65, Arri Alexa XT,
Red Epic MX, Imax Wilcam
IW5A
Arri/Fujinon Alura, Cooke S4,
Angenieux Optimo
69
Windows
to the
I Origins, shot by Markus Frderer,
takes viewers on an epic quest to
India, where an eye researchers
rational logic meets evidence of
reincarnation.
By Jay Holben
|
70
September 2014
Soul
A
s the dramatic feature I Origins begins, atheistic Ph.D.

student Ian Gray (Michael Pitt) hopes that his ongoing
research into the human eye will help him disprove the
notion of intelligent design. However, he begins to question his own beliefs after meeting the mysterious, masked Sofi
(Astrid Bergs-Frisbey) at a Halloween party. Struck by her
captivating eyes, Gray grows desperate to see her again, but
knows neither her name nor how to find her. He finally gets
his chance at 11:11 a.m. on the 11th of November, when, after
buying a lottery ticket at a 7-11, he sees dancing 11s on the
side of a building caused by the light reflecting off of a passing train. Following the 11s, he is led to a billboard that
features Sofis unique eyes in mesmerizing close-up.
Unit photography by Jelena Vukotic. All images courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Opposite: Ocular
research sends
molecular
biologist Ian Gray
(Michael Pitt)
toward a
crossroads of
science and faith
in the feature I
Origins. This page,
top: After a
chance meeting,
Ian tracks down
Sofi (Astrid
Bergs-Frisbey)
and an intense
romance ensues.
Bottom (left to
right):
Writer/director
Mike Cahill,
cinematographer
Markus Frderer,
1st AC Rylan
Morris Scherer and
key grip Thomas
Moll-Rocek study
a frame.
Ian tracks down Sofi through the

advertisement, and once they reconnect,
the two are inseparable until Sofi dies in
a tragic accident, causing a distraught
Ian to fall into the arms of his lab assistant, Karen (Brit Marling). Years later,
Ian and Karen are happily married with
a newborn baby, but when the childs
eyes are recorded for an international iris
database, theyre found to match the
eyes of a deceased man. What appears at
first to be a fluke in the system leads to
a series of incredible connections that
suggest evidence of past lives and reincarnation. As he traces these connections, Ian sets off for India on a journey
that leads him toward a seemingly inexplicable crossroads linking science, faith
and Sofi.
Helping writer/director Mike
Cahill to envision this metaphysical
mystery was German-born cinematographer Markus Frderer, whose work on
Tim Fehlbaums Hell earned him
considerable kudos, including a nomination for Best Cinematography Debut
at the 2011 Camerimage Film Festival
in Poland. A graduate of the University
of Television and Film Munich, where
he studied cinematography, Frderer
met Cahill when they were both on the
festival circuit; the cinematographer was

helping to promote Hell and the director was screening his sci-fi drama
Another Earth. They began talking
about collaborating on a project and
were soon at work on I Origins, Cahills
second narrative feature and Frderers
fourth.
Mike sent me the script, and we
met up in New York to talk about ideas
while I was on vacation, recalls
Frderer. I brought a lot of pictures
with me every time I watch a movie
www.theasc.com
at home, I capture some screenshots,

and Ive saved thousands over the years.
Mike and I sat and talked for a long
time, and he really challenged and tested
me: How would you do this? How
would you do that?
I really admired Another Earth,
the cinematographer continues. That
film had almost no lighting, yet it was
beautiful and honest and still cinematic.
He wanted to do I Origins in a similar
way, with a very small crew and very
natural, limited lighting to give the
September 2014
71
Windows to the Soul
Top: Ian shares a

song with Sofi.
Middle: Cahill
gets a shot of Ian
on the train.
Bottom: Once
theyve
reconnected, Ian
and Sofi become
inseparable.
actors a lot of freedom. We kept it small

no big lights, no marks on the floor.
Id light the space once in the morning
and wed shoot all day long with two
cameras, 360 degrees, keeping [our
approach] very organic for the actors.
We had very little equipment,
he adds. We lit mostly with Litepanels
[1x1s] and 4-by-2 and 4-by-4 Kino
Flos. We also had one M18 HMI,
which was our biggest light. I mostly lit
with available light and just augmented
with the Litepanels and Kino Flos; I
used the Kinos over the windows a lot to
help carry daylight into rooms, or I
would bounce them into ceilings. I also
used a lot of DoP Choice Snapgrids,
which can attach to Kinos or larger
frames to provide a fast, sturdy egg crate
that keeps the light from spilling everywhere.
The reduced scale of the production also extended to Frderers crew,
which was limited to 1st AC Rylan
Morris Scherer, 2nd AC Andrea
Boglioli, data wrangler Liang Cai,
gaffers Aaron Smith (in New York) and
Siby Veliath (for the Delhi-based
portion of the shoot), two electricians
and two grips. Frderer operated the A
camera, a Red Epic MX, and Cahill
operated the second, a Red Scarlet,
which was chosen over a second Epic
for budgetary reasons. Visual-effects
shots were captured at 5K, but otherwise the cameras recorded 4K at 7:1
compression to 128GB RedMag SSDs.
Both cameras were almost always hand72
September 2014
held. Mike pulled his own focus,

recalls Frderer. He doesnt come from
a typical film-school background, and
he comes up with images that are really
fresh and interesting. Its not always
about having nice backlight or great
framing. He breaks all the rules and gets
really nice results.
The filmmakers tested a number
of digital cameras during preproduction.
Although Frderer says he felt the
[Arri] Alexa looked the most film-like
and held details in highlights nicely,
they opted for the Epic as the primary
camera because its much smaller, the
cinematographer explains. We wanted
to shoot fast, and having a small, lightweight package while still getting an
image that would give us flexibility and
quality in post was a key factor.
Digital gives me more flexibility
in lighting, Frderer continues. I dont
have to fill the blacks as much. But digital images tend to not have the kind of
life to them that film does. Texture is
really important with digital cameras,
and [to create texture] I like to shoot at
a higher ASA and underexpose a little
bit. Some cameras are better for that
than others their noise looks more
like film grain. Most of the time I was
rating the cameras at 1,250 or 1,600
ASA to create some noise and get a little
texture and life in the image. I also
ended up applying some film grain in
the DI process, which I think helps the
image a lot. The filmmakers monitored
in RedGamma3 and RedColor 3 on set,
and did no color grading until the DI,
which was conducted at Harbor Picture
Company in New York City with
colorist Joe Gawler, who graded the 4K
raw files using Blackmagic Designs
DaVinci Resolve for a final 2K output.
Ians study of iris patterns called
for a number of extreme close-ups of
eyes. That was actually one of the
things that caught Mikes attention
about my work, offers Frderer. Hell
starts with an extreme macro of an eye,
and he really loved the way it looked.
For I Origins, we did some early tests in
Mikes New York apartment, shooting
our own eyes to determine how we
Top and middle: The couple explores the city together. Bottom: Ian and Sofis wedding day darkens
following a call from Ians lab.
wanted to light the macro shots since

the eye is like a mirror, you see all the
reflections of the light sources and the
camera itself. We took a black trash bin,
mounted LED lights and cut a small
hole in it; then we put the bin over our
www.theasc.com
heads and shot through the hole. It

worked great to eliminate the reflections, so we created a larger version [for
production]: a 20-foot-by-20-foot black
box with one strong M18 HMI very far
away so that the reflection could be
September 2014
73
Windows to the Soul
Top and middle: Ian and his lab assistant, Karen (Brit Marling), conduct research they hope will
disprove arguments for intelligent design. Bottom: Cahill directs Marling.
74
September 2014
controlled. We switched to a Canon

mount on the Epic and used a Canon
EF 100mm [f2.8L Macro IS USM]
lens.
Wider shots also called for a careful consideration of the shape and placement of highlights in the actors eyes.
Frderer attests, I became obsessed
with eye lights on this film. Its amazing
how different an eye can look depending on the shape of the eye light. If you
have a really big reflection in the eye,
you cant really [discern] the texture and
pattern in the iris, and if you have no
reflection, the eye looks dead. I found
that the best solution was to have an
amorphous shape that was a little more
rounded, with soft edges, but not
symmetrical. If we reshaped a bounce
board into a rounder shape by taping the
edges with black tape, then you saw the
life in the eye but your brain would kind
of erase the highlight.
Frderer also strove to find the
best angle at which to place the eye
light, ultimately deciding to set it as far
off-axis as possible without losing the
highlight. You want the light far
enough away so it doesnt fill in the
actors face, but still close enough to the
lens axis that you get the reflection, he
explains. I felt it always looked better
off to the side not centered and
slightly above the eye line.
In some instances, Frderer
notes, it was also important not to use an
eye light. When we wanted someones
eyes to look special, we added the eye
light with the off-axis, organic-shaped
source. Otherwise, I was careful not to
include eye lights. As an example, the
cinematographer points to the scene
when Ian first reconnects with Sofi.
They meet in a diner, where Frderer
used a single source for her, an M18
outside the window through a diffusion
frame that we rounded but not into a
perfect circle by taping off the
corners. It was both her key light and
her eye light, and it created a beautiful
highlight. That same light was also a
great backlight for Michael, and I made
sure he didnt have any eye light at all,
which made her look much more special
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Windows to the Soul
Top: Years after Sofis death, Ian and Karen have married and had a son.
Middle and bottom: The couple partners with friend and fellow scientist Kenny (Steven Yeun) when
they discover matching iris patterns from different people in disparate parts of the world.
76
September 2014
and alive than him. When we moved

into Sofis close-ups, I created her eye
light using a small silver reflector with
the same kind of organic shape taped
out on it.
Just as I became obsessed with
eye lights on this film, I had become a
bit obsessed with lenses and flares on
Hell, the cinematographer confesses.
Flares are such a strong storytelling
tool, and shooting against a window can
really set the atmosphere. For this
project, I tried to shoot without a matte
box as often as possible to get softer
blacks and more veiling flare.
Its important to pick the right
lenses for a project, especially with digital cameras, Frderer continues. For I
Origins, the main lens package consisted
of Red Pro 17-50mm T2.9 and 50150mm T3 zooms, and Zeiss Super
Speed primes. I like simple lenses with
simple coatings, the cinematographer
attests. The Red lenses are inexpensive,
theyre light and they have a good flare
property to create a nice image.
Additionally, the Canon 100mm macro
was used for long-lens handheld work
because of its built-in stabilizer.
Much of the films first act takes
place in Ians lab, where large windows
look out over New York City. We
scouted a lot of locations, and when we
came across this one everyone knew it
was right, Frderer recalls. It was
fantastic and cinematic, but I also knew
Windows to the Soul
Top: Ian travels to India and meets with Priya Varma (Archie Panjabi) to inquire about a young girl with
Sofis iris pattern. Middle: Ian searches the streets of Delhi. Bottom: After locating the young girl,
Salomina (Kashish), Ian puts his reincarnation theory to the test.
78
September 2014
wed be shooting big scenes in there

[over] long days, with no way to control
the light outside those big windows. I
ended up lining the upper shelves in the
lab with Kinos fitted with 5,600K tubes.
Some of them had additional full CTB
on them, and we bounced them into the
ceiling. Id set the white balance on the
camera to 8,000K or 9,000K and then
[light with] either 5,600K or 5,600K
with full CTB to get cool fill inside and
make the outside go warmer. I really
liked what the cool fill did with Brit
Marlings blonde hair and fair skin it
worked beautifully. For the night scenes,
we just used the practicals in the lab.
Frderer pursued a similar strategy in the apartment locations for Sofi
and Ian and then Ian and Karen: minimal lighting, mostly natural and practical with some soft, cool bounce into the
ceiling provided by Kino Flos. The
approach was to avoid stands on the
set, he explains. We wanted to make
sure that the actors had total freedom
and that we could shoot in any direction. In Sofi and Ians place, we put ND
on the windows so we could see outside;
we also used some negative fill with
floppies close to the camera, but that
was pretty rare.
The filmmakers also employed a
Vision Research Phantom Miro for
several slow-motion sequences
which they shot at 300-600 fps in
1920x1080 resolution including Ians
Windows to the Soul
The production employed an Egripment Xtreme telescopic crane for the shot of Ian finding Salomina.
emotional breakdown after Sofis death.

In other instances, Frderer achieved a
subtler slow-motion effect with the
Epic. For some specific moments, he
explains, we shot at 30 fps to create a
80
very subtle slow motion that you feel

more than [consciously] notice. Its a
technique used frequently in sound
design, where the audio will be slightly
slowed down for a dramatic effect. This
was a big concept for Mike: the idea of

subtly slowing things down to heighten
the drama of key moments and make
the audience pay a little more attention
to whats happening.
The technique was specifically
utilized for instances of dj vu that
Frderer describes as brother-sister
shots. These were key moments that we
repeated visually to connect two story
points, and they were certainly our most
complicated shots in the movie. For
example, the first time Ian enters Sofis
apartment, the camera move matches
Ians entrance into a hotel room in India
where he meets with a little girl. We
scouted a ton of hotels in India to find
one with a similar layout to Sofis apartment so we could repeat the same
camera move in both places. We did the
shots on a slider, matching the move at
each location. The hope is that you get a
feeling that something is familiar about
this little girl in India. We also worked
with the color palette of the hotel room
to make it like Sofis apartment, and we

[designed] the girls wardrobe to
emulate Sofis clothing choices.
We also used a motion-control
rig for the first time Ian sees the billboard with Sofis eyes [in New York],
Frderer continues. Here, we did a
slight Vertigo shot [combining a dolly
move with a zoom] that starts when Ian
exits the bus and discovers the billboard;
we dollied in with a Technodolly and
zoomed out as the camera rotated 180
degrees to get over his shoulder, [and
then we] filled the screen with the billboard. It was a very complex shot, especially for the size of this show.
Unfortunately, when we got to India for
the shot of Ian finding the girl, we
couldnt get a motion-control rig or a
Technodolly. We tried to make it match
as closely as possible with an Egripment
Xtreme telescopic crane, starting at
30mm on an Angenieux Optimo 24290mm [T2.8] zoom, circling around
Michael and ending up at 290mm on a
close-up of the little girls eyes.

For the six-day shoot in Delhi,
Frderer reveals, it was very difficult to
get equipment. Mumbai is really the big
movie city [in India]. To get equipment
in Delhi, everything had to come by
plane. It was very challenging to get a
big crane!
Looking back on his collaboration with Cahill, Frderer cant resist a
pun. Working with Mike was eyeopening for me, he says. He challenged me to find images that were
unique and interesting but still felt
honest. I learned that it was possible to
keep the production very small, to light
very simply and still create nice images
that fit the story and character. It was
liberating to be less distracted by equipment and technicality and to just focus
on the story; youre not thinking of the
next setup, or what equipment you need
to bring in or strike. You light the scene
in the morning and you shoot all day
with only very minor adjustments. It
makes for an atmosphere where everyone feels safe to create. The actors feel
like theyre in a real place, not a movie
set, and it allows them to go deeper into
their characters and their environment.
It was an extraordinary experience and
Im very proud of the end result!
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Digital Capture
Red Epic MX, Scarlet;
Vision Research Phantom Miro
Red Pro, Zeiss Super Speed,
Canon, Angenieux Optimo
81
Framing
a
Family
Conflict
Cinematographer John Christian

Rosenlund, FNF and director
Erik Poppe went to extraordinary
and sometimes dangerous
lengths to make
A Thousand Times Good Night
as authentic as possible.
By Mark Dillon
|
82
September 2014
n A Thousand Times Good Night, Juliette Binoche stars as

Rebecca, a photojournalist who covers war zones in a quest
to show the rest of the world what it otherwise would not
see. Yet her dangerous work and prolonged absences
threaten to shatter her home life in Ireland, where her marinebiologist husband, Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), and
daughters, Steph (Lauryn Canny) and Lisa (Adrianna
Cramer Curtis), await.
Norwegian director Erik Poppe, who co-wrote the
English-language script with Harald Rosenlw-Eeg, explains
that the title refers to that hardest moment when you are out
there in these [conflict] areas, when you call or Skype your
kids to say good night. Its those thousand evenings when no
one can hide the fact that you are not there.
Unit Photography by Terje Bringedal, Zoriah Miller,

Marcus Bleasdale, Calin Catalin and Erik Poppe.
Images courtesy of John Christian Rosenlund, FNF;
Paradox; and Film Movement.
Opposite: Conflict photographer Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) is forced to decide between her dangerous
work and crumbling home life in the feature A Thousand Times Good Night. This page, top: Rebecca
enjoys a moment of tranquility with her husband, Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Bottom (left to
right): Cinematographer John Christian Rosenlund, FNF; Binoche and director Erik Poppe on
location in Ouarzazate, Morocco, where they staged scenes set in Kenya.
Its a situation that Poppe knows

all too well, having served as a conflict
photographer for Reuters and
Norwegian national daily Verdens Gang
in the 1980s. In the subsequent decade
he studied cinematography at Swedens
Dramatiska Institutet, and later
returned to danger hotspots such as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Pakistan to direct documentaries for
broadcasters and NGOs.
Poppes brief cinematography
career included shooting Bent Hamers
1995 comedy-drama Eggs. He moved
into the directors chair for 1998s Bunch

of Five (Schpaaa), a drama about a
teenage gang. For that film he enlisted
fellow countryman John Christian
Rosenlund, FNF, whom he knew from
the commercial-production circuit, for
cinematography duties. Rosenlund and
Poppe reunited on the 2008 drama
Troubled Water and now on A Thousand
Times Good Night, an Ireland/
Norway/Sweden coproduction made
on a budget of around $8 million. The
movie was awarded the jurys Special
Grand Prix at the 2013 Montreal
www.theasc.com
World Film Festival.

Rosenlund says having a trained
cinematographer as his director makes
his job easier. Erik entrusts me with a
lot of responsibility, he remarks via
phone from Bucharest, Romania, where
hes shooting the Norwegian disaster
film The Wave with director Roar
Uthaug. When we are prepping, were
talking mostly about feelings and what
the story is about, so when we shoot, I
know his intentions and I am quite free
to light it and suggest how to do it, and
thats very special. He knows that one
September 2014
83

cinematographer can override another
with suggestions to the point where
youre only an operator.
Poppe certainly had many suggestions in other areas. Speaking from his
Oslo home, the director says his familiarity with the material allowed him to
give very precise direction to Juliette
and the whole crew, including the
costume, production design and sound
departments. I needed to do it as
honestly as possible. It was a process that
got a lot off my shoulders.
During preproduction, Poppe
made two short films: one consisting of
stills and video footage of war photographers at work, and the other featuring
shots of Kabul, including sites where
suicide bombs had gone off. This latter
montage ties into the features opening
scene, in which Rebecca follows a
female suicide bomber who is preparing
to detonate an explosive in the Afghan
capital. Poppe describes these shorts as
mood boards. He recalls, I started by
showing the daily life and the area
surrounding the bombings. It was
important that John Christian could get
the atmosphere. I didnt want to romanticize it. I wanted to show it clean and
honest.
Before shooting the Afghanistan-set scenes involving Binoche in the
Moroccan city of Ouarzazate, Poppe
and Rosenlund put their own lives at
risk in Kabul to make the film as
authentic as possible. The two filmmakers spent five days there, driving around
and shooting pickups in mid-September
2012 amid angry protests against the
U.S. movie Innocence of Muslims, which
was widely received as anti-Islamic.
Poppe feared that locals believed
a [Western] man with a movie camera
was the worst thing you could be. The
situation was quite crazy, so we had to
move around fast and shoot as much as
we could. Shortly after they arrived, in
an eerie case of life imitating art, a
female suicide bomber drove a car full of
explosives into a mini-bus, killing at
least nine people.
They shot the Kabul footage on a
Canon Cinema EOS C300. I needed
Above and
opposite: The
crew lit the entire
house interior so
the actors and
camera could
move freely
during a dramatic
confrontation
between Rebecca
and Marcus.
Bottom: For closeups in the house,
Rosenlund
employed SoftBx
Juliette lights,
which were
custom-made for
the production by
the Paris-based
company
Softlights.
84
September 2014
www.theasc.com
September 2014
85
The crew positioned mirrors (bottom) to create the effect of a moving airplane for the
scene in which Rebecca and her older daughter, Steph (Lauryn Canny), fly to Kenya.
something that didnt look like a gun,

Rosenlund explains. The C300 had just
come into production and was not yet
available for rental, but the manufacturers Norway office offered it to the
filmmakers free of charge. The compact
camera has a built-in ND filter system
and battery pack, and the cinematographer used no focus control, cables or
extra boxes. He used his own EF-S 1786
September 2014
55mm f2.8 IS USM and EF 70200mm f4L IS USM still-photography

zoom lenses, shooting handheld and
relying entirely on natural light. He shot
with the Canon Log gamma setting at
50Mbps 4:2:2 with 8-Bit MPEG-2
Long GOP compression.
Rosenlund recorded to 16GB
and 32GB SanDisk Extreme Pro
CompactFlash Memory Cards, capturAmerican Cinematographer
ing on two cards simultaneously. Back

in his room at the hotel which was
fortified with metal doors and policed
by machine-gun-wielding guards he
copied the footage onto a pair of LaCie
Rugged hard disks.
The dual-slot recording system
proved particularly useful during a runin with authorities. Rosenlund was
removed from his vehicle and held for
the better part of an hour by five heavily armed Afghan soldiers who had
caught him shooting around a secret
security building. They wanted to take
away his camera, but he pleasantly
refused. Finally, a friendlier official in
civilian clothes arrived and accepted the
cameramans offer to erase his memory
card on the spot. Unbeknownst to
them, Rosenlund had the second card
for backup. When we landed in
Kabul, the cinematographer recounts,
our security advisor taught us that if we
got caught, we should just try to smile
and be relaxed, passive and pleasing and
try to keep a low profile. I did that and
it worked.
The filmmakers next stop was
East Africa. After Rebecca is injured in
Kabul and promises her husband that
she will quit covering conflict areas, she
Mother and
daughter bond
during their
shared trip to
Kenya.
is swayed by her older daughter, Steph,

to accept an opportunity to photograph
refugee camps in Kenya; she even brings
Steph along so she can do research for a
school project. Poppe and Rosenlund
traveled to Kenya toting the C300 for
three days of pickups, chiefly involving
wide shots of a large refugee camp near
the Ugandan border.
Employing 500 extras, the
Kenyan sequences featuring Binoche
and Canny were also shot in
Ouarzazate, which has hosted productions ranging from Lawrence of Arabia
88
September 2014
to Game of Thrones.
The filmmakers had planned to
shoot Rebeccas home scenes in their
native Norway, but the movies financing arrangements required them to relocate to Ireland. Rebeccas elegant
country house which stands in stark
contrast to the grittiness of Kabul and
Kenya was filmed outside of Dublin.
The production began with 38 days of
principal photography in mid-October.
Despite shooting during rainy season
and scrambling to make their days
before sunset, the filmmakers found
that fortune was on their side. Sceneby-scene, the weather conditions we got
were very close to what Id hoped for,
Poppe recounts. (The director was also
lucky to land Irish royalty in the form of
U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who, in
a rare acting appearance, plays Tom, a
friend of the family.)
Poppe had shot digitally for documentaries, but never for a dramatic
feature. At Rosenlunds suggestion, they
opted for the Arri Alexa Plus as their
main camera for the Ireland and
Morocco shoots, capturing in 2K
ProRes 4:4:4:4 to Sony SxS Pro 16GB
and 32GB cards. (The C300 continued
to come in handy in Ireland for
Rosenlunds handheld shots inside
moving cars.)
The cinematographer aspired to
visuals that were as film-like as possible.
Digital is so precise and linear that you
need to break it up with some analog
elements. he says. I started looking
into different old lenses I could use for
close-ups and medium shots of Juliette
without using a soft filter, and to have a
tool I could play with for certain
moods.
Fellow Norwegian director of
photography Gaute Gunnari, FNF,

Top: Rebecca and
Steph tour the
refugee camp in
Kenya. Middle
and bottom:
When guerillas
attack the camp,
Rebecca abandons
Steph to
photograph the
violence.
whose credits include 2006s The Art of

Negative Thinking, had let Rosenlund
test his set of small and fast Canon K-35
lenses, and Rosenlund was hooked. But
with the shoot moving to Ireland, the
cinematographer had to search for the
lenses anew. Fortunately, the Irish
equipment house Vast Valley had a set
that hadnt been requested in years, and
they refurbished them. Rosenlund used
the prime lenses 18mm, 24mm,
35mm, 55mm and 85mm at T1.3T1.5. (The lens package also included
an Arri/Fujinon Alura 30-80mm T2.8,
an Arri/Zeiss LWZ-1 15.5-45mm
T2.6, an Angenieux Optimo 24290mm T2.8 and a Nikon Nikkor
300mm T2. Rosenlund used ND but no
effects filters.)
The effect of the K-35s is strikingly evidenced in a close-up of a pale,
lacerated Rebecca with a nasogastric
tube through her nose, awakening in a
Dubai hospital after the bombing to
find Marcus standing over her. Only her
eyes are in focus. If you open those
lenses wide, a very small part will be
sharp and the bokeh is beautiful,
Rosenlund notes.
As a rule, Poppe insisted the
action unfold strictly from Rebeccas
perspective. The philosophy, he says, is
tied to the Ph.D. dissertation he is
currently writing at Lillehammer
90
September 2014
In a happier
moment, the
family launches
paper lanterns at
magic hour. We
shot at f1.3 and I
turned the
camera to 1,600
ISO so we could
get exposure
from the actual
lanterns,
Rosenlund
explains.
University College on subjective narrative in movies. The audience seems to

sympathize more with [Rebecca] as an
effect of me being so loyal to her, the
director muses. I never allow them to
know more than she knows. In keeping
with this idea, the crew always kept the
camera at Rebeccas height, and while
there is some dolly use, there are no
overhead crane shots.
Rosenlund estimates he shot
more than 70 percent of the movie in a
handheld documentary style. In that
way, he says, the framing is very much
up to me, capturing what is happening
when it happens. Sometimes on the first
take I dont want to know where the
actors are coming from and where
theyre going. Im trying to be as free as
possible, and when you make mistakes,
that sometimes gives the scene some
vulnerability.
One example is a dramatic
exchange that occurs in Ireland after the
Kenya trip. In Stephs room, Marcus
happens upon a video shot by his
daughter, showing how Rebecca abandoned her to take photos of terrorists
attacking their refugee camp. This act of
neglect pushes Marcus over the edge.
As he angrily grabs Rebeccas photography gear, Rosenlund zooms in and out
on her reaction in what appears to be a
92
September 2014
Top: Rebecca
documents a
suicide bombers
journey in Kabul.
Bottom:
Rosenlund
(seated on dolly)
and the crew
ready a scene in
which a girl is
prepared for her
suicide mission.
spontaneous camera move.

As the argument unfolds, the
couple moves in real time from Stephs
room, down the hall, past the kitchen to
the living room, and then back to
Rebeccas study, where Marcus grabs her
camera equipment and brings it to the
front door, throwing both the gear and
Rebecca out of the house. To accommodate this complex sequence, the crew lit
the entire house interior. On the west
side, they used three 4K Arrisun 40s
and one 6K Arrisun 60 with CTS
94
September 2014
filters directed into Ultrabounce, and a

4K HMI Molebeam with CTS and
a frame of Lee 252 White Diffusion
shining straight through a window.
They deployed another 4K Mole and
Arrisun 60 on the north side, and on the
east side they positioned three Arrisun
40s with CTS and diffusion.
Rosenlund credits Swedish 1st
AC Daniel Kask with the delicate task
of pulling focus at wide apertures while
Rosenlund operated. We didnt go in
with marks, the cinematographer says.
We just followed the flow. Very often I

would just pan around and find a new
shot. And it was always sharp where it
was supposed to be sharp.
The camera crew also included
Knut K. Pedersen, who handled
Steadicam for a sequence in which
Marcus gives Lisas class a science lesson
on a beach, and Joel Conroy, who
captured underwater shots of a
submerged Rebecca that symbolize her
feelings of being overwhelmed.
Lighting setups had to be as
unobtrusive as possible to allow the
actors to roam freely, with the camera
often seeing 180 or 360 degrees. The
filmmakers were inspired by The Tree of
Life, directed by Terrence Malick and
shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC,
AMC (AC Aug. 11). In particular,
Rosenlund states in his preproduction
notes, he and Poppe were influenced by
that films clean color and natural, soft
white lighting on faces, and good, rich
blacks in the shadows [that dont feel]
crunched.
Rosenlund and gaffer Calin
Catalin largely chased natural light,
even for interiors, relying heavily on
mirrors and bounce cards to reflect the
light, 12'x12' and 20'x20' frames of
black to block it, or diffusion to control
it. When light levels were low outside,
the crew shot for low light, augmenting

as needed with artificial fixtures.
The cinematographer had anticipated the need for a mobile source of
soft front- and sidelight for close-ups,
particularly for Binoche. Bearing this in
mind, he collaborated with Henrik
Moseid, managing director at Paris
Softlights, to create a high-quality
fixture. The unit featured eight easily
changeable 54-watt tubes, accommodating both daylight and tungsten. The
Softlights tubes are known for highprecision RGB color values, says
Rosenlund. We changed tubes when
needed and I sometimes mixed daylight
and tungsten to get a warmer light. A
mix of tungsten and daylight tubes
creates an additional color mix that
produces a higher RGB output, instead
of the subtractive color mix with less
color output that you get with colorcorrection filters. The resulting light,
based on a 4'x4' frame, became the
crews most-used artificial source. [The
fixture] is a substantial light source with
a weight of approximately 5 kilograms
[11 pounds], Rosenlund explains. The
low weight gave us the possibility of
placing it on longer C-stand arms and in
the ceiling without the need for heavyduty rigging.
I normally used two of those
lights beside each other for the close-ups
and most of the scenes inside the house,
he continues. Juliette allowed us to call
the light the SoftBx Juliette! The crew
hung two of the units, fitted with DoP
Choice Snapgrids, from the tall ceiling
in the living room to serve as a top backlight, and another in Rebeccas study.
At Rosenlunds suggestion, the
crew shot a sequence in which the
family, temporarily on strong footing,
launch paper lanterns into the sky at
magic hour. We needed to create a
happy moment and I always wanted to
do something with lanterns because
theyre so beautiful, the cinematographer explains. We shot at f1.3 and I
turned the camera to 1,600 ISO so we
could get exposure from the actual
lanterns. He usually kept the Alexa at
800 ISO.

Poppe had distinct ideas about
the color palette. For me, Ireland is blue
and green, he says. Its all the grass and
freshness. Its the opposite of what Ive
experienced in Afghanistan and Kenya,
where I wanted red to be the significant
color with some blue but no green. No
look-up table was applied, although
images were calibrated to reflect the
filmmakers creative desires through
Arri Look Files generated from the
camera. They used standard Rec 709 for
on-set viewing only.
The Kabul scenes have a desert
grittiness, but the Afghan womens
burqas, provided by costume designer
Judith Williams, add vibrant colors.
Rebeccas photos are also aesthetically
beautiful for their hues, composition
and contrast, despite their violent
subject matter. The pictures were actually taken by renowned American
photojournalist Zoriah Miller, who was
often on set as a consultant. He taught
Juliette how to prepare her camera, and
96
hold and shoot with it, Rosenlund says.

My shooting also reflected his knowledge of war photography.
Rosenlund again worked only
with natural light for the Moroccan
For me, technically

perfect movies
tend to be boring
to watch.
exteriors, planning carefully with

Chemical Weddings Helios SunPosition Calculator a great app for
my iPhone, he notes. The production
rented a large public space for the
early marketplace scene in which the
bomb explodes aboard a minivan.

Swedish special-effects supervisor
Johan Harnesk, who collaborated with
Rosenlund on the 2011 Norwegian
feature Mennesker i solen, oversaw fire
and smoke effects. The blast itself was
executed in a local studio back lot in
front of a greenscreen that measured
approximately 20'x50'; it was captured
at 1,000 fps on the Phantom HD Gold
in the proprietary Cine format to a
CineMag recorder.
Dublin-based digital-imaging
technician Niall OBrien copied the
footage from all of the cameras onto a
2TB G-Drive. Blackmagic Designs
DaVinci Resolve 9 was used to create
H.264 files for dailies and MXF files for
Avid offline editing by Sofia Lindgren.
Dublins Screen Scene handled LTO
backup and FTP delivery of dailies and
offline. After wrapping in each locale,
the production shipped a 16TB RAID
hard drive containing a copy of the
footage to the post facilities at Oslos
Paradox, which Poppe co-owns, for

conforming.
The production used the
Macintosh app Dailies Creator and the
iPad app Dailies Viewer (beta versions
of software by Drylab R&D, which
Rosenlund founded) to generate highly
manageable, encrypted dailies, complete
with metadata from the set, for iPad
distribution through Dropbox. Dailies
Creator and Dailies Viewer were used
in combination with Cam Report, an
on-set reporting system that produces,
as Rosenlund explains, a blend of
script- and camera-related metadata,
such as scene number, shot/slate, take,
best take, scene description, and lens
and filter information. The cinematographer evaluated dailies by streaming
the footage from his iPad, via Apple TV,
to a Barco projector.
Emil Eriksson of Zentropa Post
Production Sweden collaborated on the
color grading with Norman Nisbet at
Swedens Film i Vst. The process
was coordinated by postproduction

producer Henning Lind Eriksen.
Nisbet worked on an initial look that
was then honed with input from Poppe
and Rosenlund, and Eriksson graded
with Nucoda software and performed
visual-effects compositing. John
Christian and Erik wanted the contrast
to look more like film, says Eriksson,
so we gave [the image] a softer look,
but one that still had texture and saturated colors. We tended to keep Kabul
and Kenya slightly warmer and dryer,
and on the Ireland shots we wanted to
bring out the greens in the landscapes.
Although A Thousand Times Good
Night afforded Rosenlund, a selfdescribed tech nerd, the opportunity
to employ and devise an array of technology both old and new, he says that
whenever the camera rolled, he entered
another mindset. Im trying to be as
emotional as possible, he says. For me,
technically perfect movies tend to be
boring to watch. In shooting a film like
A Thousand Times Good Night, it is

important to keep the schedule and
budget which we did but it is a bit
like playing jazz. The more prepared
you are, the easier it is to improvise. We
can all learn to be perfect technicians,
but that is not enough. You have to trust
and follow your own instincts before
you can create something personal
and, hopefully, something visually
unique.
TECHNICAL SPECS
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Canon Cinema EOS C300,
Phantom HD Gold
Canon EF, K-35;
Arri/Fujinon Alura;
Arri/Zeiss LWZ-1;
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Nikon Nikkor
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Post Focus
Restoring My Fair Lady in Loverly Fashion

By Robert S. Birchard
Twenty years after first supervising a restoration of the 1964

classic My Fair Lady, Robert A. Harris recently wrapped a new digital
restoration of the feature-length musical. Speaking with AC about
the project, he notes, One of the major reasons studios made blackand-white separation masters on color films was to stop paying
production insurance. Asset protection was on an equal but almost
secondary basis, as masters were normally never QCd after delivery,
and only examined after calamity struck. Many sets of masters, like
those for My Fair Lady, are defective in differing ways. Harris speaks
from experience; his additional credits include the restorations of
Lawrence of Arabia in 1989, Spartacus in 1991, Vertigo in
1995, Rear Window in 1998, The Godfather trilogy in 2006 and Its
a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 2013.
Directed by George Cukor and photographed by Harry
Stradling, ASC, My Fair Lady was adapted for the screen from Alan
Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewes stage musical. The story centers on
Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), a Cockney flower seller who aspires
to more than the social structure of her era allows, and who finds a
chance to lift her status in the form of Prof. Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), an expert in elocution.
Harris stresses that new intervention was badly required if the
film was to endure and see the light of another screen. As is the
98
September 2014
case for every 65mm negative of a film of importance and public

acclaim, the My Fair Lady negative is damaged beyond belief, he
says. My Fair Lady was printed about 120 times from the camera
original. And then, if a projectionist damaged the beginning of a reel
and needed 100 feet of replacement, theyd again put up the original negative and print the needed section. Also, the My Fair Lady
negative was assembled for auto-select printing, so the printer
would move the negative back and forth to encode fades and
dissolves, which further added to wear and tear.
When we worked on My Fair Lady 20 years ago, we found
there were optical holes in the separation masters, Harris continues. For example, he notes, there is a very intense scene when
Audrey Hepburn falls to her knees, sobbing, and in the dupe there
is this unsightly translucent [spot] on her neck. We had to take it out,
but our capabilities were minimal in 1994; we were one of the first
live-action films to use digital restoration, but the process left much
to be desired. We had to scan a 65mm dupe from the separation
masters at probably no better than 2K resolution, and then apply
digital fixes. We could not film out to 65mm, so we recorded out as
a VistaVision interpositive and then made field enlargements to
65mm dupe negative, which was cut into our original you see
the generations growing here. When those shots hit [the screen] it
was like looking through a veil of not-goodness!
For the latest work on My Fair Lady, the staff at Pro-Tek Vaults
in Burbank inspected the original color negative and 65mm separa-
All images courtesy of CBS.
My Fair Lady, the classic 1964 musical about the social transformation of Cockney flower seller
Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), recently underwent a digital restoration at FotoKem.
tion masters in early December 2013. Scanning got underway at FotoKem in late
December and continued into January
2014. With a running time of 170 minutes,
there were 246,140 frames to scan at 8K
archival resolution (8192x3584 pixels,
116MB per frame, for a total file size of
36TB). Additional scanning of some 96,153
frames from the black-and-white color
separation masters occurred in February
and early March. All the scans were done in
full aperture without masking. The 8K
scans were archived to LTO 5 tape, which
seems to be the most stable storage format
right now, and the standard for digital
archiving, notes Daniel Rapo, FotoKems
producer for the My Fair Lady restoration.
Harris arrived in Los Angeles from
New York in late January and stayed for the
remainder of the restoration. Basically, we
used the original 65mm camera negative
and 65mm black-and-white separation
masters, but there were also numerous
Eastman Color dupes, including the fantasy
Just You Wait sequence, he explains.
The original A and B rolls on the floral
prologue did not survive, and there was a
dupe cut into the original negative. The
original main title sequence did not survive,
either, and we used separations for that
in 1994 we could not put the separations
back together in proper registration.
Rapo adds, About two reels of
footage one full reel and bits and pieces
across the other reels came from recombined separation masters. For recombining,
we used our [SGO] Mistika, and we had
another DI artist working in parallel with
what we were doing from the original
negative scans.
The format for the restoration was
4K (4096x1792 pixels per frame, taking up
a mere 7.1TB of storage), but Rapo clarifies
that the work was performed in a resolution-neutral environment. All of the color
correction and dirt cleanup was done in 4K
Rec 709. 2K projection was employed for
the majority of the DI process, with final
review in 4K.
Our primary restoration tool for
color correction and the digital intermediate was the [Blackmagic Design DaVinci]
Resolve [10.1.5], which is a fantastic color
platform, Rapo continues. When were
finished, well have several archives of the
These before-and-after comparisons illustrate some of the restoration teams challenges,

including mold removal, color correction and film repair.
100
September 2014
4K final data, all on LTO 5. Deliverables

include the 8K raw scan archive, a 500 Mbps
4K DCP, a 250 Mbps 4K DCP, 4K DSM files,
4K UHD master files, HDSR masters and
clones, and the Blu-ray master.
Harris says with a chuckle, Someone
once called me a mentor and tormentor.
[Colorist] Mark Griffith had a full head of
hair when we started this! One of the things
I asked on the first day we met was, Have
you worked with film timing, and are you
familiar with the point terminology used in
film labs? He had, and our eyes were
aligned, so everything worked out. Hes able
to play the Resolve like a concert violinist.
Youve got perhaps a half dozen colorists
around the world who are name colorists,
and I think Mark Griffith is one of them.
For his part, Griffith notes, In
approaching color correction, I always look
for a wide shot and set [my parameters]
from that so I dont paint myself into a
corner. You really have to keep your eye on
the gray scale and your whites and blacks,
especially when the filmmakers cant represent themselves anymore. My Fair Lady was
made at a time when there were no digital
tools to create things not achieved in
production, and its very important to honor
that quality level, because everybody put a
lot into it the art direction, the lighting,
the cinematography are just absolutely
magnificent. Still, there were questions. Just
before the [Get Me to the Church on Time
musical] sequence, for example, Audrey
Hepburns cutaways are filtered, dreamy,
softer. Early in the film, her cutaways are
really harsh because shes unfinished, but
later, shes a softer, more refined person, and
they achieved that through filtration to
enhance the story.
In that particular sequence, Harris
was concerned that the heavily filtered shots
of Hepburn werent cutting well with their
surrounding shots, so, he says, I called
Gordon Willis [ASC], who had worked with
Harry Stradling on a couple of films. He
asked us to send him a Blu-ray of the
sequence, and then he called and said,
Heres whats going on. Harry used to get
this black material from Paris, and he would
throw it in front of his camera and everything went soft. So you have Audrey
Hepburn soft and sweet, but he wanted
Stanley Holloway [who played Elizas father,
Restoration
supervisor Robert
A. Harris points to
the scenes at the
Ascot Racecourse
as being among
the most difficult
for the restoration
team. Everyone is
in off-white and
blue, and
gray-blue, but
theres very little
real black-andwhite in the
sequence until
Audrey Hepburn
appears, he says.
Alfred Doolittle] to have balls. I asked, Do

we do anything to help it? and Gordon
said, No, thats the way Harry shot it. He
didnt care if it didnt cut together that
was the style in the 1960s.
As Harris sees it, the sequence set at
the Ascot Racecourse proved one of the
most difficult for the My Fair Lady restoration team. At first glance, he says, you
102
think everybodys dressed in black-andwhite, but theyre not. Everyone is in offwhite and blue, and gray-blue, but theres
very little real black-and-white in the
sequence until Audrey Hepburn appears.
Then youve got pure black and pure white,
which is not easy, especially with differential
fading from shot to shot, and within shots,
in the negative.
When you have black, there is

virtually no exposure on the negative, and
when the yellow layer starts to fade the
blacks become compromised, Harris
continues. I asked Griff on one shot if
maybe we could reshoot Warner Bros.,
where the picture was shot, was just
around the corner!
Griffith adds, You have to spend
Colorist Mark
Griffith notes,
My Fair Lady
was made at a
time when there
were no digital
tools to create
things not
achieved in
production, and
its very
important to
honor that
quality level,
because
everybody put a
lot into it.
the time to get the shadow detail. If you

just crush it and lose that detail, you lose
the richness of the cinematographers
work.
In assessing this restoration of My
Fair Lady, Harris observes, Before you ask
the question, Is there anything youre not
happy with? the answer is, Yes, one shot
from the separations. It was put back
together perfectly, but just because it is

from masters you see a little bit of an odd
look in a very detailed houndstooth jacket.
Otherwise, I think it is as perfect as it can be.
Everyone on board was running on all 12
cylinders for multiple reasons. Right at the
top was CBS attitude toward their own
film. My Fair Lady is one of the crown jewels
of CBS, which has led the charge to impec-
cably restore and preserve it to ensure that

it can be enjoyed for generations to come.
103
New Products & Services

Nikon Unveils D810
Nikon Inc. has introduced the D810 DSLR for professional
photographers and cinematographers.
At the core of the D810 is a brand-new, 36.3-megapixel FXformat (7360x4912 resolution) CMOS sensor, which enables
extremely high resolution and wide dynamic range. The optical lowpass filter has been removed to further maximize the potential of
every pixel, resulting in
outstanding resolution and
sharpness, and the ability to
faithfully render subtle details.
The cameras image
quality further benefits from
Nikons Expeed 4 imageprocessing engine, which
enhances overall performance
while suppressing instances of
false color and moir. Expeed 4
also enhances noise-reduction
performance and helps achieve
a wider ISO range, from 64 to 12,800, thereby improving low-noise
image capture in a variety of lighting conditions. The ISO range is
further expandable from 32 (Lo-1) to 51,200 (Hi-2).
In addition to an array of features specifically designed for still
photographers, the D810 incorporates a wide range of professional
features for motion-picture applications, such as Full HD 1920x1080
broadcast-quality video at a variety of frame rates, including
60/30/24p. Versatile crop modes give users a telephoto boost when
needed, and a neutral Flat Picture Control color profile provides
maximum flexibility in post. Additionally, the ISO range has been
expanded for video, and now encompasses 64 to 12,800; the autoISO function is also available to adjust the exposure as the light
changes without adjusting the iris.
The D810 can relay uncompressed digital video to an external recorder via HDMI, while simultaneously displaying the video on
the rear LCD display and external LCD monitor; users can record to
the internal card (compressed) and the external recorder (uncompressed) simultaneously. Like the Nikon D4S, the D810 uses an autoexposure setting to help create smooth exposure and tonal transitions for time-lapse and interval-time shooting. The camera features
a built-in stereo microphone, and an external microphone can also
be attached.
Zebra stripes can be displayed during live view, and a highlight-weighted metering setting helps to prevent blown-out highlights. Nikon has also improved the Live View AF to provide faster
full-time auto focusing. An innovative Power Aperture setting
makes it easy to adjust the exposure and depth-of-field on the fly
while recording to an external recorder or SD/CF cards. In manual
104
September 2014
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.
mode, users can also control shutter speed and ISO while recording.
Additionally, white balance and exposure compensation can be
adjusted prior to recording. Last but not least, the camera is compatible with more than 80 Nikkor lenses, many of which are popular
choices for cinema applications.
For additional information, visit www.nikonusa.com.
Formatt-Hitech Gives Clear View of Firecrest
Formatt-Hitech has introduced Firecrest IRND infraredattenuating neutral-density filters. Firecrest IRND filters boast
superior performance in three key areas: color neutrality, infrared
removal and filter-surface flatness.
Firecrest multicoating is applied directly to the
glass through a vacuumformed hard-coated electrolytic process. Firecrest IRND
filters for cinema are manufactured with the Firecrest IRND
multicoating bonded in the
center of two 2mm pieces of
Schott Superwite glass. This process
essentially creates a 4mm filter that cannot be damaged externally
during the heavy use and cleaning that are common to cinema
filters.
Even compared to the Formatt-Hitech ProStop IRND, Firecrest
IRND proves to be a major advancement. An independent test
performed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
measured the spectral power distribution of tungsten light reflected
off a spectralon target made of barium sulfate using a Photo
Research SpectraScan Model 705 spectroradiometer. On close
inspection, the ProStop IRND was shown to strongly attenuate the
near-infrared spectrum before returning to neutral attenuation of
the infrared spectrum around the 730nm mark. Firecrest, however,
performed linearly in the visible light spectrum before completely
eliminating the infrared energy at around the 700nm mark. Multiple
independent tests have since confirmed the AMPAS data.
Firecrest IRND filters are available between 1-10 stops of ND,
plus 1-5 stops of soft-edge grad. Additionally, the filters are available
in 4"x5.65" and 4"x4" sizes, with plans to expand into larger sizes
such as 6"x6" in the near future. The Firecrest IRND range is also
ideally suited to still photography, and Formatt-Hitech plans to
launch the Firecrest line for all popular photography sizes this month.
For additional information, visit www.formatt-hitech.com.
Freefly Launches Movi M5
Freefly Systems has introduced the Movi M5 handheld
camera stabilizer, which was custom-designed in-house by the
Freefly engineering and production teams.

The three-axis digital stabilizer is designed to
capture incredibly stable footage on a variety of shooting platforms, with support for
cameras such as the Canon EOS 5D, Nikon
D800, Panasonic GH4 and Blackmagic
Pocket Cinema Camera.
Weighing only 4.75 pounds, and
with a camera cage measuring 130mm x
180mm x 120mm, the M5 supports a maximum payload of 5 pounds with compatible
camera/lens combinations. The fully
enclosed camera cage offers maximum
rigidity and shot stability. Other features
include fully protected wiring, an improved
adjustable camera plate, simplified tool-less
balancing, and a quick-release top handle
for rapid adjustment. The unit can also be
configured in Inverted Mode for a more
comfortable eye-level camera angle.
Freefly Systems proprietary software
and brushless direct-drive system allow the
Movi M5 to stabilize footage in demanding
shooting environments. The Majestic Mode
allows for a single operator to intuitively
control the pointing of the stabilizer by
moving the handles without compromising
image stabilization. The M5 takes the operators movements and intelligently converts
them into stabilized pan-and-tilt movements, allowing for low-profile single-operator setup and accurate framing in tight
situations. The system can also be controlled
with a second operator working remotely
with the new, optional Movi Controller.

Freefly Systems recently introduced
Movi Controller offers the second operator
control of pan, tilt, focus, iris and zoom
while the first operator steers the system.
An ergonomic joystick delivers tactile feedback, allowing smooth and accurate
control. The Controller also provides access
to most Movi configuration settings, and
features assignable buttons and knobs to
allow users to customize the Controller to
their individual working styles.
The Movi M5 has a list price of
$4,995. For additional information, visit
www.freeflysystems.com.
K5600 Lights up
800W Zoom Beamer
K5600, Inc. has expanded its Joker
accessory arsenal with the 800W Zoom
Beamer. Designed for the Joker-Bug 800,
the 800W Zoom Beamer features a lensless, focusable design.
Following the same concept as the
companys 1600W Zoom Beamer, with its
faceted open-face reflector, the 800W
Zoom Beamer is manually focusable from
15-55 degrees of smooth, even light.
K5600 has been around for 22
years and we have always aimed to make
the end users job easier, says Ryan Smith,
president of K5600. With the introduction
of the 800W Zoom Beamer, we are giving
gaffers, cameramen and lighting technicians yet another tool they can add to their
arsenal of lighting options.
The accessorys overall size and
length allows the 800W Zoom Beamer to fit
within the existing 800W Kit case.
For additional information, visit
www.k5600.com.
Telecine &
Color Grading
Jod is a true artist with
a great passion for his craft.
John W. Simmons, ASC
Contact Jod @ 310-713-8388

Jod@apt-4.com
105
and variability, the Buddy Plus Dolly is a

versatile solution for motion-picture productions.
The Buddy Plus Dolly provides great
agility with Panthers patented Crab (fourwheel) and Steer (two-wheel) shift box. (The
dolly can also be delivered optionally with or
without crab and steer.) Camera positions
from floor level up can be achieved with the
addition of such accessories as Panthers
Vario Jib.
Gates Houses Phantom
Gates Underwater Products has
introduced the Flex 4K Underwater Housing, which has been designed for the Vision
Research Phantom Flex4K camera. The
housing enables a wide variety of resolutions and frame rates for super-slow-motion
underwater imaging (up to 960 fps in 4K
resolution).
Developed in close collaboration
with Vision Research, the Flex 4K Housing
boasts several integrated features, including
remote trigger and run/stop, complete
camera control/menu access, and surface
PC monitoring and control via Ethernet.
Other features include reliable fingertip
controls, precision ports, a durable
machined-aluminum shell, stainless-steel
hardware, and reliability backed by Gates
service and two-year renewable warranty.
www.gateshousings.com.
Panther Maneuvers Buddy Plus

Panther GmbH has introduced the
Buddy Plus Dolly, the successor to the
companys popular Buddy Dolly. With its
compact dimensions and extreme stability
106
Panther has also introduced the

Precision Leveling Track, which features a
leveling system comprised of telescopic
tubes that allow for quick leveling from 026.4". The telescopic tubes can be
mounted without tools; each tube has a
payload capacity of 1,874 pounds. Crossbeams are available for crane use and
heights over 50cm (approximately 20"),
and wood plates are available for use on
unstable ground. The stainless-steel track
also features an integrated adjustment
mechanism that makes leveling very easy.
The Precision Leveling Track system is
available in 3', 5' and 7'6" lengths of 62cmor 100cm-gauge track. Additionally, the
telescopic tubes are available in numerous
tube lengths and telescopic ranges.
www.panther.tv.
Adorama Furthers
Flashpoint Support
Adorama has expanded its Flashpoint ZeroGrav stabilizer line with the ZeroGrav III. The hybrid DSLR/digital-video stabilizer allows filmmakers to get smooth
camera-in-motion shots without a dolly. The
ZeroGrav III introduces a boom function
that allows for both high- and low-angle
shots in one comprehensive tool.
Using a dynamic spring-powered
arm that supports a gimbaled aluminumalloy monopod, the ZeroGrav stabilizer is
easy to master and boasts a simple setup.
The handheld stabilizer grip is constructed from lightweight aluminum alloy, providing
comfortable and dependable handling.
Counterbalances eliminate the tough,
over-tensioned feel sometimes found with
stabilizers. The camera attaches directly to
the platform or by means of a quick-release
adapter. Positive locking levers and micrometer-geared adjusting knobs on a clearly
marked calibration scale allow for fine
adjustments to accommodate varying
equipment weights.
Adorama has also introduced a new
addition to its popular line of 3Pod ball
heads: the Flashpoint 3Pod H5. As is characteristic of the H-series ball heads, the
CNC-forged aluminum H5 is specially
constructed to maximize durability while
minimizing weight and bulk. The 33mm ball
is controlled with precise adjustment knobs,
and the panning base features 360 degrees
of movement with a highly visible positioning dial. Employing an advanced hydraulic
damping system, the H5 can support a
payload of up to 55 pounds.
The H5 is quick and easy to use and
can fasten to a tripod body or center
column, or be used alone as a tabletop
mount for close-range shooting. Like the
other members of the 3Pod H series, the H5

features a patented rapid-locking quickrelease plate for an absolutely secure
protective mount. With an adjustable locking force control and a universal " mounting screw suitable for cameras of all sizes,
the quick-release plate system snaps automatically to the body of the ball head. The
quick-release plate also includes a hexagon
wrench kit for making fine adjustments to
the limiting screw, the ball heads fixing
screw and the connecting platform.
The Flashpoint ZeroGrav III stabilizer
is available for $300. The Flashpoint 3Pod
H5 ball head is available for $149.95 and
comes with a three-year warranty.
www.adorama.com.
Angenieux Shows Style

Thales Angenieux has introduced
the Optimo Style Series of zoom lenses. The
series comprises three zooms two handheld and one full size and provides focal
lengths from 16-250mm with the ability to
lengthen the range with a 2x extender. The
two lightweight zooms are also available
with the optional Angenieux Servo Unit
motorization system.
A wider spectrum of production
content is migrating to a cinematic look
with 4K quality, and that trend requires
equipment which is adaptable to a large
variety of cameras, configurations and
budgets, says Pierre Andurand, president
and CEO of Thales Angenieux. The all-new
Optimo Style Series addresses those needs
and provides a benchmark for quality and
price/performance. It takes into consideration the industrys most stringent requirements for ergonomics and versatility for live
TV recording.
The 16-40mm and 30-76mm zoom
lenses are extremely lightweight at only 4.2
pounds each, allowing for perfect camera
balance for handheld configurations.
Weighing 16 pounds, the 25-250mm lens is
an all-purpose zoom with the desirable
107
25mm wide-angle position and a 10x zoom

range to meet a variety of production
needs. (The 25-250mm lens was previously
introduced at IBC 2013 as the Optimo DP.)
The Optimo Style Series is fully
compatible with the latest generation of
digital cameras and provides the unique
cinematic look of the Optimo line at an
affordable price. The lenses also feature an
easily interchangeable mount (PL, Canon
EF, Panavision) for full compatibility with a
wide variety of cameras.
The Angenieux Servo Unit provides
control of zoom, focus and iris and is
compatible with broadcast remote handles,
cinema remote controls and wireless
remotes such as Preston. It generates lens
metadata based on the Cooke/i Technology
protocol. To help ensure flawless performance, the ASU is matched and calibrated
to its lens at the factory. The ASU will be
available as an option for the Optimo Lightweight Cine Zooms, including the Optimo
Style 16-40mm and 30-76mm and the
Optimo 15-40mm, 28-76mm and 45120mm.
www.angenieux.com.
Cooke Welcomes Canon
as /i Technology Partner
Cooke Optics has announced that
Canon has become the newest member of
the /i Technology partnership, joining such
other leading manufacturers as Sony, Arri
and Red in adopting the technology protocol that records key lens data for use in the
postproduction process. Cookes /i support
will be built into Canons newly launched
Cine-Servo 17-120mm T2.95 zoom lens
and the PL-mount variant of the new
CN7x17 KAS S/P1 (part of the Canon EOS
system).
ASC associate Les Zellan, chairman
and owner of Cooke Optics, says, We are
delighted to welcome Canon to the /i Technology family. /i Technology enables post
and [visual-effects] teams to track shots far
more accurately, which leads to shorter
production time and greater creative freedom.
www.cookeoptics.com.
108
Canon Adds Cine-Servo

to Lens Line
Canon U.S.A., Inc. has introduced
the Cine-Servo 17-120mm T2.95 zoom
lens. Designed to perform in a shouldermounted application or as a traditional
cinema lens, the Cine-Servo 17-120mm
has an ENG-style Digital Drive handgrip
with zoom rocker switch, which can also be
detached to allow for manual cinema operation.
The compact, lightweight lens
boasts 4K optical performance throughout
the zoom range, with a three-group innerfocus system to help minimize focus
breathing and provide a stable angle of
view. The lens also features an 11-blade iris
to help achieve creative depth-of-field
manipulation and natural bokeh; userfriendly design features; support for matte
boxes, follow focus and other accessories;
and rugged reliability. Designed to work
with single-sensor cameras, the lens is available in either PL- or EF-mount.
Compliance with industry-standard
camera-to-lens communication protocols
helps ensure the lens compatibility with
multiple brands and models of 4K, 2K and
HD cameras. These standards include 12pin serial communication, Cookes /i Technology and Canon EOS technology. In the
case of the Canon EOS system, precise lens
data is displayed in the EOS cameras
viewfinder and recorded in the video file as
metadata.
Attaching the Digital Drive unit does
not require manual adjustment of the
focus, zoom or iris gears on the lens. A
rubber cap prevents dirt from entering the
Digital Drive unit connections when its
detached. An LCD display on the Digital
Drive allows operators to easily access the
various digital functions, and a 16-bit
high-precision microprocessor contained
within the Digital Drive unit enables operators to preprogram focus and zoom position/speed as well as iris settings, allowing
for precise, repeatable performance. The
110
microprocessor also provides for a highspeed zoom of 0.5 seconds and a slow and
consistent zoom of 300 seconds. Three 20pin connectors on the Digital Drive unit
enable the use of zoom and focus demands
or the precision integration of images from
the lens and its accompanying camera into
a variety of virtual set systems.
The lens barrel markings are clearly
engraved in both feet and meters on both
sides of the lens barrel, and focus indicators
on the front side of the lens are marked on
an inclined surface to make them easier to
see from the back of the camera, especially
when mounted on an operators shoulder.
Additionally, luminous paint is used for the
scale display on one side of the barrel to
help make the markings visually identifiable
in the dark.
The lens features a 180-degree
focus-rotation angle. Both 0.8-type and
0.5-type gear-module focus accessories can
be used, with the 0.8-pitch gear positioned
in front of the focus ring to preclude any
interference with the Digital Drive unit or a
connecting cord. Major power-driven accessories, matte boxes and other standard
options used by filmmakers can all be
mounted. Lens support shafts for support
rods as well as a lens hood are also included
with the lens.
www.pro.usa.canon.com/cine-servo.
Schneider Adapts Cabrio Zoom

Schneider Optics has introduced the
Wide Angle Adapter for Fujinons 19-90mm
T2.9 PL-mount Cabrio zoom lens. The
adapter provides a 30-percent wider angle
than the Cabrios 19mm limitation, with a
minimum focal length of 14.5mm. The
non-zoom-through adapter is designed for
quick mounting and removal on the front of
the Cabrio lens.
The Cabrio lens adapter is precisionmanufactured to the highest specifications
so that shots made with and without the
adapter can be intercut with no change in

image quality.
www.schneideroptics.com.
seamless exposure transitions. A special

glass coating helps prevent flare, scratches
and oily fingerprints. The filter also boasts
solid aluminum and glass construction.
Syrp Variable ND Filter Kits are available in either small (67mm) or large (82mm)
and include two step-up rings to cover a
wide range of lenses. The kit also includes a
leather case and lens cloth. The large and
small kits sell for $189 and $139, respectively.
www.syrp.co.nz.
Kowa Showcases
Prominar Lenses
Kowa has introduced the Prominar
Micro Four Thirds lens series, which
comprises three lenses 8.5mm f2.8,
12mm f1.8 and 25mm f1.8 each of
which is capable of providing high-quality
imaging even when used with 4K and 2K
cameras.
Kowas super-wide-angle 8.5mm
lens offers a wide field of view while minimizing the distortion and drop-off in
contrast to the outer edge. The 8.5mm is
able to produce ultra-high-definition resolution by incorporating high-precision aspherical lens elements. This design enables the
8.5mm lens to have minimal distortion
while providing a super-wide angle of view.
The 12mm has a bright f1.8 aperture and a
reduced distortion value of 0.59 percent
with a wide angle of view. The 25mm, with
its standard angle of view, produces consistently sharp images and is suited for a variety of shooting environments.
www.kowa-prominar.com.
CineCity Stabilizes DSLRs

The CineCity has introduced the
Camtree Wonder-7 DSLR Stabilizer. The robust, handheld stabilization
system can carry a
payload of up to 4
pounds while delivering
smooth, shake-free results.
The Wonder-7 employs a
steel-brush stabilizer gimbal,
which isolates the camera from
incidental twisting, wobbling
and hand shake.
The Wonder-7s ergonomic handle affords a comfortable grip without undue fatigue for either
right- or left-handed operators. A quickrelease system makes it easy to swap
mounts, and an aluminum counterweight
set lets users fine-tune the systems balance.
All parts are aluminum crafted for corrosion
resistance, and the system folds down for
convenient transport or storage.
www.thecinecity.com.
Syrp Adds Variety to

ND Filtration
Syrp has introduced a Variable ND
Filter, which enables users to limit the
amount of light entering the lens by 1 to
8.5 stops, making it possible to shoot in
bright, sunny conditions with low apertures, low shutter
speeds and a shallow depth-of-field.
The Variable
ND Filters front ring
slides smoothly for
Band Pro Opens Berlin Office

International cinematography retailer Band Pro Film & Digital, Inc. has
announced the expansion of its European
operations with the addition of a new office
in Berlin, Germany. Vojtech Pokorny, digitalimage consultant/technical sales,
will head the new branch. All
goods and services currently available through Band Pro Munich
GmbH including professional
video, audio and media equipment from all major manufacturers, as well as exclusive regional
111
contracts for such companies as Sony,

Leica, Leader, Movcam, 16x9, Swit, Orca
Bags, IB/E Optics, Astro and DSC Labs
will also be available through the Berlin
office.
Adding the Berlin office is an
important step forward for Band Pro, says
Pokorny. Berlin produces over 300 films
per year, and its one of Europes most
popular locations. In addition to providing
the best new production technology, the
focus of our consultancy lies in the definition and elaboration of individual workflows. We just have to be where the most
exciting projects are being realized.
Christopher Hantel, Band Pro
Munichs managing director, adds, For us,
this is just more proof that Berlin and
Munich are the most exciting places for
media production. [Pokornys] deep
technical knowledge, hands-on experience
and creative ideas will be a huge asset, and
we look forward to great synergies
between the two offices.
www.bandpro.com.
Arri CSC Expands to Atlanta
Full-service equipment-rental group
Arri CSC has announced the strategic
expansion of its network with the opening
of a camera-rental facility in Atlanta, Ga.
The new operation is conveniently located
for both studio and location productions.
Arri CSC is very well positioned to
make a significant contribution to the
Atlanta market, says ASC associate Simon
Broad, president of Arri CSC. We will
ensure that the companys extensive inventory of digital, film, anamorphic and spherical camera equipment is available to one of
the countrys most vibrant production
communities along with the level of facility
and service that Arri CSC is known for.
www.arricsc.com.
SGO Updates Mamba FX
SGO has introduced Mamba FX
version 2.0, which marks a significant
upgrade to the companys visual-effects
compositing software.
A key feature of Mamba FX 2.0 is
the Layer Route Effect, which provides
support and associated functions for work112
ing with multi-layer EXR files; a single multilayer EXR file is capable of carrying multiple
streams of images as well as metadata.
These files are commonly used to hold
multiple render passes from CGI software,
or to carry multiple matte or alpha channels.
Mamba FX 2.0 includes features to split and
route the multiple layers, allowing Mamba
FXs other compositing tools to act on individual elements during the compositing
phase. Mamba FX 2.0s Spatial Isolation
Keyer interfaces with metadata that can be
passed from CGI software via the EXR files,
enabling advanced compositing techniques
such as isolating elements in a scene by
their 3-D (XYZ) location, their surface direction (normals), their object ID or their material ID.
Also new for Mamba FX 2.0 is a
high-speed point cloud shape tracker,
which enables compositors to track 2-D
roto shapes to shots very quickly. Multiple
shapes can be tracked and combined using
Boolean operations to rapidly create moving
matte shapes. Mamba FX 2.0 also includes
new color-space conversion tools, including
ACES workflows, to aid project color
management. Additional features include
an adaptive interface for monitor configuration as well as Dolby EDR support.
Mamba FX 2.0 is available for
Windows, Linux and Mac (Mountain Lion
10.8.5) and is fully compatible with SGOs
Mistika. Mamba FX 1.0 customers will
receive a free Mamba FX 2.0 update.
www.sgo.es.
Autodesk Acquires Shotgun
Autodesk Inc. has signed a definitive
agreement to acquire Shotgun Software, a
developer of scalable, cloud-based production tracking, review and asset-management software for the film, television and
games industries. Shotguns tools for

production management are used by some
of the worlds leading production studios
and are tightly integrated with many of the
most widely used tools in the industry,
including Autodesks 3ds Max and Maya
software.
Shotgun and Autodesk share a
vision of an industry-wide, cloud-based
production-management system, says
Don Parker, Shotgun co-founder and CEO.
Autodesks broad global network and
development resources will speed up the
pace of innovation and development of our
global platform. Together, we will extend
our tools deeper into the production
process and develop new solutions that
best support the studios of the future.
Chris Bradshaw, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment,
adds, The acquisition of Shotgun will
accelerate Autodesks efforts to deliver solutions that help our creative customers solve
the critical problem of operating more efficiently by collaborating globally to deliver
increasingly complex productions on time
and [on budget]. Shotgun brings deep
expertise and industry-leading technology
in cloud products and production management, so we welcome the team, customers
and community to Autodesk.
www.autodesk.com.
Sim Group Merges
with Chainsaw
The Sim Group, a supplier of production equipment and postproduction
services, has reached an agreement in principle to merge with Hollywood-based post
facility Chainsaw.
With offices in the U.S., Canada and
China, the Sim Group has been growing
rapidly over the past several years, especially
through its postproduction services division,
Bling Digital. Chainsaws reputation will
allow the company to build on its success by
expanding Sims post resources and extending its reach into unscripted and live event
television.
Chainsaws robust services and
diverse client base are very complementary
to the services and clientele of Sim, says
James Martin, the Sim Groups chief strategy officer. Uniting these two great
companies enhances our ability to offer

true, end-to-end service packages to film
and television producers.
Chainsaw founder Bill DeRonde
adds, As the newest member of the Sim
Group, we see many opportunities to
further our growth and better serve our
clients. We are very excited to embark on
this new chapter, [which] will continue to
allow us to offer the best possible product
to our clients. We gain access to more
resources and talent, as well as additional
markets for our services.
Chainsaw co-owner Mike Polito
notes, We are very excited about the technology and expertise Sim brings, particularly in the realm of workflow. It will help us
continue to deliver outstanding quality
while improving efficiency and broadening
the scope of our services.
Founded in 1996, Chainsaw
provides creative editorial, editorial finishing, color grading, visual effects and other
services through fully integrated digital
facilities in Hollywood. It also features a
digital-intermediate theater for feature-film
finishing and a large satellite facility with
editorial systems and space available on a
rental basis.
This merger bolsters our postproduction offering, enabling us to keep pace
with our growing demand, says Sim
Group CTO Chris Parker. At the same
time, we are very excited about the opportunity to introduce Chainsaw clients to a
broader and more complete range of
services.
Founded by Rob Sim in 1982, the
Sim Group comprises three operating units,
Sim Digital, Bling Digital and PS Production
Services that, respectively, provide camera
and production equipment, postproduction technology and services, and lighting
and grip gear. With offices in Los Angeles,
Toronto, Vancouver, Atlanta, Halifax and
Beijing, the Sim Group has been at the
forefront of new digital technologies and
workflows, including on-set and near-set
solutions for dailies processing, editorial
and color grading.
www.simgroup.com and www.chain
sawedit.com.
113
Marshall Displays 4K Monitor

Marshall Electronics has developed its
first full-4K display, the V-4K-3110 31" 4K
Professional Monitor. The display is designed
to serve as a master confidence monitor or
color-grading monitor, delivering an accurate and repeatable viewing experience.
Our goal with the V-4K-3110 is to
bring a fully featured 4K monitor to market
that will meet the needs of filmmakers and
broadcast professionals now and in the
future, says Devan Cress, Marshall Broadcast A/V Division director of sales. It has a
brilliant, colorful display; modular inputs;
and an advanced feature set. This monitor
will be at home on set or in the colorist
suite.
The V-4K-3110 has a true 4K IPS
panel with a native resolution of
4096x2160. It also supports 3840x2160
(UHD), 1080p, 1080i and 720p. The true
10-bit panel eliminates banding and scaling
artifacts, and the display further boasts 178degree horizontal and vertical viewing
angles. The monitor also features high
brightness, a 450:1 contrast ratio and a
114
wide color gamut within 2 percent of DCI

P3 specification. The V-4K-3110 can be calibrated with the latest SpectraCal CalMan
software.
The monitor incorporates four
modular 3G-SDI inputs, allowing for future
proofing as industry standards change. The
V-4K-3110 also includes many basic
Marshall Electronics features, such as InMonitor Display, tally, markers and audio
metering as well as more advanced features
such as waveform/vectorscope and 3-D
color calibration. All features can be
accessed manually via the integrated
keypad, or remotely via RS-485 or Ethernet
using any device on the same network
capable of displaying a Web page.
www.lcdracks.com.
Panasonic Shows UHD Displays
Panasonic System Communications
Company of North America has introduced
two large-format 4K (UHD) LED displays:
the 98" TH-98LQ70 and 84" TH-84LQ70.
Panasonic has engineered these LED backlit
LCD displays to produce sharp images in a

streamlined form factor with the system
expandability required by professional applications.
The displays deliver exceptional clarity with 4K (3840x2160 UHD) resolution,
and are equipped with Panasonics nextgeneration of image-enhancement technology, which up-converts non-4K sources
to a higher level of picture quality. The LQ70
Series displays are also equipped with
protective glass and a ruggedized
aluminum frame.
The LQ70 displays can be installed
both vertically and horizontally to meet a
wide range of installation needs. Additionally, to minimize installation time and cost,
the displays feature the same screw holes as
Panasonics existing large-format plasma
displays. The LQ70 Series also incorporates
Slot3.0 architecture, which provides for
easy interface changes to match various
applications.
www.panasonic.com/business-solutions/.
International Marketplace
116
September 2014
Classifieds
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 classified
advertising.PAYMENT MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER.
VISA, Mastercard, AmEx and Discover card are
accepted. Send ad to Classified Advertising,
American Cinematographer, P.O. Box
2230, Hollywood, CA 90078. Or FAX (323)
876-4973. Deadline for payment and copy must
be in the office by 15th of second month
preceding publication. Subject matter is limited
to items and services pertaining to filmmaking
and video production. Words used are subject
to magazine style abbreviation. Minimum
amount per ad: $45
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 www.ProVideoFilm.com
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
www.theasc.com
September 2014
117
Advertisers Index
Abel Cine Tech 33
AC 99
Adorama 15, 51
AJA Video Systems, Inc. 23
Alan Gordon 117
American Film Market 119
Arri 9
Arri CSC 17
ASC 107, 108
Backstage Equipment, Inc.
106
Barger-lite 99
Birns & Sawyer 116
Blackmagic Design, Inc. 7
Cam-a-lot Audio Visual 93
Cavision Enterprises 116
Carl Zeiss SBE, LLC 63
Chapman/Leonard Studio
Equipment Inc. 75
Chimera 8
Cinematography
Electronics 67
Cinekinetic 116
Congo Films S.A. 87
Content & Communications
World 115
Cooke Optics 25
CW Sonderoptic Gmbh 89
Eastman Kodak C4
Film Gear (International), Ltd.
53
Filmotechnic USA 69
Formatt-Hightech USA 91
Freefly Systems 49
Friends of the ASC 107
Glidecam Industries C3
Grip Factory Munich/GFM 67
Hasselblad 103
Helolux/Visionsmith 111
Hertz Corporation 29
Hive Lighting 80
Huesca Film Office/HUFO 59
Ikan Corporation 31
J.L. Fisher 37
Jod Soraci 105
K5600 35
Kingfilm USA 117
Kino Flo 81
Koerner Camera Systems 8
LDI 101
Lee Filters 68
Lights! Action! Co. 116
Lowel 11
Maccam 112
Movcam 61
Moviebird International 52
Movie Tech AG 116, 117
Nila Inc. 95
Outsight Pty. Ltd. 5
Ovide Broadcast Services 113
118
P+S Technik 116

Parasol Systems 117
Panther Gmbh 97
PC&E 114
Ped-Denz 95, 105, 107, 117
Pille Filmgeraeteverleih
Gmbh 116
Power Gems Limited 102
Pro8mm 116
The Rag Place 99
Red Digital Cinema C2-1
Sandisk Corporation 21
Schneider Optics 2
Service Vision 96
Slamdance Film Festival 109
Sony Electronics Inc. 13
Super16, Inc. 116
Technicolor 47
Technocrane 79
Teradek, LLC 27
Thales Angenieux 19
Thomas Pindelski 117
Tiffen Company 11
TV Logic/Preco Ltd. 36
Vantage Gmbh 77
Visionary Forces 67
Wamco, Inc. 110
Willys Widgets 116
www.theasc.com 118
American Society of Cinematographers Roster

OFFICERS 2014-15
Richard Crudo,
President
Owen Roizman,
Vice President
Kees van Oostrum,
Vice President
Lowell Peterson,
Vice President
Matthew Leonetti
Treasurer
Frederic Goodich,
Secretary
Isidore Mankofsky,
Sergeant-at-Arms
MEMBERS
OF THE BOARD
John Bailey
Bill Bennett
Curtis Clark
Dean Cundey
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
Michael Goi
Matthew Leonetti
Stephen Lighthill
Daryn Okada
Michael O Shea
Lowell Peterson
Rodney Taylor
Kees van Oostrum
Haskell Wexler
ALTERNATES
Isidore Mankofsky
Robert Primes
Steven Fierberg
Kenneth Zunder
120
September 2014
ACTIVE MEMBERS
Thomas Ackerman
Lance Acord
Marshall Adams
Javier Aguirresarobe
Lloyd Ahern II
Russ Alsobrook
Howard A. Anderson III
Howard A. Anderson Jr.
James Anderson
Peter Anderson
Tony Askins
Christopher Baffa
James Bagdonas
King Baggot
John Bailey
Florian Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus
Andrzej Bartkowiak
John Bartley
Bojan Bazelli
Frank Beascoechea
Affonso Beato
Mat Beck
Dion Beebe
Bill Bennett
Andres Berenguer
Carl Berger
Gabriel Beristain
Steven Bernstein
Ross Berryman
Josh Bleibtreu
Oliver Bokelberg
Michael Bonvillain
Richard Bowen
David Boyd
Russell Boyd
Uta Briesewitz
Jonathan Brown
Don Burgess
Stephen H. Burum
Bill Butler
Frank B. Byers
Bobby Byrne
Patrick Cady
Sharon Calahan
Antonio Calvache
Paul Cameron
Russell P. Carpenter
James L. Carter
Alan Caso
Vanja ernjul
Michael Chapman
Rodney Charters
Enrique Chediak
Christopher Chomyn
James A. Chressanthis
T.C. Christensen
Joan Churchill
Curtis Clark
Peter L. Collister
Jack Cooperman
Jack Couffer
Vincent G. Cox
Jeff Cronenweth
Richard Crudo
Dean R. Cundey
Stefan Czapsky
David Darby
Allen Daviau
Roger Deakins
Jan DeBont
Thomas Del Ruth
Bruno Delbonnel
Peter Deming
Jim Denault
Caleb Deschanel
Ron Dexter
Craig Di Bona
George Spiro Dibie
Ernest Dickerson
Billy Dickson
Bill Dill
Anthony Dod Mantle
Stuart Dryburgh
Bert Dunk
Lex DuPont
John Dykstra
Richard Edlund
Eagle Egilsson
Frederick Elmes
Robert Elswit
Scott Farrar
Jon Fauer
Don E. FauntLeRoy
Gerald Feil
Cort Fey
Steven Fierberg
Mauro Fiore
John C. Flinn III
Anna Foerster
Larry Fong
Ron Fortunato
Greig Fraser
Jonathan Freeman
Tak Fujimoto
Alex Funke
Steve Gainer
Robert Gantz
Ron Garcia
David Geddes
Dejan Georgevich
Michael Goi
Stephen Goldblatt
Paul Goldsmith
Frederic Goodich
Nathaniel Goodman
Victor Goss
Jack Green
Adam Greenberg
Robbie Greenberg
Xavier Grobet
Alexander Gruszynski
Changwei Gu
Rick Gunter
Rob Hahn
Gerald Hirschfeld
Henner Hofmann
Adam Holender
Ernie Holzman
John C. Hora
Tom Houghton
Gil Hubbs
Paul Hughen
Shane Hurlbut
Tom Hurwitz
Judy Irola
Mark Irwin
Levie Isaacks
Peter James
Johnny E. Jensen
Matthew Jensen
Jon Joffin
Frank Johnson
Shelly Johnson
Jeffrey Jur
Adam Kane
Stephen M. Katz
Ken Kelsch
Victor J. Kemper
Wayne Kennan
Francis Kenny
Glenn Kershaw
Darius Khondji
Gary Kibbe
Jan Kiesser
Jeffrey L. Kimball
Adam Kimmel
Alar Kivilo
David Klein
Richard Kline
George Koblasa
Fred J. Koenekamp
Lajos Koltai
Pete Kozachik
Neil Krepela
Willy Kurant
Ellen M. Kuras
George La Fountaine
Edward Lachman
Jacek Laskus
Rob Legato
Denis Lenoir
John R. Leonetti
Matthew Leonetti
Andrew Lesnie
Peter Levy
Matthew Libatique
Charlie Lieberman
Stephen Lighthill
John Lindley
Robert F. Liu
Walt Lloyd
Bruce Logan
Gordon Lonsdale
Emmanuel Lubezki
Julio G. Macat
Glen MacPherson
Paul Maibaum
Constantine Makris
Denis Maloney
Isidore Mankofsky
Christopher Manley
Michael D. Margulies
Barry Markowitz
Steve Mason
Clark Mathis
Don McAlpine
Don McCuaig
Michael McDonough
Seamus McGarvey
Robert McLachlan
Geary McLeod
Greg McMurry
Steve McNutt
Terry K. Meade
Suki Medencevic
Chris Menges
Rexford Metz
Anastas Michos
David Miller
Douglas Milsome
Dan Mindel
Charles Minsky
Claudio Miranda
George Mooradian
Reed Morano
Donald A. Morgan
Donald M. Morgan
Kramer Morgenthau
Peter Moss
David Moxness
M. David Mullen
Dennis Muren
Fred Murphy
Hiro Narita
Guillermo Navarro
Michael B. Negrin
Sol Negrin
Bill Neil
Alex Nepomniaschy
John Newby
Yuri Neyman
Sam Nicholson
Crescenzo Notarile
David B. Nowell
Rene Ohashi
Daryn Okada
Thomas Olgeirsson
Woody Omens
Miroslav Ondricek
Michael D. OShea
Vince Pace
Anthony Palmieri
Phedon Papamichael
Daniel Pearl
Brian Pearson
S E P T E M B E R
Edward J. Pei
James Pergola
Dave Perkal
Lowell Peterson
Wally Pfister
Sean MacLeod Phillips
Bill Pope
Steven Poster
Tom Priestley Jr.
Rodrigo Prieto
Robert Primes
Frank Prinzi
Cynthia Pusheck
Richard Quinlan
Declan Quinn
Earl Rath
Richard Rawlings Jr.
Frank Raymond
Tami Reiker
Robert Richardson
Anthony B. Richmond
Tom Richmond
Bill Roe
Owen Roizman
Pete Romano
Charles Rosher Jr.
Giuseppe Rotunno
Philippe Rousselot
Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Marvin Rush
Paul Ryan
Eric Saarinen
Alik Sakharov
Mikael Salomon
Paul Sarossy
Roberto Schaefer
Tobias Schliessler
Aaron Schneider
Nancy Schreiber
Fred Schuler
John Schwartzman
John Seale
Christian Sebaldt
Dean Semler
Ben Seresin
Eduardo Serra
Steven Shaw
Lawrence Sher
Richard Shore
Newton Thomas Sigel
Steven V. Silver
John Simmons
Sandi Sissel
Santosh Sivan
Bradley B. Six
Michael Slovis
Dennis L. Smith
Roland Ozzie Smith
Reed Smoot
Bing Sokolsky
Peter Sova
Dante Spinotti
2 0 1 4
Buddy Squires
Terry Stacey
Eric Steelberg
Ueli Steiger
Peter Stein
Tom Stern
Robert M. Stevens
David Stockton
Rogier Stoffers
Vittorio Storaro
Harry Stradling Jr.
David Stump
Tim Suhrstedt
Peter Suschitzky
Attila Szalay
Jonathan Taylor
Rodney Taylor
William Taylor
Don Thorin Sr.
Romeo Tirone
John Toll
Mario Tosi
Salvatore Totino
Luciano Tovoli
Jost Vacano
Stijn van der Veken
Theo van de Sande
Eric van Haren Noman
Kees van Oostrum
Checco Varese
Ron Vargas
Mark Vargo
Amelia Vincent
William Wages
Roy H. Wagner
Mandy Walker
Michael Watkins
Michael Weaver
William Billy Webb
Jonathan West
Haskell Wexler
Jack Whitman
Dariusz Wolski
Ralph Woolsey
Peter Wunstorf
Robert Yeoman
Richard Yuricich
Jerzy Zielinski
Vilmos Zsigmond
Kenneth Zunder
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Pete Abel
Rich Abel
Alan Albert
Richard Aschman
Kay Baker
Joseph J. Ball
Amnon Band
Carly M. Barber
Craig Barron
Thomas M. Barron
Larry Barton
Wolfgang Baumler
Bob Beitcher
Mark Bender
Bruce Berke
Bob Bianco
Steven A. Blakely
Joseph Bogacz
Jill Bogdanowicz
Mitchell Bogdanowicz
Jens Bogehegn
Michael Bravin
Simon Broad
William Brodersen
Garrett Brown
Ronald D. Burdett
Reid Burns
Vincent Carabello
Jim Carter
Leonard Chapman
Mark Chiolis
Denny Clairmont
Adam Clark
Cary Clayton
Dave Cole
Michael Condon
Grover Crisp
Peter Crithary
Daniel Curry
Marc Dando
Ross Danielson
Carlos D. DeMattos
Gary Demos
Mato Der Avanessian
Kevin Dillon
David Dodson
Judith Doherty
Peter Doyle
Cyril Drabinsky
Jesse Dylan
Jonathan Erland
Ray Feeney
William Feightner
Phil Feiner
Jimmy Fisher
Scott Fleischer
Thomas Fletcher
Claude Gagnon
Salvatore Giarratano
Richard B. Glickman
John A. Gresch
Jim Hannafin
Bill Hansard Jr.
Lisa Harp
Richard Hart
Robert Harvey
Michael Hatzer
Josh Haynie
Fritz Heinzle
Charles Herzfeld
Larry Hezzelwood
Frieder Hochheim
Bob Hoffman
Vinny Hogan
Cliff Hsui
Robert C. Hummel
Zo Iltsopoulos-Borys
Roy Isaia
Jim Jannard
George Joblove
Joel Johnson
Eric Johnston
John Johnston
Mike Kanfer
Marker Karahadian
Frank Kay
Debbie Kennard
Glenn Kennel
Milton Keslow
Robert Keslow
Lori Killam
Douglas Kirkland
Mark Kirkland
Scott Klein
Timothy J. Knapp
Franz Kraus
Karl Kresser
Chet Kucinski
Jarred Land
Chuck Lee
Doug Leighton
Lou Levinson
Suzanne Lezotte
Grant Loucks
Howard Lukk
Andy Maltz
Gary Mandle
Steven E. Manios Jr.
Steven E. Manios Sr.
Chris Mankofsky
Frank Marsico
Peter Martin
Robert Mastronardi
Joe Matza
Albert Mayer Jr.
Bill McDonald
Karen McHugh
Andy McIntyre
Stan Miller
Walter H. Mills
George Milton
Mike Mimaki
Michael Morelli
Dash Morrison
Nolan Murdock
Dan Muscarella
Iain A. Neil
Otto Nemenz
Ernst Nettmann
Tony Ngai
Mickel Niehenke
Jeff Okun
Marty Oppenheimer
Walt Ordway
www.theasc.com
Ahmad Ouri
Michael Parker
Dhanendra Patel
Elliot Peck
Kristin Petrovich
Ed Phillips
Nick Phillips
Joshua Pines
Carl Porcello
Sherri Potter
Howard Preston
Sarah Priestnall
David Pringle
Phil Radin
David Reisner
Christopher Reyna
Colin Ritchie
Eric G. Rodli
Domenic Rom
Andy Romanoff
Frederic Rose
Daniel Rosen
Dana Ross
Bill Russell
Kish Sadhvani
David Samuelson
Dan Sasaki
Steve Schklair
Peter K. Schnitzler
Walter Schonfeld
Wayne Schulman
Alexander Schwarz
Juergen Schwinzer
Steven Scott
Alec Shapiro
Don Shapiro
Milton R. Shefter
Leon Silverman
Garrett Smith
Timothy E. Smith
Kimberly Snyder
Stefan Sonnenfeld
John L. Sprung
Joseph N. Tawil
Ira Tiffen
Steve Tiffen
Arthur Tostado
Jeffrey Treanor
Bill Turner
Stephan Ukas-Bradley
Mark Van Horne
Richard Vetter
Dedo Weigert
Steve Weiss
Alex Wengert
Evans Wetmore
Franz Wieser
Beverly Wood
Jan Yarbrough
Hoyt Yeatman
Irwin M. Young
Michael Zacharia
Bob Zahn
Nazir Zaidi
Michael Zakula
Les Zellan
HONORARY MEMBERS
Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
Col. Michael Collins
Bob Fisher
David MacDonald
Cpt. Bruce McCandless II
Larry Parker
D. Brian Spruill
Marek Zydowicz
September 2014
121
Clubhouse News
Chapman/Leonard Open House

Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment
recently hosted a summer showcase and
open house at its North Hollywood location.
Dean Cundey, ASC and Robert Primes,
ASC served as guest speakers for the event,
which offered attendees hands-on experience
with the companys new Cobra and Hybrid IV
camera dollies, 73' and 40' Hydrascope telescopic cranes and other studio equipment.
Chapman/Leonard also unveiled its new
Hydracar during the event.
Clockwise from top left: Joseph Bogacz; Alex Wengert; Fritz Heinzle; Zo Iltsopoulos-Borys.
Bogacz, Wengert, Heinzle,

Iltsopoulos-Borys Named
Associates
New associate member Joseph
Bogacz is an advisor in the professional
products division of Canon U.S.A., Inc.,
where he has been involved with Canons
imaging changeovers from analog to digital
and SD to HD, as well as the migration to 4K
and beyond. Bogacz also played a role in the
launch of Canons Cinema products in
2012. He currently serves as a committee
member for the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences ACES project.
Alex Wengert has served as the
general manager for Otto Nemenz Interna122
September 2014
tional for 35 years. Wengert began his

career working for Cinemobile Systems,
starting as a delivery driver and working his
way up to the camera department as a technician and customer-service representative.
He left Cinemobile when presented with the
opportunity to assist ASC associate Otto
Nemenz with the opening of Otto Nemenz
International in February 1979.
Fritz Heinzle has been with Otto
Nemenz International for the past 10 years,
and he currently serves as the companys
marketing manager in Hollywood, where he
facilitates the organization and rental of
camera equipment for productions. In his
time with the company, Heinzle has worked
Wexler Toasts The Best Man

Haskell Wexler, ASC recently joined
producer Lawrence Turman for a 50thanniversary screening of The Best Man at the
Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. Following the
screening, which was part of the Landmark
Theatres Anniversary Classics series, Wexler
and Turman participated in a Q&A session,
recounting their experiences on the feature,
which was written by Gore Vidal and directed
by Franklin Schaffner.
Stump Speaks at New Media
Film Festival
David Stump, ASC recently participated in The Who, What, Why & How
panel at the 5th Annual New Media Film
Festival at the Landmark in Los Angeles.
Stump and his fellow panel members
discussed the shift from analog to digital technologies and its effects on content creation.
Photo of Clubhouse by Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; lighting by Donald M. Morgan, ASC.

Golf Classic photos provided by Alex Lopez.
closely with numerous ASC members, including Paul Maibaum, Roger Deakins, John Toll,
Emmanuel Lubezki, Matthew Leonetti and
Julio G. Macat.
Zo Iltsopoulos-Borys serves as the
national client liaison for Cineverse, formerly
Fletcher Camera & Lenses, in Chicago. Before
joining Fletcher as the companys general
manager in 2007, Iltsopoulos-Borys worked
as a studio manager for Chapman/Leonard in
Orlando, a production account executive for
Eastman Kodak and a marketing executive for
Panavision.
Tovoli Holds Court at

Terre Di Cinema
While serving as honorary president
of the Terre Di Cinema festival, Luciano
Tovoli, ASC, AIC presented a master class
on diversity of visual style, stressing the
importance of searching for a new cinematographic formula for each film in order
to avoid what he refers to as the aesthetic
danger of repetition. In addition to the
class, Tovoli interviewed Nigel Walters, BSC,
who discussed his experience behind the
camera and mused about refining the cinematographic language.
Set in Forza dAgr and the
surrounding Taormina-Etna district in Sicily,
Italy, Terre Di Cinema celebrates the art and
craft of cinematography.
ASC Hosts Student Visitors
The Societys Education and Public
Outreach Committee recently opened the
doors of the Clubhouse to host students
from Montana State University, Compass
College of Cinematic Arts and cinema
programs throughout Mexico. During the
events, which were moderated by George
Spiro Dibie, ASC, the students participated
in discussions with numerous ASC
members, including Bill Bennett, James L.
Carter, Christopher Chomyn, James A.
Chressanthis, Richard Crudo, David
Darby, Frederic Goodich, George La
Fountaine, Isidore Mankofsky, Don
McCuaig, Cynthia Pusheck, Rodney
Taylor and Checco Varese.
Society Hosts Annual Golf Classic
The ASC recently hosted its 31st
annual Golf Classic at the Brookside Golf
Club in Pasadena, Calif. With a scramble
system in play, members and guests
enjoyed the camaraderie of the team event
as well as the beautiful weather. Guests
Nick Teslik and Tyler Phillips both won the
hole-in-one challenge.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Participants in the ASCs

31st annual Golf Classic
included: 1. Woody
Omens, ASC; 2. Shane
Hurlbut, ASC; 3. associate
member Joseph J. Ball;
4. associate member
Timothy J. Knapp (left)
and honorary member D.
Brian Spruill; 5. Sebastian
Lumme; 6. Mona Roizman;
7. Rich Miller (left) and
ASC general manager
Brett Grauman.
7.
6.
www.theasc.com
September 2014
123
Close-up
Kenneth Zunder, ASC
When you were a child, what film made the strongest impression on you?
Lawrence of Arabia [1962]. I was 11 years old and witnessed an epic.
Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most
admire?
Bob Richardson [ASC], for his screaming-hot toplight in JFK; Conrad
Hall [ASC], for making a movie about chess so damn interesting; Phil
Lathrop [ASC], for allowing me
to learn firsthand the importance of being a gentleman;
and Robert Liu [ASC], for his
positive energy and spirit.
Have you made any memorable blunders?

On my very first episode as director of photography on thirtysomething, we had a scene in a hospital that I lit for day, and during take
one, I realized it was a night scene. Luckily, the window was out of
frame and the gaffer could turn off the Junior without anyone
detecting my mistake.
What is the best professional advice youve ever received?
Respect everyone, listen to
everyone and care about every
single detail.
What recent books, films or
artworks have inspired you?
The paintings of Edgar Degas,
for
their
composition;
Emmanuel Lubezkis movie
Gravity, for cinematic authorship; and Richard Ben Cramers
book What It Takes, for its illuminating detail.
What sparked your interest

in photography?
I took a class in college called
Art and Visual Perception
taught by Rudolf Arnheim,
who wrote the great book Film
as Art.
Where did you train and/or
study?
I studied art history at Harvard
and documentary film at Stanford.
Do you have any favorite

genres, or genres you
would like to try?
I would love to go back in time
and shoot either Ben-Hur or a
Busby Berkeley musical.
Who were your early teachers or mentors?

[ASC members] Phil Lathrop, Tom Del Ruth, Robert Liu and Bill Butler.
What are some of your key artistic influences?
Dziga Vertovs early Russian film Man with a Movie Camera showed
me the importance of placing the camera in just the right spot. Raising Arizona showed me that lenses can be funny. Also, the brilliant,
unobtrusive cinematography by Roger Deakins [ASC, BSC] in The
Shawshank Redemption and Emmanuel Lubezki [ASC, AMC] in A
Little Princess.
How did you get your first break in the business?
In 1978, I was lucky enough to be in one of the few camera-training
programs run by Camera Local 659 and the AMPTP.
If you werent a cinematographer, what might you be doing

instead?
I would be a lawyer prosecuting white-collar criminals.
Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for
membership?
Phil Lathrop, Robert Liu and Gerald Perry Finnerman.
How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
Each time I go to the Clubhouse, I am reminded that the greatest
cinematographers are often great people as well. I am always
humbled in their company.
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?

Back in the day when we shot film, there would be that moment
when you took a chance, lost some sleep and were pleasantly
surprised the next morning at the lab. (You were too nervous to wait
for lunchtime dailies.)
124
September 2014
IISMEVEARYTGE
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a b o u t KO D
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2014 09

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The International Journal of Motion Imaging

On Our Cover: A reluctant alliance of interstellar rivals embarks on a heroic mission

Thierry Arbogast, AFC boosts cinema IQ of Lucy

Windows to the Soul

Framing a Family Conflict

The International Journal of Motion Imaging

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Hell on Wheels Marvin Rush, ASC

NEW! Twin Peaks Pilot

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and PUBLISHER

ART & DESIGN

SUBSCRIPTIONS, BOOKS & PRODUCTS

ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett Grauman

American Society of Cinematographers

Kees van Oostrum

Our annual focus on international production is as

Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

Photo by Douglas Kirkland.

Fourteen-year-old Alice (Odessa Young) halfheartedly helps

provide, he says. There is an ongoing discussion about using

until the moment he confronts Alice for

eye. I really like responding instinctually to

Par, which the cinematographer describes as

and-gun style, with its compressed schedule

cards on set via Thunderbolt connection to

form]. Mygatt would then give notes from

The Cooke Look

One Look. All Speeds

T: +44 (0)116 264 0700

Stadium, prominent Tube stations, Trafalgar

out ways to put the camera in places where

street. Real places have both darkness and

There are two narratives at play in

ing the bottom would make Cameron one

stage of the expedition. With a tight

Top: The one-man

main) with the assistance of focus puller

more of an immersive experience for the

a series of test dives near the township of

Cinematographer Jules OLoughlin, ACS (bottom

used Fujinon 6.3-101mm f1.8 zooms and

atop the crane hook that lowered the

Trench. For this journey, the filmmakers

Underwater camera operator Simon Christidis, ACS

f1.6. Focus was remotely controlled via a

native ISO. Signal gain was adjusted from

developed for the expedition by Red.

output comparable to a 1,000-watt halogen. Four Ty lights were used: three

identified in footage returned to the surface

espite having first appeared on pulp in 1969, Marvels

Quill into an alliance with his rivals: the

recorders. Im traditionally a photochemical fan, he says, but going with

Before launching into space, the

and S3 spherical lenses but were

more light there.

For a space movie, any fixture that is in

We spent a lot of time trying to source

we had different scenarios to play

the Guardians break out of prison, there

of light emanating from space. To