DECEMBER 2017

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER • DECEMBER 2017 • BLADE RUNNER 2049 – THOR: RAGNAROK – SUBURBICON – ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. – MUDBOUND – OUR SOULS AT NIGHT • VOL. 98 NO. 12
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the collaborative creative process that brings it all to the screen.

You’ll find them all at ascmag.com/articles

Our most recent web-exclusive coverage includes:

Wonder Wheel
Cinematographer: Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC
Director: Woody Allen
With this online version of the American
Cinematographer article penned by Storaro himself,
journey deeper into the creative, richly hued photogra-
phy he designed for Allen’s melancholy ode to a time
gone by — captured in the cinematographer’s pre-
ferred 2:1 aspect ratio with Sony CineAlta F65s.

Blade of the Immortal

Cinematographer: Nobuyasu Kita
Director: Takashi Miike
When it comes to stylized, sophisticated and violent
martial-arts films from the realm of Japanese cinema,
one of the long-established masters of the genre is
director Takashi Miike. Working again with Nobuyasu
Kita, his latest feature is this period samurai drama
shot with Arri Alexa cameras and Cooke S4 lenses.

Murder on the Orient Express

Cinematographer: Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC
Director: Kenneth Branagh
In their most recent collaboration, Zambarloukos and
Branagh re-imagine Agatha Christie’s iconic murder
mystery, employing cutting-edge Enhanced Environments
displays by VER, Kodak 65mm motion-picture film, and
Panavision large-format cameras and lenses to render an
expansive vision.

Log on now at ascmag.com/articles to find more coverage on inventive and inspiring productions,
highlighting the tools and techniques used by top cinematographers.
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 V O L . 9 8 N O . 1 2

An International Publication of the ASC

On Our Cover: The replicant-hunting K (Ryan Gosling) pursues a dangerous

lead in Blade Runner 2049, shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC. (Photo by Stephen
Vaughan, courtesy of Alcon Entertainment.)

FEATURES
36 Blade Runner 2049 – Uncanny Valley 50
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC blends film noir and
science fiction

50 Thor: Ragnarok – Hammer Time

Javier Aguirresarobe, ASC, AEC leaps into comic-book action

62 Suburbicon and Roman J. Israel, Esq.

– Strife and Justice
62
Robert Elswit, ASC details his collaborations on two
new features

78 Mudbound – Delta Blues

Rachel Morrison, ASC turns her camera on post-war America

90 Our Souls at Night – Timeless Romance

Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC adopts new technology for an
intimate story 78

DEPARTMENTS
12 Editor’s Note
14 President’s Desk
18 Shot Craft: Light Meters • K Counts • False Color
28 Short Takes: Empty Skies 90
100 Filmmakers’ Forum: Wonder Wheel
108 New Products & Services
116 International Marketplace
117 Classified Ads
118 Ad Index
119 2017 AC Index
124 ASC Membership Roster
126 Clubhouse News
128 ASC Close-Up: Patrick Cady

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 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7 V o l . 9 8 , N o . 1 2
An International Publication of the ASC

Visit us online at www.ascmag.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and PUBLISHER

Stephen Pizzello
————————————————————————————————————
WEB DIRECTOR and ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
David E. Williams
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EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR Jon D. Witmer
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andrew Fish
TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst, ASC
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Benjamin B, Rachael K. Bosley, Mark Dillon, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring, Jay Holben, Noah Kadner,
Debra Kaufman, Iain Marcks, Matt Mulcahey, Jean Oppenheimer, Phil Rhodes, Patricia Thomson
PODCASTS
Jim Hemphill, Iain Marcks, Chase Yeremian
BLOGS
Benjamin B; John Bailey, ASC; David Heuring
IT DIRECTOR/WEB PRODUCER Mat Newman
NEW PRODUCTS & SERVICES David Alexander Willis
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ART & DESIGN
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Kramer
PHOTO EDITOR Kelly Brinker
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323-936-3769 Fax 323-952-2140 e-mail: angiegollmann@gmail.com
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SUBSCRIPTIONS, BOOKS & PRODUCTS
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina
CIRCULATION MANAGER Alex Lopez
SHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal
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ASC SPONSORSHIP & EVENTS DIRECTOR Patricia Armacost
ASC PRESIDENT’S ASSISTANT Delphine Figueras
ASC ACCOUNTANT Shawnté Howard
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 97th 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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6
 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 - 2017/2018
Kees van Oostrum
President
Bill Bennett
Vice President
John Simmons
Vice President
Cynthia Pusheck
Vice President
Levie Isaacks
Treasurer
David Darby
Secretary
Isidore Mankofsky
Sergeant-at-Arms

MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD
Paul Cameron
Russell Carpenter
Curtis Clark
Richard Crudo
George Spiro Dibie
Fred Elmes
Victor J. Kemper
Stephen Lighthill
Karl-Walter Lindenlaub
Robert Primes
Cynthia Pusheck
Roberto Schaefer
John Simmons
John Toll
Amy Vincent

ALTERNATES
Dean Cundey
Lowell Peterson
Steven Fierberg
Stephen Burum
Mandy Walker

MUSEUM CURATOR
Steve Gainer
8
 EDITOR’S NOTE
Continuing the narrative of a landmark film like Blade
Runner is a daunting prospect for everyone involved. On
Blade Runner 2049, nobody occupied a hotter seat than
cinematographer Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, who was
following in the very large footsteps of another ASC icon,
the late Jordan Cronenweth.
Cronenweth’s groundbreaking work on the original
movie has long been canonized for its artful fusion of film-
noir style with a spectacularly dank cyberpunk aesthetic, as
well as an eerie, dystopian ambience achieved through the
cinematographer’s unorthodox and adventurous combina-
tion of xenon lights, smoke and low-con filters. (Cronen-
weth credited the application of xenon lights to legendary
gaffer Dick Hart. Addressing the smoking of sets in a July
1982 interview with AC, Cronenweth joked, “I find that a good density is achieved just before
I lose consciousness.”)
In a Q&A conducted by Rachael Bosley (“Uncanny Valley,” page 36), Deakins maintains
that he and director Denis Villeneuve opted to blaze their own trail and “didn’t really reference
Blade Runner” very much in their approach to the new movie. Instead, Deakins notes, “Many
of our references were architecture, actually. One of the early references Denis gravitated
toward was the architecture in Beijing and the look of the city in the smog; he liked the idea of
L.A. being cold, with either rain or snow in exterior scenes. We wanted the environment to be
a character in itself, and gradually we came to the idea of stark, minimal Brutalist architecture.”
Since its October release, Blade Runner 2049 has received lavish praise for its look, which
suggests that in a universe of “franchise titles,” forging a fresh aesthetic can be a welcome
alternative to cautious homage.
On Thor: Ragnarok, cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, ASC, AEC and director Taika
Waititi infused a similarly familiar realm with an energetic approach to the Norse superhero’s
latest adventure (“Hammer Time,” page 50). While Aguirresarobe fully acknowledges the
necessity of CGI and bluescreen work to realize this corner of the Marvel universe, he observes
that “the challenge consisted of creating fantastic worlds with settings that originated in our
imagination and were lit with realistic lighting.” In his own interview with writer Noah Kadner,
Waititi added, “A lot of inspiration came from the art of [comic-book artist] Jack Kirby, in terms
of color, line, form, and sometimes even composition.”
ASC member Robert Elswit’s work on a pair of intriguing projects helmed by two familiar
collaborators, George Clooney (Suburbicon) and Dan Gilroy (Roman J. Israel, Esq.), inspired us
to ask New York correspondent Patricia Thomson to conduct an interview with Bob about both
movies (“Strife and Justice,” page 62). The former is based on a Coen brothers script that was
reconfigured by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and the latter is a Los Angeles-based legal thriller
that provides its star, Denzel Washington, with a showcase for a compelling character study.
This month’s other feature articles spotlight two more exceptionally talented ASC
members: Rachel Morrison, who brings an authentic look and feel to Mississippi settings in the
Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

post-World War II drama Mudbound (“Delta Blues,” page 78), and Stephen Goldblatt, who
explains how he applied LED lighting techniques to the romantic drama Our Souls at Night
(“Timeless Romance,” page 90).

Stephen Pizzello
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher
12
 PRESIDENT’S DESK
Tuxedo Time

The other day Caleb Deschanel, ASC called me to see if I had any suggestions for what he might say
about “what cinematography means to the uninitiated — actors, publicists, composers, etc. — to give
them an idea of what to look for when judging cinematography.”
It was meant for the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, all of whom
vote for the Academy Awards after the films in each category have been nominated by the Academy
members within an award’s given branch. In other words, cinematographers nominate the films in the
Best Cinematography category, and then all Academy members vote on which film is worthy of the
Oscar. As it stands, the system has resulted in some interesting choices over the years, to say the least!
As cinematographers, we’re resigned to the notion that films with sweeping panoramic images,
preferably in a period setting, often seem most attractive to the full voting body of the Academy —
which, by percentage, is largely represented by the actors’ branch. I remember when David Watkin,
BSC accepted his Academy Award for Out of Africa; standing onstage, he said, “A while ago I was
sitting in a theater watching one of my movies next to a friend of mine who is a film director. And after
about an hour he touched me on the arm and said, ‘That’s beautiful; you’re very clever.’ I explained that it was a second-unit
shot. So I think it’s best if I point out that all of the flying material was shot by Peter Allwork and the animal photography
was Simon Trevor. I’m truly honored and very flattered, and thank you very much.”
I don’t think any of us would suggest that David Watkin did not deserve the award. His body of work — which also
included Chariots of Fire, Yentl and The Hotel New Hampshire — was driven by a casual approach to lighting, often noted
for its “painterly qualities” and compared by some to Vermeer. His inspiration remains extensive and important to us as cine-
matographers. But, again, we tend to believe that if you should be so lucky as to receive the coveted award, it probably
won’t be for what you consider your best work.
My thoughts go directly to Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC. By now I think he probably deserves some kind of a fashion
award, ironically for the most worn-out tuxedo and black loafers! He has attended the Academy Awards often, having been
nominated for one exceptional achievement in cinematography after another — 13 times in total, as of this writing. It started
with The Shawshank Redemption, then there was Fargo, Kundun, No Country for Old Men, Skyfall — the list of iconic and
intricately shot movies goes on. Through all of the nominations, he’s waited with the utmost restraint and a British attitude
of humility and resignation.
As I considered Caleb’s question, my thoughts began to wander. The “visual sense” is one we as humans develop
first, even in the darkness of the womb. It made me realize that in the everyday life of moviemaking, the opening shot of
most movies is handled with great care, establishing the visual presentation before a word of dialogue is spoken; the story
has begun, and at this point it’s a purely visual one. The same goes for the closing shot of a film — usually a visual crescendo
to send off the audience with an eye-catching experience they will remember.
The camera is indeed a magical metaphor for all filmmakers. After pictures of themselves clutching an Academy
Award, directors, writers, producers and actors all like to be photographed posing next to or even behind a camera. Given
my wry sense of humor, I’ve asked before: Since so many of them are so incredibly involved with words, when will they start
to pose next to a microphone?
This year, Roger Deakins has Blade Runner 2049 in the mix. With great care and after careful consideration, our peers
Photo by Jacek Laskus, ASC, PSC.

will nominate five well-deserving films for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. What happens after that, of course,
remains to be seen — but, seeing the magnitude and impact of Blade Runner from both a current and historical perspective,
and given Roger’s exquisite interpretation, maybe now is the time for him to shop for a new tux and loafers.

Kees van Oostrum

ASC President

14 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 SHOT CRAFT
and whatever camera we happen to be using, there are
always situations where a meter can save the day.
We’ll cover specific techniques for using light meters in
a future Shot Craft; for now, let’s look at the types of
meters available and how they work.
In the simplest terms, a light meter measures the inten-
sity of light. Taking into account the ISO of the film or the
digital sensor as well as the exposure time, it then indicates
what aperture to set on the lens for a “proper” exposure.
Note those quotation marks — what is or is not actually
proper is always open to creative interpretation. It’s impor-
tant to bear in mind that nearly all light meters use 18-
percent gray as their basis for a proper exposure; more on
that in the paragraphs to follow.
There are two principal categories of light meters:
reflected and incident. First we’ll discuss reflected light
meters, also known as spot meters.
A spot meter reads the light reflecting off of an object
and gives you the value of the light that’s being delivered
to the meter. For most spot meters, you look through a
viewfinder, line up the object you’re measuring, and take
your reading.
Spot meters are wonderful for reading light sources
themselves: backlit display screens, lamps, stained-glass
Haskell Wexler, ASC meters the light on Lolita Davidovich for the feature Blaze.
windows, etc. Many cinematographers use spot meters
as their primary meter — but be warned, this requires

I To Meter or Not to Meter

By Jay Holben
a bit of mental gymnastics. Again, remember that all meters
are working toward the proper exposure of an 18-percent
gray card. If the subject isn’t an 18-percent gray card, then
In the days when film reigned as the only medium for it’s the responsibility of the cinematographer to understand
motion pictures, the cinematographer’s light meter was invalu- the reflective value differential between a neutral gray card
able. It was the only tool capable of informing cinematographers and the actual subject.
of their light values, enabling them to make exposure decisions. Let’s say you’re shooting a black card; it might only be
As digital gained a foothold in the industry, however, other expo- reflecting back 4 percent of the light that strikes it. But the
sure tools entered the field and became commonplace: wave- meter doesn’t know it’s black — it just assumes there is
forms, false color, zebras, histograms — even the image itself, significantly less light reflecting off of a gray card, and so it
displayed in real time on a calibrated professional monitor. With tells you to open up the lens and let in more light. If you
so many alternatives, the light meter has fallen into obsoles- follow the meter’s recommendations, you will overexpose the
cence. Or has it? black card to such a degree that it will appear to be medium
Even though many cinematographers no longer carry gray in the shot.
Photo courtesy of the AC archives.

their light meters, the question remains: Do light meters have a The inverse is also true. If you’re shooting a white card,
place in today’s production workflow? Has the meter gone the the meter will still assume it’s 18-percent gray. Since the white
way of the dodo, or is it still a worthwhile investment? card might actually be reflecting back 85 percent of the light
There’s no doubt in my mind that every cinematogra- that hits it, the meter will tell you to stop down the lens —
pher should own — and know how to use — a light meter. and if you do as the meter says, you’ll underexpose the white
Ideally, they should own both spot and incident meters, or one card so that it appears as medium gray in the final shot.
meter that combines the two — but if that’s too expensive, a So when you’re using a spot meter, you have to under-
trusty incident meter is the minimum requirement. It’s crucial to stand the difference in value between your subject and
be proficient with a meter because, regardless of the production medium gray. If the black card is three stops darker than

18 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 medium gray, then stop down the lens
three more stops than the meter
recommends in order for the card to
appear as black in the image. Likewise,
if the white card is three stops brighter
than 18-percent gray, open up the lens
three more stops than the reading you
get with the spot meter so the card will
be rendered correctly.
Black, white and gray are easy
enough to figure out, but skin tones can
be more challenging. Just how much
brighter or darker than medium gray is
the actor’s skin? Seasoned cinematogra-
phers draw on loads of past experience
in order to properly compensate
between what their meter reports and
what they know the true reflective value
of their subject to be.
The opposite of a spot meter is an
incident meter. You’ll recognize an inci-
dent meter by what appears to be half
of a ping-pong ball. Incident meters
measure the light falling on the subject
being photographed; you take the
meter reading by placing the incident
meter between the light source and the
subject.
Like a spot meter, the incident
meter assumes that you are
photographing an 18-percent neutral-
gray subject. But, because you’re
measuring the light falling onto the
subject rather than the light that’s
reflected off, the incident meter has a
built-in conversion factor. If a black wall,
a gray wall and a white wall are all lit
with the same intensity of light, the inci-
dent meter will measure exactly the
same value and report exactly the same
stop recommendation. Again, this is
because it measures the light before it
hits the wall, not after it reflects off of
the wall. So, in essence, the incident
meter’s assumption of the subject being
18-percent gray is moot. This also holds
true for skin tones and, indeed, objects
of any color or reflectance — and it
makes the incident meter significantly
easier to use, as it doesn’t require any of
the spot meter’s mental gymnastics.
Some meters actually combine
the functionality of both spot and inci-
dent meters. And if you own an SLR
camera with a built-in light meter, you
20 December 2017
already have a spot meter — any
camera with through-the-lens (TTL)
metering is, in essence, a spot meter.
The camera looks at the light reflecting
off of the subject and provides an expo-
sure recommendation based on the
assumption that the subject is 18-
percent gray.
In addition to traditional stand-
alone meters — whether analog or digi-
tal — there is, of course, an app. In fact,
there are several. For example, Pocket
Light Meter is an iOS and Android appli-
cation from Nuwaste Studios that turns
a smartphone into a spot meter; recent
updates have also added color-tempera-
ture readings. Additionally, the Luxi
“ping-pong ball” attachment can be
purchased to slip over your phone’s
camera and turn Pocket Light Meter
into an incident-meter application. The
accuracy of the readings is impressive.
I also recently had the opportu-
nity to work with the Lumu iPhone light-
meter accessory. It’s a device that plugs
into the iPhone’s Lightning port, and it
can measure light intensity as an inci-
dent meter or color as a color meter. It
can also act as a flash meter for still
photographers.
Sekonic, Konica Minolta, Spectra
and Gossen are among the companies
that manufacture light meters.
Although they may not be as necessary
for primary exposure judgments in digi-
tal production, they’re still handy for
taking measurements and gauging
lighting ratios for scenes that you might
need to re-create later. They’re great for
getting an idea of your exposure levels
before the camera or monitor is up and
ready. They’re useful for evaluating
lighting decisions based on where you
want to place certain subject values
within the camera system’s dynamic
range. And they’re perfect for location
scouting, light studies, and for measur-
ing and maintaining atmosphere — fog
or haze — over the duration of a day.
Yes, light meters still have a place
in today’s digital productions. And luck-
ily for all of us, the options we have for
which meter to use are as vast as ever.
American Cinematographer
Deep Focus
The Ubiquitous Ks
If you’re a baseball pitcher, nothing
would be more extraordinary than having
27 Ks on a single game’s scorecard. If
you’re a cinematographer, however,
you’re bombarded by Ks on a constant
basis, and rather than being welcome,
they can be downright bewildering.
The discussion of Ks has become
something of a hot-button topic. Certain
exhibition venues and platforms demand
a minimum number of Ks. Producers have
a handful of questions for every K in
consideration. And many cinematogra-
phers feel at best that they kind of under-
stand Ks. In this environment, misunder-
standings abound. So let’s try to clear
things up.
First off, there are many things that
“K” can stand for. Let’s take a look at
them, one by one.
K can be the symbol for Kelvin, the
unit of measurement used for the color-
temperature scale that we deal with on a
daily basis. Daylight is, roughly, 5,600K,
and tungsten light is approximately
3,200K. These numbers are based on the
scale created by William Thomson, the
Right Honorable Lord Kelvin (1824-1907),
who postulated that if you take a pure
black body that absorbs all light and emits
none, and you slowly apply heat, it will
start to glow — first red, then orange,
yellow, blue and, finally, white. The
“Kelvin scale” starts at absolute zero
(-273°C = 0K), the point at which all
molecular activity stops. When color film
was invented, it was decided that tung-
sten and daylight would serve as the two
target temperatures for “white” light. A
note about daylight: 5,600K is the nomi-
nal average of sunlight and skylight at
noon on a cloudless day; depending on
the source, daylight is also sometimes
expressed as 5,500K or 6,500K.
Next, K can refer to kilowatts, part
of our nomenclature for a lamp’s electrical
power. Kilo is derived from the Greek
word for “thousand.” So, when we’re
talking about a 1K Fresnel, or a 4K PAR, or
an 18K HMI, those numbers designate
thousands of watts — kilowatts. That
Fresnel is 1,000 watts, the PAR is 4,000,
 and the HMI is 18,000. Wattage is one of the four main prop- called “Quad Full HD” or “QFHD,” as it is made up of four
erties of electricity — the other three being amps, volts and 1920x1080 segments — two on top and two on bottom. Math-
ohms — and it is a constant in a given fixture. A 1,000-watt ematically, we see that 1920 x 2 = 3840, and 1080 x 2 = 2160.
fixture will always require 1,000 watts to produce its light. Some cameras can shoot in this format as well.
Watts are the product of amps and volts, and they are, in Still with us? Hold on — it gets worse.
essence, the measurement of the work being done in an elec- The Ks can also refer to the number of photosites, or
trical system. “sensels,” on the digital sensor in a camera. And this is where
So far, this has been pretty straightforward. But here’s things really get sticky. This is where the battle of the Ks is truly
where Ks get confusing. With regard to digital images, K is a fought.
measurement of the number of pixels or photosites — and the Ever since the introduction of the Red One camera, manu-
term has been commandeered as marketing jargon, a yardstick facturers have been racing to out-K their competitors. The Red
by which to measure the prowess of a particular camera One recorded up to 4.5K to 4480x2304 photosites (1.9:1). In the
system, a rallying cry in the ongoing “war of the Ks” wherein 1.78:1 aspect ratio, that was 4096x2304; in the 2:1 aspect ratio,
each manufacturer vies to outdo the rest in delivering an ever- it comes out to 4096x2048.
increasing K count. But what does any of it really mean? Again, bear in mind that 2K, 4K, 6K and 8K are categories. They
First, let’s talk about pixels in a display or projection aren’t exact numbers, and often the numbers within a category
system. In the digital arena, Ks no longer compute to a true fall short of the K value they represent. The specific photosite-
value of 1,000 or even a standard base of 10. Instead, digital counts for each category can also vary depending on the camera
systems use binary values, or a base of 2, because we’re dealing manufacturer and the specific aspect ratio/format you’re shooting.
with digital bits. In binary systems, every bit can define only two
levels of information: a value of 0 or 1. This means that 1 kilobit 2K Photosite counts:
is not 1,000 bits, but rather 1,024 bits — 210. That’s an impor- Sony F65 (2K) 2048x1080 (1.9:1)
tant distinction, and one that’s often overlooked. Arri Alexa SXT (2.8K) 2880x1620 (1.78:1)
So, with a digital image, 1K stands for 1,024 pixels or Arri Alexa SXT (2.6K) 2578x2160 (1.2:1)
photosites. The measurement was originally used for digital Arri Alexa SXT (2.8K) 2880x2160 (1.33:1)
film-scanning specifications and has carried over to describe Arri Alexa Mini (2K) 2048x1152 (1.78:1)
other digital cinema systems: cameras, projectors and display Arri Alexa Mini (2K Ana.) 2048x858 (2.39:1)
formats. Arri Alexa Mini (UHD) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)
In display/exhibition systems, 2K and 4K are our most
common pixel counts — aside from 1080 HD displays. A big 3K Photosite counts:
point to understand is that 2K and 4K are categories of image Arri Alexa SXT (3.2K) 3200x1800 (1.78:1)
sizes. To allow for different aspect ratios, there are variations of Arri Alexa SXT (3.4K Open Gate) 3424x2202 (1.55:1)
exact pixel counts within each category. The Digital Cinema
Initiatives is an organization that was formed in 2002 by the 4K Photosite counts:
major motion-picture studios — Disney, Fox, MGM, Para- AJA Cion (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
mount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. — to establish stan- Sony F65 (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
dards and specifications for digital exhibition; they defined the Canon 5D Mark IV (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
pixel counts for each aspect ratio in each K category. Canon C700 (4.5K) 4512x2376 (1.9:1)
Sony F55 (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
For 2K: Sony F55 (4K) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)
1.78:1 (16:9) 1920x1080* Sony FS7 (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
1.85:1 1998x1080 Sony FS7 (4K) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)
1.9:1 2048x1080 Blackmagic Design Ursa/Ursa Mini (4.6K) 4608x2592 (1.78:1)
2.39:1 2048x858 Arri Alexa 65 (4K “VistaVision” 8-perf 35) 4320x2880 (1.50:1)
Kinefinity KineMax S35 Mode (4K) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)
For 4K: Kinefinity KineMax S35 Mode (4K) 3840x1600 (2.40:1)
1.78:1 (16:9) 3840x2160* Kinefinity KineMax M4/3 Mode (4.3K) 4320x3240 (1.33:1)
1.85:1 3996x2160 Kinefinity KineMax M4/3 Mode (4K) 4096x3072 (1.33:1)
1.9:1 4096x2160 Kinefinity KineMax M4/3 Mode (4K) 4096x1716 (2.39:1)
2.39:1 4096x1716 Panasonic AU-EVA1 (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
Panasonic AU-EVA1 (4K) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)
* Not technically a DCI specification, but DCI compliant. Panasonic GH5 (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
Panasonic GH5 (4K) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)
In television standards, Ultra High Definition (UHD) — Panasonic VariCam LT (4K) 4096x2160 (1.9:1)
which many call “4K” — is 3840x2160. UHD is also often Panasonic VariCam LT (4K) 3840x2160 (1.78:1)

22 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 Of course, there are far more digital cameras than we’ve Why? Because that sounds better.
listed here, but hopefully this gives an idea of what these cate- Beyond photosite counts, television specifications have
gories actually look like. their own set of numbers for each category in pixel counts:
Because there are established DCI standards for 2K and 4K
delivery, most camera manufacturers try to hit those standards Television specs:
with their photosite acquisition K counts. However, when we 2K 1920x1080
venture into the non-standardized world, such as the Wild West 4K 3840x2160 (UHD/QFHD)
of 6K and 8K capture, oftentimes anything goes. For example, 5K 5120x2880
when we look at a sampling of camera systems, we see very 8K 7680x4320 (8K UHD, 4320p)
different numbers in terms of what is called “6K.”
So, how many Ks are enough? The answer depends
Arri Alexa 65 (6K) 5120x2880 (1.78:1) almost entirely upon whom you ask. Some cinematographers
Arri Alexa 65 (6K Open Gate) 6560x3100 (2.11:1) argue that higher photosite counts on the camera equates to
Red Epic Dragon (6KHD) 5760x3240 (1.78:1) better downscaling, a decrease in artifacts, smoother grada-
Red Epic Dragon (6K) 6144x3240 (1.9:1) tions, and better image integrity in larger venues such as Imax.
Red Epic Dragon (6KWS) 6144x2592 (2.37:1) Others argue that we’ve reached a point where enough is
Kinefinity KineMax (6K) 5760x3240 (1.78:1) enough. The human eye can’t discern a difference, especially
Kinefinity KineMax (6K) 5760x2400 (2.40:1) when exhibition size and the viewer’s distance from the screen
Panasonic AU-EVA1 (5.7K) 5720x3016 (1.9:1) are taken into consideration. Steve Yedlin, ASC has given this
topic a great deal of consideration; to read his thoughts and
The Red Weapon Helium and Panavision DXL cameras view a demo he’s prepared on the subject, visit
have a 7K option: ascmag.com/articles/a-clear-look-at-the-issue-of-resolution.
Certain outlets, such as Netflix and Amazon, require a
7168x3780 = 7K 1.9:1 minimum of 4K origination and delivery for their original
6720x3780 = 7KHD 1.78:1 programming; Netflix, specifically, demands that the camera’s
7168x3024 = 7KWS 2.37:1 sensor be a minimum of 4096 photosites wide, and that deliv-
ery be in 4096x2160 (1.9:1) or 3840x2160 (1.78:1). Those
And then there’s 8K (again, Red Weapon Helium and streaming giants know that 4K televisions are already on the
Panavision DXL): market, and consumers are hungry for content.
When a certain K count is required, cinematographers
8192x4320 = 8K 1.9:1 need to understand why. And when the K count isn’t preor-
7680x4320 = 8KHD 1.78:1 dained, cinematographers need to be able to have informed
8192x3456 = 8KWS 2.37:1 conversations with producers about what format and number
of Ks will be right for that particular project. Remember, bigger
Please note: Photosites and pixel counts — these numbers is not always better; sometimes, bigger just means more data,
that we’re looking at — are not resolutions. The term “resolu- more drive space, more to archive, and more demand on the
tion” is misused all the time. Resolution is determined by the postproduction pipeline.
system’s ability to resolve fine detail; in the case of camera systems It’s also vital to distinguish K counts from sensor sizes.
— the majority of which are Bayer-pattern color arrays — the They are different subjects, and not all sensors of the same size
maximum theoretical resolution is 2⁄3 the photosite count. Taking have the same photosite counts.
into account Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, it’s even lower How many Ks are necessary for your next project? You’ll
than that. For right now, we’re only talking about pixel or photo- have to determine that based on the specific demands of the
site counts. production. Don’t just take someone else’s word for it.
It’s also worth noting that video formats are often identi- — JH
fied by their vertical photosite/pixel count: ➣

1920x1080 is called 1080

1280x720 is called 720

When we move into cinema formats, however, they’re

usually identified by their horizontal photosite/pixel count:

2048x1080 is 2K
4096x2160 is 4K

24 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 Tech Essentials
False Color

In the modern digital age, we have many tools and

methodologies at our disposal for judging exposure values.
After the waveform monitor, one of the next most
common tools is what’s known as “false color.” Integrated
into many production monitors and some cameras’ elec-
tronic viewfinders, false color superimposes opaque colors
over various luminance values in the shot.
With a waveform monitor (see Shot Craft, AC Aug.
’17), it can be difficult to discern the exact values of any
particular point in the scene. You can clearly note that some
values are clipping or others are crushed — or, perhaps, that
a large area of the scene is falling at a particular level — but
it’s not easy to get any more specific than that. False color
utilizes the same concepts as the waveform — indicating
where particular values in your scene fall on the luminance
exposure scale — but the superimposition of various colors
onto the actual shot shows you exactly where each element
in the frame falls within the overall exposure range.
When you engage false color, you’ll watch your
image turn into an impressionistic jumble of colors, each of
which represents a certain IRE value or luminance signal in
the image. Unfortunately, there is no standard for which
color should represent any particular value; instead, each
manufacturer uses its own color-coding. Thankfully, many
of them display the color scale on the screen, which is very
helpful if you’re not familiar with that specific flavor of false
color.
It’s fairly common for bright red to represent clip-
False color is a tool for judging exposure that overlays opaque colors onto an
ping/overexposure, and for deep blue/violet to indicate image, with different colors representing different luminance values.
underexposure — but that isn’t always the rule. The
Atomos family of monitors do use the red/violet range and, the time to carefully look at the color scale to make sure you’re
smartly, employ neutral gray for the middle 47-54 IRE range; this is interpreting the colors correctly.
very handy for those of us who think in terms of the Zone system, False color evaluates the luminance values of your shot
as the false color’s middle gray aligns with the middle-gray expo- based on what the display is seeing — if you’re displaying a log
sure value in the image. From there, progressively more saturated image, for instance, the false-color scale will correspond to that log
and darker-hued cool colors represent increasing values of under- image. Depending on your working methodology, this may or may
exposure, and progressively warmer-hued colors indicate increas- not be useful. Viewing an image based on your final exhibition
ing levels of overexposure. color space might give you a better understanding of what is and
Ikan monitors use a seafoam green to represent middle gray, is not properly exposed.
and then use gray to represent 59-78 IRE values — just 1 stop over- The power of false color is that it immediately shows you
exposed. Red Digital Cinema cameras take a minimalist approach, every value in your scene and where it falls on the exposure scale.
where most of the image is displayed in values of gray and only For instance, if you’re shooting a commercial, you can quickly and
select values are colored: crushed blacks are purple, middle gray is easily determine if a client’s logo is clipping, which is not always
shown as bright pink, nearly clipped highlights are bright red, and easy to ascertain from a waveform.
Images courtesy of Jay Holben.

clipped highlights are indicated with white. Red cameras also offer Some monitors allow the ability to fine-tune your false-color
a modified version of false color called a “clip guide.” This function display to your exact exposure preferences, allowing the user to set
turns the display into full black-and-white, with the exception of the luminance values at which the display will indicate clipping,
crushed blacks (purple) and clipped highlights (red) — a very effi- crushing, and middle gray. If you prefer to underexpose your skin
cient way to check the extremes of your image. tones, for example, setting the middle-gray indication a stop lower
If you’re always using the same displays to view false color, than normal can offer a helpful assist.
then you’ll quickly get used to their individual color schemes. If — JH
you’re switching from one brand to another on various jobs, take ●

26 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 SHORT TAKES
Hong (ViviAnn Yee) reads from Mao Zedong’s “Little Red Book” as she enlists Li (Arthur Welch) to join her in hunting a sparrow
in the short Empty Skies, which takes place during China in the late 1950s.
I Youth Movement
By Michael Kogge
Sparrows are among the most numerous and recognizable
birds on the planet. Small in size, with the biggest of their species
able to be held in a human palm, they commonly have gray, brown
and white feathers, and possess short, sharp beaks evolved for eating
seeds and insects. Grain fields and orchards make for nutritious habi-
tats — until a sparrow colony devours all the seeds, leaving little in its
wake. In the late 1950s, to protect China’s crops and feed its popu-
lation, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong identified sparrows
as one of China’s four main pests and declared war against the bird.
Mao’s campaign provides the backdrop for Empty Skies, a short
movie about a Chinese boy and girl involved in the hunting and
killing of a single sparrow.
The project was written and directed by Wenting Deng and
Luke Fisher, recent graduates of Ohio University’s MFA film program,
who in turn invited cinematographer Tinx Chan to shoot the short.
Though his parents had lived in China during this period, Chan was
unaware of the ecological disaster that occurred as a result of Mao’s
campaign: The near-extinction of the sparrows led to an explosion in
the population of the birds’ other main source of food, the locust.
Without a primary predator, these grain-feeding insects devoured
field after field in China, contributing to the mass famine that starved
an estimated 30 million people to death.
“There was this dichotomy of innocence versus guilt that the
directors wanted to play with,” says Chan, “and so they cleverly
wrote a fictional story about two children during this period in China,
28 December 2017 American Cinematographer
hoping to raise questions about society and the human condition,
as well as inform the public about this forgotten catalyst of the
Great Famine.”
Born in New York and raised in Brooklyn, Chan credits his
passion for telling stories with images to a childhood love of draw-
ing and comic books. He later studied photography and cinema in
college, finding inspiration in the deep-focus cinematography of
James Wong Howe, ASC; the natural lighting of Sven Nykvist, ASC;
and the pictorial methods of Karl Struss, ASC. As a director of
photography, Chan has shot music videos; short films; and commer-
cials for clients as varied as Bombay Sapphire, GE and Foot Locker.
Since the “Great Sparrow Campaign” remains a controver-
sial subject in mainland China, the directors decided to shoot Empty
Skies in the United States with a Chinese-speaking cast. Deng
instructed Chan to watch Tian Zhuangzhuang’s The Blue Kite and Photos and frame grabs courtesy of the filmmakers.
Zhang Yimou’s To Live for their critical representations of Commu-
nist China, while Chan examined Caleb Deschanel, ASC’s images in
The Black Stallion and Chris Menges, ASC, BSC’s photography in
Kes to inform how he would shoot the scenes in which the boy and
girl chase the sparrow. The filmmakers also spent a good deal of
time researching the historical period. “We looked at old propa-
ganda posters from the Cultural Revolution that were popular at the
time,” Chan says. “There was one particular shot where the girl,
Hong [portrayed by ViviAnn Yee], reads from Mao’s ‘Little Red
Book,’ which was a direct homage to a specific propaganda poster.”
Chan had two weeks of prep, during which he scouted loca-
tions in Los Angeles. The hills and sun-browned landscape of Malibu
Creek State Park doubled for rural China. “L.A. was in the middle of

Top: The production cast Malibu Creek State Park in California to stand in for rural China. Above: The
children present their captured sparrow to a village cadre (Zhan Wang).
a drought, and the once-green foliage at
the state park actually looked like parched
wheat fields in-camera,” Chan says. “The
acres of dead and dying light-yellow foliage
gave me this nice, soft, even, warm fill as
the harsh sun pounded over the land,
almost wherever we went.”
For budgetary reasons, Chan elected
to shoot with Red’s Scarlet Mysterium-X
camera. “A corny joke we had during
production was that it would only be
appropriate to shoot a film about commu-
nist China with a Red camera,” Chan recalls
in jest. The cinematographer paired the
camera with a set of classic Canon K-35
lenses from Alternative Rentals. “Using
these vintage lenses helped ‘cut the sting’
[of the sharp digital image]. And knowing
30 December 2017
we were going to shoot on location, at the
mercy of the sun, I placed a light grade of
Tiffen Black Pro-Mist over the K-35s — one-
eighth or one-fourth depending on the
focal length — that helped give a little
bloom and aided in rolling off any harsh
highlights,” Chan says.
Empty Skies was recorded at 4K as
Redcode Raw files on RedMag SSDs in the
2.39:1 aspect ratio, which offered a
panoramic view of the landscape. “The
aspect ratio was a quick decision, as it felt
right for the film and helped establish the
environment,” says Chan. “A parched, rural
China was integral to the story [and] the
widescreen ratio forced us to keep the land-
scape in the frame, even in our close-ups.”
The filmmakers had to be meticu-
American Cinematographer
lous about setting up and following a strict
schedule for their child actors, and scenes
were blocked out in advance in order to fit
within the four-day shooting schedule. “We
staggered the call times of the two children
and shot mostly in the morning or late
afternoon, while the sun was low, adding a
bit of bounce and fill with unbleached
muslin that matched the color of our dry
foliage,” the cinematographer explains.
“Lighting the children wasn’t too difficult,
as we blocked them according to the sun’s
position. The girl’s face was a bit darker
than the boy’s, so we did have to give her a
little love with our muslin in her close-ups to
even out the levels between their singles.”
Shooting in available light also
required careful planning. “For certain
scenes we only had an hour window when
the sun would hit the angle we needed,”
says Chan. “As a native New Yorker, I’m not
a big fan of the L.A. sun; I prefer overcast
skies for photography any day. But one
advantage the L.A. weather has is that it’s
usually pretty consistent. My worst fear was
partial clouds, but the forecast told us we’d
have clear skies through the week. I knew
beforehand where the sun was going to hit
and the exact times. The locations them-
selves helped establish the palette, the light-
ing and the look of the entire film.”
Chan shot many of the scenes with
an 85mm prime and panned the camera
with the action — choices that made shoot-
ing efficient while also serving an aesthetic
purpose. “I felt like it would work well for

Top (from left): First AC Andy Chen, 2nd AC Grant Friesen, cinematographer Tinx Chan and
gaffer Jesse Lee. Above: Colorist Sam Daley (left) and Chan work on the short’s final grade at
Technicolor-PostWorks in New York.
us visually, as opposed to static cuts or
following the action closer with a wider
lens,” Chan notes. “The long lens also
helped hide some parts of the park that
would have revealed we were shooting in
modern-day California instead of old
China!”
He also decided against shooting
wide open, preferring a T4/5.6 split that
helped keep the background in focus,
thereby allowing the audience to appreciate
the landscape.
32 December 2017
The sparrow is a central character in
the story, and the film opens with a water-
color illustration of the bird, painted by
Deng herself. The illustration transitions into
a live-action shot of a real sparrow, and
when it flies away, the camera tilts down to
find the boy, Li (Arthur Welch), in the grass.
“It’s our first introduction to the boy,” Chan
says, “and we hoped that the audience
would associate his character with the inno-
cent bird.”
The shots of the locusts bring to
American Cinematographer
mind the plague of insects in Terrence
Malick’s Days of Heaven, shot by Néstor
Almendros, ASC. “Interesting enough,
while we were shooting live locusts with
available light, we didn’t reference Malick at
all,” Chan says. “We shot the locusts on a
long 85mm lens to maximize our distance
so we wouldn’t disturb the bugs. We also
had a bug wrangler for a few hours on set
to keep them tame as we filmed.”
Empty Skies was cut in Adobe
Premiere and finished in 2K ProRes 4:4:4:4.
Since the color red was synonymous with
the period and the communist politics,
Chan knew it would be key to the short’s
palette; red appears onscreen in a propa-
ganda painting, Mao’s Little Red Book, fire-
crackers, and the girl’s hair ribbon. During
the color-timing session at Technicolor-Post-
Works in New York, colorist Sam Daley used
Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve 12.5 to
regain some of the saturation and contrast
the vintage K-35 lenses had suppressed.
“During that time period in China,
there was this façade that ‘everything’s
okay’ when in actuality it wasn’t,” Chan
says. “Even in some of the propaganda art,
we see saturated colors and smiling people
with bushels of wheat, while the reality was
actually quite grim. Deng envisioned the
film in saturated colors for this reason, and
we worked with Sam to keep the film warm
in the beginning, up until the final scene
where we cool it down, as reality hits the
boy.”
Chan was pleased with how Empty
Skies turned out, particularly its critique of
political propaganda brainwashing the
innocent. “I come from the school of Ed
Lachman [ASC] when it comes to my philos-
ophy on cinematography,” he offers. “I’m a
firm believer that the images we create
should have metaphoric value in relation-
ship to the story we’re trying to tell. The
look and style of the film came out of how
we thought the world would look from the
perspective of these children.
“At the end of the day,” Chan
concludes, “I just want to move hearts with
the moving image.” ●
 Uncanny
Valley
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC discusses his approach to
the noir-inflected realms of Blade Runner 2049.
By Rachael K. Bosley

•|•

W
hen director Denis Villeneuve asked him to shoot
Blade Runner 2049, Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC
jumped at the opportunity to make a science-fiction
feature. The fact that the project was a sequel to an
icon of the genre was almost incidental to its appeal. “I can’t
say I was a big fan of Blade Runner, though I suppose it’s sort
of grown on me since I first saw it,” says Deakins. “I love
science fiction, but you’ve got to have a good story, and I
wanted to make this movie because I thought the script was
pretty damn good, and I wanted to work with Denis again.”
Set 30 years after the events depicted in Blade Runner
— which was directed by Ridley Scott and shot by Jordan
Cronenweth, ASC (AC July ’82) — the new film follows K
(Ryan Gosling), who tracks down and “retires” wayward repli-
cants for the Los Angeles Police Dept. When his latest
assignment yields a surprising discovery, K begins an investi-
gation that leads to Wallace ( Jared Leto), a reclusive inventor
who seems to have perfected replicant technology, and ulti-
mately to Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), K’s predecessor on
the “blade runner” beat who has spent 30 years in hiding.
Blade Runner 2049’s scale and visual complexity
exceeded that of Villeneuve and Deakins’ previous collabora-
tions, the contemporary dramas Prisoners (AC Oct. ’13) and
Sicario (AC Oct. ’15), but the duo strove to maintain the same
close focus on character — whether replicant, human or holo-
gram. This informed their decisions from the earliest stages of
prep, which began in Montreal in late 2015; through 92 days
of principal photography in Hungary, at Origo Studios and
Korda Studios and on location; and in the final grade at
EFilm.
For the production, EC3 — the dailies unit for EFilm
and Company 3 — established a dailies workflow in the P3
digital-cinema space, and shipped the calibrated projection
and monitoring equipment to Budapest, where dailies colorist
Matt Wallach could work closely with Deakins on the look
that went out to the other filmmakers, executives and picture

36 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 Opposite: Luv
(Sylvia Hoeks)
guides K (Ryan
Gosling) — a
“blade runner”
who tracks down
troublesome
replicants for the
LAPD — through
the headquarters
of Wallace Corp.
This page, left: A
surprising
discovery
ultimately leads K
to Rick Deckard
(Harrison Ford), an
erstwhile blade
runner who’s been
missing for
decades. Below:
Director Denis
Villeneuve (left)
observes as
cinematographer
Roger Deakins,
ASC, BSC operates
the wheels for a
remote head.
Unit photography by Stephen Vaughan and Kata Vermes, courtesy of Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures.

editorial. Deakins then sat in for the

entirety of the final grade, working
alongside colorist Mitch Paulson, who
used Autodesk’s Lustre grading plat-
form. Paulson also worked with
Deakins on passes for Dolby Cinema
2D and 3D, and all home-entertain-
ment deliverables.
AC connected with Deakins in
September, shortly after he wrapped up
at EFilm.

American Cinematographer:
What sparked your interest in science
fiction, and what are some of your
favorite sci-fi films?
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC: I
read a lot of science fiction as a kid,
mainly Asimov and Bradbury. I really
liked the original Planet of the Apes, and
I thought Soylent Green was an amazing
movie. I think my favorite science-
fiction film is Tarkovsky’s Solaris. I
watch it every few years.
Did you and Denis tap the orig-
inal Blade Runner for any particular
visual references? Did you watch it
together in prep?
Deakins: No. [Blade Runner
2049] was always a film by itself as far as
I was concerned. One of the early things
Denis was very specific about was the
look of K’s apartment. He wanted a
severe prefab interior with a kind of
plastic feel to it that would reflect that K
is an android. A lot of the references for
that look came from Japan and Hong
Kong. In a bit of a throwback to the feel
of Deckard’s apartment in the first film,
the kitchen also had this modular qual-
ity, almost like a galley on a sailboat.
But otherwise, no, we didn’t really refer-
ence Blade Runner.
How did your work with Denis
begin, and what were some of your
visual references?
Deakins: We worked in
Montreal for quite some time at the end
of 2015, while Denis was cutting
Arrival [shot by Bradford Young, ASC;
AC Dec. ’16], and we went through the
script and started doing storyboards
along with [production designer]
Dennis Gassner. Many of our refer-
ences were architecture, actually. One of
the early references Denis gravitated
toward was the architecture in Beijing
and the look of the city in the smog; he

www.ascmag.com December 2017 37

◗ Uncanny Valley
Right: A
holographic
advertisement
for “Joi,” an
artificial-
intelligence
manufactured
by Wallace
Corp., reaches
out to K.
Below and
bottom: K and
his own Joi
(Ana de
Armas) share
a rooftop
moment in
the rain.

boards came in handy mainly for the

liked the idea of L.A. being cold, with
either rain or snow in exterior scenes.
We wanted the environment to be a
character in itself, and gradually we
came to the idea of stark, minimal
Brutalist architecture. Denis was partic-
ularly struck by some of the architecture
we had seen in London, such as the
South Bank arts complex, the Barbican
Estate and Trellick Tower. I also spent a
lot of time trawling the internet, looking
at different architects’ work and how
they used light in their buildings.
At one point I came back to L.A.
and continued working with a story-
board artist here, then I’d get together
with Denis and we’d talk things
through. We probably storyboarded this
movie more precisely than anything I’ve
ever done apart from the Coen brothers’
films — maybe more precisely because
we previsualized some of it. The story-
visual-effects work, the aerial work and
the second-unit work, though there
wasn’t much of the latter.
What led you to Hungary?
Deakins: Initially we thought we
might shoot in London, and that was
why we scouted there, but we knew we
had to shoot about two-thirds of the
movie on stage, and there was no stage
space available in London. [Executive
producer] Ridley Scott had shot The
Martian [AC Nov. ’15] in Hungary, so
he was familiar with the stages there. I
went out to Budapest with Denis quite
early on, and we scouted various loca-
tions in Hungary as well as some
specific architecture in Slovakia.
I brought several of my key crew
over from the States, but I have to say
our Hungarian crew was fantastic. For
the day-to-day on-set lighting, I worked
mostly with local gaffer Krisztián
Paluch and his crew, whilst our super-
vising gaffer, Billy O’Leary — whom I
have worked with on and off for more
than 30 years — came over from New
York to supervise. Local rigging gaffer
Antal Berger and dimmer-board opera-
tor Titusz Badonics were terrific, but we
had so many different sets that we called
in a few people I’d worked with on other
projects to help, including key grip
Mitch Lillian, rigging key grip Charley
Gilleran, rigging gaffer Patrick
Bramucci and dimmer-board operator
Steve Mathie. We also brought in our

38 December 2017 American Cinematographer

second camera and Steadicam operator,
Peter Cavaciuti, whom I have worked
with for years. So I was surrounded by a
great team.
Given the scope of the movie,
did you consider shooting large
format?
Deakins: We tested the Arri 65,
but neither Denis nor I wanted to go
that far. We were happy with what we
did on Sicario, so we stuck with that. We
shot the Alexa open gate, but we kept
the full frame [1.55:1] clean instead of
cropping to 2.40 because we knew there
would be an Imax version, which is
between 1.70:1 and 1.90:1. A majority
of the shoot was done fairly simply, the
same way we approached Sicario —
basically single camera, with the camera
solid on a dolly or a crane arm. We used
two of the new Alexa Minis quite a bit,
especially in the spinner vehicles.
[Digital-imaging technician] Josh
Gollish and I used the same LUT on set
that we used on Sicario. I don’t change
much, really.
What inspired the artificial-
sunlight motif in Wallace’s headquar-
ters, and how did you create it?
Deakins: I thought it would be
interesting if the interiors of this huge,
monolithic building always had the feel-
ing of moving sunlight. Some of those
sets were very severe, just square walls
with no windows or obvious light
sources, so I looked for different ways to
bring patterns of moving light into
them.
One architectural reference we
liked used water as a ceiling piece to
create a caustic light effect; we took that
idea and embellished it. Two scenes in
Wallace’s office — which is basically a
platform surrounded by water in this big
concrete box — were probably the most
complicated bits of lighting. The first
scene, which introduces Wallace, is
actually not very long but needed to be
quite impressive. For that we created
three circles of light about 25 feet in
circumference, with about 35 10K
Fresnel lamps on each circle, and put Top: K confronts Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), an old-model Nexus-8 replicant who’s long
been in hiding. Middle: K pilots his “spinner” car through Los Angeles’ multicolored nightscape.
them on a dimmer chaser to create a Bottom: Following a lead, K pays a visit to Wallace Corp.
pattern of moving light. There were

www.ascmag.com December 2017 39

◗ Uncanny Valley
square cuts for the light some 15 feet
below the lamps so that there were
defined patterns across the walls.
When Deckard is brought to
Wallace’s office toward the end of the
film, we bounced 10Ks off the water, and
by using wave machines to move the
water very slightly, we created caustics on
the wall. But this was just a background
to the action; to actually light the charac-
ters, we used 285 Tweenies rigged in two
concentric rigs directly above the center
of the action. Thus, an ever-revolving
circle of light passed across the actors
throughout the scene and gradually grew
in softness as more lights were added to
the circle.
Some of what we did was very low-
tech. We took a 24K bare bulb and three
10K bare bulbs to light the stairway, down
which Luv [Sylvia Hoeks] and K walk
through the replicant ‘museum.’ These
bare bulbs, housed in safety protection,
were rigged to a channel track above the
set, and the electricians pulled them by
hand to create a hard light that traversed
the set as our characters descended. For
the wide shot that follows this, in which
K and Luv walk down a long passageway
to the ‘memory library’ door, we rigged
two 24K Skypans on a pulley system,
which the grips slowly lowered during the
scene to create a pattern of light that
slowly grew up the wall.
One of the subtlest uses of visual
effects in the film is K’s holographic
companion, Joi [Ana De Armas]. Most
of the time she looks like a flesh-and-
blood human, with just a slight shimmer
or degree of transparency to suggest that
Top and above: she isn’t. How did you approach those
Luv reports to
Niander Wallace scenes?
(Jared Leto). Deakins: I was always arguing for
Right: less. You need to connect to Joi as a char-
Surrounded by
water, with acter, and I don’t think you would if she’d
caustic lighting become this bit of effects wizardry. There
rippling across was a lot of talk about how far we’d go
the walls,
Villeneuve with the transparency. You see some
considers an transparency when she’s against a high-
upcoming scene light, but it’s subtle. Basically we shot the
while seated in
Wallace’s office. actress on the set, and for every shot we
did we also shot a background plate. That
way [visual-effects supervisor] John
Nelson and his team always had that

40 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Uncanny Valley
Mariette
(Mackenzie
Davis,
center) sets
her sights
on K.
background that they could add or
remove.
How did you accomplish the
scene in which Joi merges with the
escort [played by Mackenzie Davis] so
she can physically connect with K?
Deakins: That was kind of terri-
fying because if it didn’t have the right
pitch, it could have turned into an
Aladdin-type fantasy rather than some-
thing you could believe as real. It was a
very hard balance, and we spent a lot of
time in prep on that sequence. John
Nelson originally wanted us to shoot the
scene with one of the actresses and then
shoot a greenscreen element of the other
actress to replace it, but that proved to be
less realistic. Effects companies did quite
a few tests where they played with the
idea of pixelation and distressing the
image as the women combined, but it all
became too fussy. In the end we made
tests of just shooting each actress in the
same situation, in exactly the same poses
or as close as we could get it, and then
simply overlapping the images. We
storyboarded it precisely and that’s what
we did.
It was time-consuming — we
shot the scene with Ryan and one
actress within the shot first, and then the
other actress had to watch the playback
and basically mimic what the first
actress had done. But it actually worked
much better that way because both
actresses are in the same light; the light
matches the environment perfectly,
42 December 2017
which would have been impossible to
replicate with greenscreen, frankly. And
the performances speak for themselves.
The dome-shaped lab where
Ana [Carla Juri] creates replicants’
memory implants is one of the more
unusual sets.
Deakins: Yes, it’s a big egg with
no light source! [Laughs.] The design
was inspired by the Darwin Centre
Cocoon of the Natural History
Museum in London. The shots that
introduce Ana, where you see her in the
forest that then dissolves into her lab,
were actually shot in prep, whilst the lab
was a set we shot late in the schedule.
So it was quite a long time between the
shooting of the plate and the interior,
and we had to choose our angles very
early on. We lit the lab almost entirely
with LED ribbons recessed into a cove
in the floor. It doesn’t look like much,
but it was an enormous amount of light.
There was a hole in the top of the dome
that doesn’t appear in shot, and we put
a small amount of LED soft light there
using [Arri] LED SkyPanels, but it’s
very minimal.
Did the wall of glass separating
Ana from her visitors present any
concerns?
Deakins: It was suggested we
shoot without the glass and add CG
reflections in post, but that wouldn’t
have looked right. I had the camera on
an Aerocrane and Power Pod remote
head — the same system that I regu-
American Cinematographer
larly use — and there were a few instances
where [visual-effects artists] had to paint
out the camera’s reflection because there
was no way to shoot without getting it in
shot, but it was fairly forgiving.
Ana’s creation of the birthday-
party memory is a lovely bit of interac-
tive lighting. How did you achieve that?
Deakins: First we storyboarded
the scene to determine all the angles we
needed. We shot the children as an
element during preproduction, lining up
our shots with our actress but always
keeping the children as a clean element. I
used a circular tray of 250-watt bulbs on
flicker generators to mimic the light that
would be coming from the candles on the
cake. Some shots we made with multiple
cameras for the moment when the kids
freeze but the cake is still spinning; using
multiple cameras enabled the visual-
effects team to manipulate the kids in
three dimensions. We shot the birthday
cake as a totally separate element because
the light level of the candles wouldn’t
have lit the scene as I wanted it, and
because the cake changes from shot to
shot. Finally, at the end of our schedule,
we shot the main work with Carla and
Ryan. We had boarded the scene and
mapped out our camera positions, camera
height and lens, so we knew where the
children would be matted into the frame.
The main trick was making sure we had
the right camera angles before we shot a
frame of the scene.
How about the interactive light-
◗ Uncanny Valley
A trail of clues
eventually
leads K to
what remains
of Las Vegas,
where he
finds Deckard
hiding out in
a hotel-casino.
ing in the night scene where the giant
advertisement for ‘Joi’ directly
addresses K?
Deakins: We shot the ‘Pink Joi’
element first. When we shot the scene
with Ryan, I felt it important that we
play the element at a true scale so that
the lighting could be interactive
between the advert and K. There’s rain
and fog in the scene, so we filled the
stage with mist and had this 40-by-30-
foot LED screen playing back the image
that we had shot during preproduction.
The pink-and-blue advert was basically
lighting the whole shot — the atmos-
phere and Ryan. The light changes as
the advert changes. Of course, in post
the visual-effects team altered Joi to
make her look more three-dimensional
and to walk out of her screen, but the
44 December 2017
look is still closer to reality because the
actual light and colors are all there.
The striking dusky look of Las
Vegas, where K meets Deckard, really
sets those scenes apart from the rest of
the film. How much of the look did
you achieve in camera?
Deakins: Both Denis and I
always wanted to do as much as possible
in camera. The wide shot that opens the
sequence, which shows K looking at the
CG city in the distance, was shot on a
studio back lot, whilst the exterior shots
showing K approaching the casino were
shot on stage. This was the same stage
and lighting rig we intended to use later
for a different set — a day exterior that
takes place in the snow. Both scenes
involved CGI, so there was a gray cyc
around the whole stage that worked for
American Cinematographer
both sets. I decided to rig 250 space
lights overhead and just leave them
there to do both scenes. Space lights are
fairly old-fashioned now, but we could
get them locally quite easily. For the
Vegas exterior, we didn’t gel the space
lights, but we added 20 Maxi-Brutes
gelled green at the sides of the stage to
add a yellow highlight in the sky, and I
had a filter pack on the front of the lens
that Tiffen had made for me based on
some lighting gels I’d chosen — in this
case, a combination of [Lee] 790
Moroccan Pink and 105 Orange —
which gave the image an overall red
look. [Ed. note: According to Mike
Fecik, lab manager at Tiffen, the
company created three filter options for
Deakins, one based on Lee 134 Golden
Amber, one based on Lee 020 Medium
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◗ Uncanny Valley
Right: Deckard
and K catch
their collective
breath after a
harrowing
spinner crash
and an intense
fight with Luv.
Below:
Villeneuve
works with
Gosling and
Ford.
Amber, and one that combined Lee 790
Moroccan Pink and 105 Orange. All
were made in full and half density.]
We mapped out how we could do
a number of different shots in the same
stage by wheeling different set pieces —
sections of large statues — into and out
of the space to progress the scene as K
approaches the hotel; we would have a
quick turnaround and reset the stage in
a different configuration. We also used
atmosphere — quite a lot of smoke.
When K steps inside, it’s a practi-
cal location, an old stock-exchange
building in Budapest. That was our
largest practical location; we were shoot-
ing on at least three floors there, so we
had to wrap the whole building with
46 December 2017
light — something like 20 daylight-
balanced 18K HMIs — and gel and
diffuse all the windows to match the red
look. We used Moroccan Pink plus 105
Orange on some lower windows, and
the Golden Amber on the main skylight
and some upper windows to get a sense
of the light being less ‘heavy’ higher up.
The third part of the sequence, in
Deckard’s penthouse apartment, is back
on stage. We gelled all the lights at the
foot of the set, some 10 T12s, with our
heavier Amber filter. We set the lamps
— approximately 32 T12s gelled with a
lighter Amber — on a truss above the
roof of the set, and they were bouncing
off white reflectors on the stage ceiling
and hung above the backing. The Vegas
American Cinematographer
cityscape outside the window was a large
painted backing lit with 75 2K Blondes
that were gelled with alternating light
and heavy Amber. There was talk of
making this backing greenscreen, but I
thought that was kind of ridiculous.
Technology these days is so advanced
you don’t really need to use greenscreen,
and I think [the result] is not believable
because there’s nothing real reflecting
onto the set. So I argued for a painted
backing. It was in gray tones, and we did
a lot of testing to get the right feel. For
most of the shots on the backing, John
Nelson’s team went in and made a few
buildings look more three-dimensional,
more detailed — but in other shots it’s
the original backing.
The holographic stage show that
flickers in the background during
Deckard and K’s fistfight in the casino
must have presented a few question
marks when you read the script.
Deakins: [Laughs.] Part of the fun
of signing on for a film like this is that
you get to do certain things. You want to
stretch yourself as much as you can, play
with it — you’re not there to just bounce
a lamp off the ceiling — though that
might well have been a little less stress-
ful. With this stage show, I really wanted
to do as much as I could within the
schedule and budget, but we only shot a
 ◗ Uncanny Valley
be rigged in relationship to the set. We
only had a week to place the rig and a
couple of days to program the lighting
Ford reunites so, again, we had to be very prepared.
with Ridley
Scott, who
The concert lighting lit the entire scene;
directed the now and again we’d adjust the light
original Blade based on where Harrison or Ryan was,
Runner and
returned to
but the basic plan went through the
2049 as an whole sequence.
executive In some shots of Harrison and
producer.
Ryan, there’s an Elvis lookalike standing
in Elvis’ spotlight in the background,
and some of the lighting for the other
acts — which Pierre shot as elements
couple of days with Harrison and Ryan, boarded the sequence quite precisely. later — was also in the background.
and [2nd-unit cinematographer] Pierre That evolved into a storyboard with Pierre reproduced our camera angles to
Gill [CSC] only shot a couple of days music, a temporary guide track. I shoot the other acts in the same
with the dancers, so we had to be really worked with a local concert-lighting programmed lighting, and then those
prepared. The idea was that it’s an Elvis company in Budapest, Lightdesign, to elements were laid in as ‘holograms’ later
concert and these other acts — Marilyn design a whole sequence for the show on. It doesn’t look it, but that was prob-
Monroe, go-go dancers, Bollywood that fit this timeline, and then we previ- ably the most complex scene because
dancers — sort of overlap and glitch in sualized the lighting plan. Tibor Kalla there were transparent elements and
and out. mapped the lighting pattern onto the overlapping lighting. Integrating those
I worked with Dennis Gassner on set and then worked out exactly what things was kind of tricky.
the design of the set, and we story- lights we needed and where they would The night scene involving two

48
spinners crash-landing in the ocean
looks as though it’s lit entirely by the
vehicles’ lighting.
Deakins: It was. We originally
planned to shoot that sequence in a tank
in Malta at the end of the shoot, but that
proved to be too problematic in terms of
scheduling and expense, so we built a
150-by-150-foot water tank on a back
lot in Hungary and shot it there. That
was much more practical because we
could prep and shoot without losing
travel time.
We had to see a lot of action, but
I didn’t want to light the whole place up.
I wanted something ‘sketchy’ — sort of
pools of light surrounded by darkness.
We built LED lighting into the spin-
ners, whose original design was done by
Dennis Gassner and [supervising art
director] Paul Inglis in prep, and we
designed the LEDs in the larger spinner
to change color over the course of the
scene. I wanted it warm and dark when
they’re flying, and then to be bright,
white emergency lighting when they
crash. That way I could justify brighter
lighting for the body of the sequence.
For the action outside the vehicle,
we maneuvered the lighting so the
headlights, taillights or interior lights
would appear to be all that was lighting
Ryan and Sylvia, and we chose angles
that placed the actors either in beams of
light or in silhouette. To boost the light
level, we added LED spotlight rigs —
simple off-the-shelf units that Billy had
found locally — to the headlights, and
orange LEDs to the taillights. There’s a
lot of atmosphere, too. We were outside
at night in late October, so it was pretty
damn cold. The water was heated for
the actors, so we sometimes got a little
more steam than we had wanted!
You do your own operating, so
was that you down there underwater?
Deakins: Well, the camera was
always on a remote, so either Peter
Cavaciuti or I was operating, but no, I
can’t swim. I wasn’t getting in the water
for anybody!
Did this project whet your
appetite to shoot more science fiction
anytime soon?
Deakins: Actually, the next
movie I’m going to do is The Goldfinch
with [director] John Crowley. It’s based
on a novel by Donna Tartt, and it’s a
really wonderful story that’s very much
about characters.
To read a Q&A with Blade
Runner 2049 production designer Dennis
Gassner, visit http://bit.ly/2y6Gdrf. ●
TECHNICAL SPECS
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Alexa Mini
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49
 Hammer Time
Javier Aguirresarobe, ASC, AEC

and director Taika Waititi wade
deep into a colorful mix of
Norse mythology and the
Marvel Cinematic Universe on
Thor: Ragnarok.
By Noah Kadner
•|•
W
hen a movie is the second sequel to a property set
within Marvel Comics’ interconnected universe of
more than a dozen films and counting, a degree of
franchise fatigue among the filmmakers might be
expected. In the case of Thor: Ragnarok, the exact opposite
occurred, due in large part to the enthusiasm of director Taika
Waititi and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe, ASC,
AEC, who are both new to the series. The two joined forces
with a game cast — including Chris Hemsworth, Tom
Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Idris Elba and
Cate Blanchett — to bring to life the latest adventures of the
titular Norse god of thunder.
“In my first conversations with Taika, even before hiring
me he let me know that the film would be up to 95 percent shot
on bluescreen,” Aguirresarobe recalls. “He asked if that was all

50 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 right and I replied that it wouldn’t be my
Opposite and this
first time. A couple of years before, I’d page, above: Thor
shot The Finest Hours, a film about a (Chris Hemsworth),
rescue at sea, which forced us to shoot in the god of thunder,
teams up with his
a pool surrounded by bluescreen. That brother, Loki (Tom
turned out to be a great experience — Hiddleston); Valkyrie
however, there’s an important difference (Tessa Thompson);
and Hulk (Mark
between the two films. The Finest Hours Ruffalo) to save
was a true story that took place in a Asgard from his
familiar setting of a stormy day, and a sister, Hela (Cate
Blanchett) in the
night out in an uncontrollable sea. In high-flying adven-
Thor: Ragnarok, the challenge consisted ture Thor: Ragnarok.
of creating fantastic worlds with settings Left: Director Taika
Waititi (left) checks
that originated in our imagination and the frame while cine-
were lit with realistic lighting. We matographer Javier
needed CGI’s aid to develop, shape and Aguirresarobe, ASC,
AEC looks on.
complete the scenarios.”
When asked why he chose
Unit photography by Jasin Boland, SMPSP, courtesy of Marvel Studios.

Aguirresarobe to shoot the project,
Waititi enthuses, “I’ve been a huge
admirer of Javier’s work for many years
and he’s also one of the nicest people
you’ll ever meet. I try to make my sets
feel like you’re working with family, so
there’s a lot of joking around, playing
music and dancing. Javier is great, with
such good energy, and he’s just deter-
mined to make things as beautiful as he
can. You can tell he’s an artist and loves
what he does.”
Recounting the path that brought
him to this particular director’s chair,
Waititi explains, “Marvel liked my work
in What We Do in the Shadows, and in
particular, Boy, my second film. They
saw I could not only do something
funny, but also tell a story where the
audience could invest emotionally in the
characters. If you look into what
Ragnarok actually is in Norse mythol-
ogy, it’s the end of the world, but it’s also
a new beginning with a rebirthing and
rebuilding.
“The press-release pitch for this
movie is: Thor loses his hammer, is
trapped on an insane world across the
universe, and has to fight his way to free-
dom and get back home to save his own
planet,” Waititi continues. “I would also
describe it as, ‘What if you got a bunch
of the craziest kids together and asked
them everything they would want to see
in a movie?’ A lot of inspiration also
came from the art of [comic-book artist]
Jack Kirby, in terms of color, line, form,
and sometimes even composition.”
The filmmakers shot Thor:
Ragnarok at Village Roadshow Studios
in Oxenford, Gold Coast, Australia,
from July through October 2016. After
almost a year of postproduction, the
filmmakers reconvened in July 2017 for
additional photography with an eye
toward a fall 2017 release. Key
crewmembers included 2nd-unit direc-
tor of photography David Burr, ACS;
A-camera operator Pete McCaffrey;
digital-imaging technician Pete
Harrow; key grip David Nichols; gaffer
Reg Garside; and rigging gaffer Craig
Clark.
While recent Marvel adaptations

www.ascmag.com December 2017 51

◗ Hammer Time
Right: Thor is
held prisoner by
the demon
Surtur, who aims
to trigger
Ragnarok, the
destruction of
Asgard. Below:
The crew shoots
the god of
thunder as he
flies into action,
having escaped
Surtur’s chains.
have been shot digitally on units such as
Red’s Weapon and Arri’s Alexa, Thor:
Ragnarok is the studio’s first to employ
Arri’s Alexa 65 — with its sensor area
equivalent to 5-perf 65mm film — as its
primary camera. “I suggested the Alexa
65 because of the immense amount of
visual information that needed to be
acquired,” notes Aguirresarobe. “In
order to cover that large 54.12mm x
25.58mm sensor, we needed special
medium-format lenses. So we
combined a set of [Vintage 765] lenses
— [originally] made by Hasselblad, Arri
and Zeiss [and adapted for the Alexa
65] — with a package of new [Arri
Prime 65] lenses ranging from 24mm to
300mm.” Arri London supplied the
lenses and camera bodies.
To maximize the depth of field
and exposure quality of the Alexa 65,
Aguirresarobe was determined to light
52 December 2017
to a relatively high T-stop of 5.6, while
rating the camera at ASA 1,250.
Garside recommended the extensive use
of LED lighting, including Arri S60
SkyPanels and Outsight Creamsource
Sky units. “We chose the SkyPanels for
their great consistency and versatility,”
Aguirresarobe says. “For our floor units,
we built soft boxes with two and four
SkyPanels in [each]. These had inter-
changeable diffusions and were moved
around on stands. On the other hand,
we had 8-by-4 and 8-by-8 soft boxes
that were hung on single-winch motors,
which were attached to Bomac track,
which in turn was attached to the dolly
beams in the roof. This enabled the
boxes not only to be raised and lowered,
but also to be moved up and down the
stages. It also enabled us to switch diffu-
sions easily.”
To light the massive amounts of
American Cinematographer
bluescreen surrounding most of the sets,
Garside chose Kino Flo Image 85s with
5,500K tubes. “We used a GrandMA2
Light dimmer board for the picture and
also had them for the second and
rigging units,” the gaffer notes. “[Board
operator] Glen Bielenberg sat with
Javier and me in the DIT tent so that
Javier could issue last-minute instruc-
tions. We gave Javier his own six-chan-
nel board and always put his main key
and fill lights on it so that he could alter
his ratios at any time.” Aguirresarobe
explains that he, along with Bielenberg
and Greg Daley, the head console
programmer, invented many color
presets for the LEDs on the GrandMa
— with such whimsical names as Surtur
Blue, Musphelium Fireable Sakaar,
Sunset Asgard and Hulk Pool.
The movie opens with the
cavernous world of the fire demon
Surtur. Of this environment,
Aguirresarobe observes, “It’s a grim and
dark cavern, which turns to fire when
Surtur comes alive — then the deep
blue of the cavern’s ambiance shifts to
extremely warm tones. When Thor
finally gets out of the cave, he lands on
a reddish surface reminiscent of Mars,
with warm, orange tones.”
Thor’s home realm of Asgard
subsequently endures a brazen attack
from Hela, the goddess of the dead.
“Asgard is a place that expresses a
certain melancholy,” Aguirresarobe
notes. “It reminds me of a medieval and
◗ Hammer Time
Top: Cameras are trained on Karl Urban, whose character, Skurge, has been tasked with
guarding the rainbow bridge that leads into Asgard. Above: The crew captures a scene between
Hela and Skurge in Asgard’s throne room.
romantic world, not at all aggressive. Its
look is of a certain beauty without being
too loud when it comes to color and
contrast. I noticed that in the previous
productions, Asgard’s look followed
along those lines. That’s why I tried to
keep to the same tones and feel —
neutral colors, sometimes rather cold,
with faint sunlight shaped by soft
clouds.”
In an attempt to protect Asgard
from Hela, Thor is catapulted across the
galaxy to the vibrant planet Sakaar. “On
Sakaar, everything is imbued with color,
and primary hues prevail,” says
Aguirresarobe. “The houses are green,
red and yellow, and the costumes go by
the same scheme of pure chromatic
54 December 2017
imagination. Sakaar’s sky mirrors what
we see on this planet — and other plan-
etary phenomena [are depicted as well],
bringing light and color with them.
This all proved to be an authentic chal-
lenge not only for the creation of CGI
images, but for our lighting, since it
evokes constant shifts in intensity and
color — although the short lengths of
the shots did not allow these effects to
be reflected on the character’s faces.
The cinematographer adds, “I
always wanted the concept for the light-
ing to follow the same creative lines as
[those of ] the artists completing the sets
digitally. For example, in Sakaar there
was a huge spaceport scene, but only
three columns were built on stage, plus a
American Cinematographer
very small area for what would be
Grandmaster’s ‘garage.’ I decided to fill the
space with intense lights and shadowy
zones. To achieve this, we planted a row of
4K Molebeams on the upper part of the
set for sharp and intense beams of light, as
if the roof had windows looking out into
the exterior. It was always of great interest
to me to share those decisions with
[visual-effects supervisor] Jake Morrison,
since I needed his help extending such a
well-defined ambience [throughout] all
that large space [via] CGI.”
Garside notes, “We had a number
of Sakaar sets that were LED-driven.
The most notable was the Grandmaster’s
chamber and palace, whose walls had the
possibility of changing color. For that,
our LED guru, Paul Johnson, installed
1.9km of RGB-W ribbon, which took
up a total of 8,192 channels on the
GrandMA. The reason we used four-
color LED was to match as close as we
could to the Arri SkyPanels. There was
enough light coming from the walls to
add kickers and liners to the cast. In this
case, they became our main source of
lighting. When those walls were in
frame, we ended up dimming the LED
strips to 5 percent, not just to reduce the
amount of light but to also keep the color
saturation on the walls.”
Morrison estimates that up to 98
percent of the movie contains visual
effects. With approximately 2,700 shots
from 18 vendors, the project boasts the
highest visual-effects shot count for a
Marvel movie to date.
Morrison notes that one of his
favorite challenges was 7'-tall rock
monster Korg — played by Waititi via
motion capture. “Taika is famous for
doing cameos,” Morrison says. “So we
had him in full mo-cap gear with the gray
suit and stereo head-mounted witness
camera, riffing and improvising lines as
Korg with Chris Hemsworth. With his
rock-covered body, Korg reminded me of
the Rock Biter character from The
NeverEnding Story, but we were deter-
mined to avoid [that character’s] latex-
puppet appearance. Luma Pictures and
Framestore came up with new technology
to shift and part the rocks against each
◗ Hammer Time
Right: Having
been thrown
off the rainbow
bridge, Thor
finds himself
trapped on the
planet Sakaar.
Below:
Thompson
stands atop her
character’s ship
to survey the
action on
Sakaar.
other as he moves, so you never see
them squash or stretch.”
In addition to principal photogra-
phy, the visual-effects team captured a
large volume of reference stills and
Lidar scans to aid the postproduction
efforts. “We always do a clean plate of
each take and shoot a mirror ball,” says
Morrison. “There’s literally nothing on
set that doesn’t get extensively
photographed for reference. The assis-
tant directors are constantly shepherd-
ing actors through our special photo
booth containing 145 Canon [EOS]
5D Mark III still cameras in an array,
with various lenses. It automatically
captures a 3-dimensional version of the
actor or extra, including high-resolution
facial scans in polarized and non-polar-
ized light in just half a second. We do
that for every prop, extra, costume
56 December 2017
change, set piece, etc.”
A highlight of the movie is an
epic gladiatorial throw-down between
Thor and the Hulk. “We set the
SkyPanels in a circle around the fight-
ers,” Aguirresarobe describes. “The
arena for their fight was built on blue-
screen in 360 degrees, except for the exit
door, where Thor emerges from, and a
slight bit of wall, which he crashes into.
According to where the camera was, it
was easy to set up a backlight or semi-
backlight on Thor and the Hulk, and
get an image with great contrast and
texture.” Garside scrimmed the back-
light with 20x20s wearing 1⁄2 Soft Frost
diffusion.
“We used the most advanced
techniques when it came to the Hulk
and motion-capture sequences,”
Aguirresarobe explains. “We did stan-
American Cinematographer
dard motion capture performed in a
motion-capture volume, as well as
Simulcam live tracking of the Alexa
camera and real-time display of
computer-generated characters, envi-
ronments, lighting, etc.”
Morrison adds, “We used
cutting-edge motion-capture and
virtual-production techniques, down to
actually building motion-capture tech-
nology into the sets themselves.
Everything was geared towards letting
Taika work in an improvisational style,
something that came up in our first
meetings. Taika likes to shoot long
takes, in series, and wants to engage
with the actors, throwing ideas and lines
at them constantly. We brought in The
Third Floor’s virtual-production team
to help us achieve a real-time visualiza-
tion of the actors as their intended CGI
versions, so we could see Mark Ruffalo
as Hulk, live, in the camera’s eyepiece
and at video village — or Taika as
Korg!”
The cinematographer recounts,
“Another important sequence was the
film’s final battle, which takes place
along a bridge that crosses the city of
Asgard. A stretch of the bridge was
built outside the studios, and the photo-
graphic challenge was maintaining the
light’s continuity throughout the scene
from sunset to nighttime. It took more
than two weeks to shoot. We built a
large roof combining black fabric and
diffusers, and then — according to the
time of day and the sun’s position — I
combined part of the black surface with
◗ Hammer Time
Top: Surrounded by bluescreen, Hemsworth prepares for action in a scene in which Thor is
pressed into gladiatorial combat. Above: A camera is framed up on the ageless Grandmaster
(Jeff Goldblum), the dictatorial ruler of Sakaar.
the translucent bit to protect [the set]
from sudden light changes. [Key rigging
grip] Dave Thomson performed a high-
level engineering job on the upper part
of the set by combining different fabrics
and moving them with great agility. We
added a small amount of fill light with
our SkyPanels when needed, but the
majority of the scenes on the bridge
were shot with natural light.”
Though the majority of the
movie was captured using the Alexa 65
camera, Aguirresarobe also deployed a
Phantom Flex4K for one key high-
speed sequence. “For the flashback scene
where Hela fights against the Valkyries,
58 December 2017
we used a special rig made by Satellite
Lab,” he reveals. “It featured approxi-
mately 144 hot-shoe strobes, timed via
custom motion-control software. We
shot with the Phantom at 900 frames
per second.”
The production had the benefit
of screening dailies both online via the
Pix System, and in person at a screening
theater at Village Roadshow Studios
outfitted with a 4K NEC projector.
Dailies were processed by Shed under
the supervision of dailies colorist Fergus
Hally. “We used an evolution of the
ACES workflow, which Shed devel-
oped for Guardians [of the Galaxy Vol.] 2,
American Cinematographer
encompassing ASC CDL values and a
developed Marvel show LUT,” Hally
says.
“We used ACES,” Morrison
notes, “but employed a custom LMT to
allow the footage to behave as ‘classic
Alexa’ — Log C [version] 3 with a
K1S1 LUT — so the footage was shot
in a future-proof manner, but was grad-
able in a more standard way.”
Hally adds, “The camera packs
were cloned into Codex Vaults, enabling
the capture of associated metadata,
which could be seamlessly passed into
dailies and on to editorial. On set, DIT
Pete Harrow would build the CDLs
with Javier using Pomfort’s LiveGrade
Pro — these loaded neatly into Codex,
and critical adjustments were discussed
later in the grading suite, under Javier’s
guidance. In dailies, we were under strict
guidelines from the visual-effects team
to adhere to CDL parameters only, to
maintain a known set of values for the
visual-effects pipeline.” Hally worked
with the Codex production suite on
Dolby display monitors, with some test
looks investigated in [Blackmagic
Design] DaVinci Resolve. Hally further
notes that “Flanders [monitors] were
used on set with the DIT.”
Morrison worked diligently to
create a simple but effective image
pipeline to get from camera originals to
final projection. “I like to work back-
wards from the 2D DCP, where we
know it will be mastered for Imax at
2048x1080 pixels for a 1.90:1 aspect
ratio,” he says. “Then the 2D scope
output will be extracted from that at
2048x858 at 2.39:1. That framing is
effectively what the camera operator
sees on the ground glass at 6K, plus a
1⁄2K pad around the image.” Morrison
further explains that — as has become
traditional for many modern big-budget
action movies — on Imax screens, the
aspect ratio will periodically jump from
2.39:1 to 1.90:1. “In general, we’ve
maintained 2.39 for more intimate
dialogue scenes, but whenever we get
into an action beat it’s 1.90 all the way,”
he says. “The Imax version of the movie
is stunning.” The 1.90:1 footage
 ◗ Hammer Time
The crew
readies an
Asgard
exterior.
“amounts to one-third of the feature run
time,” reports senior finishing producer
Michael Dillon.
“We do the geometry transform
just once, so the effects vendors receive
the DCP Imax resolution with the
padding for, effectively, a 2.5K EXR
file,” Morrison says. “The padding often
helps with tasks like reframing and 3D
tracking — and when their effects are
60
completed, we ‘cut off the crusts’ by
removing the padding to end up back at
the final 2K. A benefit of this ‘brave new
world’ of ACES EXR is its support for
multiple layers within the file. So we can
send the image along with the various
mattes from the effects vendors and
have all of that information available for
the digital intermediate.”
As Thor: Ragnarok raced toward
the finishing line, Aguirresarobe was not
able to directly supervise the DI, due to
his work prepping another project in
Argentina. With Morrison’s assistance,
Aguirresarobe left a color bible to help
guide the grading toward his creative
intentions. “I always encourage the cine-
matographer to spend time with the DIT
and colorists to create a bible as sort of
their ‘mini DI,’” says Morrison. “It’s
about building trust and getting back to
the feel of a photochemical process, while
honoring their vision. I did that previ-
ously with Russell Carpenter, ASC on
Ant-Man and Kramer Morgenthau,
ASC on Thor: The Dark World.”
Waititi sat in on grading sessions
with Technicolor’s supervising finishing
artist Steven J. Scott in Walt Disney’s
former personal screening theater on the
Disney lot. “I approach color grading like
I’m the eye of the audience,” says Waititi.
“I look at a shot and think about what
doesn’t look real or what I’m really
supposed to be focusing on. I’ll think,
‘We should be focusing on that guy over
there, except it’s way too bright on the
other side of the frame and my eyes are
being drawn over to that tree instead, so
let’s fix that.’ These artists are all so great
at what they do.”
Scott explains, “Our initial focus
was the 2D SDR version using
Autodesk’s new [Lustre/Flame]
Connected Colour Workflow in
Disney’s great theatrical environment. I
laid the foundation and set key
sequences with the production team,
which then served as the guide for our
team, including finishing artists Charles
Bunnag and Gray Marshall. We began
the final finishing in late August and
delivered in mid-October. From the 2D
SDR master grade, we derived the 3D
stereo conversion, HDR, Imax, and all
the home-video deliverables.”
Dillon elaborates that the finish-
ing employed “Lustre 2018.2 with an
HP Z840 [Workstation outfitted with
an] Nvidia P6000 GPU, and dual
ShotReactors [background cache
renderers].” He notes the additional
contributions of finishing artists Adam
Nazarenko and Dave Franks. “Finishing
was done in multiple theaters on the
Disney lot,” Dillon adds, “which gave
the filmmakers the flexibility to partici-
pate in finishing and sound mix without
much interruption.”
Pondering the conclusion of a
project largely crafted in postproduc-
tion, Aguirresarobe recalls taking great
satisfaction in seeing the final result.
“When you’re constantly surrounded
with bluescreen, you end up a little
worried about how it’s ultimately all
going to look,” he says. “Once I started
seeing the final trailers, I was very
pleased to see the outcome is a very
imaginative and spectacular-looking
film.”
Waititi agrees, noting that the
project’s nearly yearlong postproduction
phase afforded plenty of time for reflec-
tion. “You sit for a long time with all
these bluescreen shots, and in your head
you’re wanting it to look a certain way,”
he says. “You have to wait until all those
backgrounds, set extensions and CG
characters are finished. Once they start
coming in, you can finally refine what
you originally intended at the start of
the production, but you really need
those crucial key creative elements
within the frame right from the begin-
ning.”
Click here for exclusive lighting
diagrams and additional images. ●
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.39:1, 1.90:1 (Imax)
Digital Capture
Arri Alexa 65,
Vision Research Phantom Flex4K
Arri Prime 65, Vintage 765
61
 Strife and Justice
Robert Elswit, ASC discusses
his second teamings with two
directors — George Clooney on
Suburbicon and Dan Gilroy on
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
By Patricia Thomson
•|•
62 December 2017
R
obert Elswit, ASC has a knack for inspiring loyalty in
directors. His first Academy Award nomination came
after working with director George Clooney on 2005’s
Good Night, and Good Luck (AC Nov. ’05), and the two
have once again joined forces on Suburbicon. Elswit has also
reteamed with screenwriter Dan Gilroy for the latter’s sopho-
more outing as director, Roman J. Israel, Esq., following 2014’s
Nightcrawler (AC Nov. ’14).
Suburbicon — the duo’s second project with Clooney in
the director’s seat and fifth time together on a set — centers
on the Lodges, a seemingly ordinary family comprising dad
(Matt Damon), mom and twin sister (both played by Julianne
Moore), and 11-year-old son, Nicky (Noah Jupe). Their
normalcy implodes after a home break-in, which causes a
death, followed by a cascade of bad decisions.
American Cinematographer
 The seed for Suburbicon was
planted in 1999 in the form of a script
that the Coen brothers sent to Clooney,
who was to play an insurance-claims
investigator. That project never materi-
alized, and the script sat in Clooney’s
Suburbicon unit photography by Hilary Bronwyn Gayle, courtesy of Paramount Pictures. Roman J. Israel, Esq. unit photography by Glen Wilson, courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

drawer until he decided to meld it with

a project he and writing partner Grant
Heslov were developing about
Levittown, a “model community” in
Pennsylvania that was torn apart by
racial tensions in 1957 after the first
black family moved in. Transplanting
the Coens’ tale to “Suburbicon” — a
fictional stand-in for Levittown —
Clooney and Heslov reframed the char-
acters’ malfeasances, with the story’s
racial scapegoating blinding everyone to
the real crimes taking place.
Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a thriller
and character study set in the legal
world of contemporary Los Angeles.
Denzel Washington plays the title role,
a civil-rights lawyer and savant on the
spectrum, whose appearance and values
haven’t changed since the 1970s. For
decades, he contentedly toiled in the
back office of a famous activist attorney,
drawing up legal arguments while his
partner presented the public face. When
his partner suddenly dies, Roman’s life
changes overnight, then more so after a
slick corporate lawyer (Colin Farrell)
recruits him to his firm. Washington,
who’s in virtually every shot, gives a
riveting, transformative performance.
To ground his character in reality, the
film was shot entirely on location, much
like Nightcrawler. But this time around
— thanks to a magnanimous gesture
from Washington, who also produced
— they shot primarily on 35mm nega-
tive.
American Cinematographer:
What is George Clooney like behind
the camera? Is he more an ‘actor’s
director,’ or does he bring specific ideas
about the look?
Robert Elswit, ASC: He’s a full-
service director. He really does think
through what he wants the film to look
like in a very specific way. He’s open to
all those kinds of discussions, but it
Opposite: Gardner
Lodge (Matt
Damon) and his
family have their
seemingly normal
lives turned
upside down in
the drama
Suburbicon. This
page, above:
Cinematographer
Robert Elswit, ASC
(left); director Dan
Gilroy (center) and
actor Denzel
Washington
discuss a
courtroom scene
for the drama
Roman J. Israel,
Esq. Left: Director
George Clooney
hands the
viewfinder to
Elswit on the
Suburbicon set.
really starts with him. Like the Coen out how to make something so dark into
brothers, George wants to do a a comedy. He cut a lot of the comedy
complete storyboard. He likes to work out of it, actually. But Clooney was
efficiently. Almost every sequence, we deeply affected by the politics going on
start with storyboards that may change while we were making the film. The
to some extent, but basically the layout is presidential election happened eight
there — how big someone is in the weeks into the shoot. He said some-
frame, how much activity we see, where thing very interesting while shooting: ‘It
we are in the room. isn’t the same movie now that I thought
Clooney resists the label ‘dark I was making.’ Initially, the tone was
comedy,’ which critics have applied to more lighthearted, despite the murders.
Suburbicon. How would you describe The bad guys were kind of idiots, and he
it? was walking that strange little world
Elswit: He always wanted it to be that the Coen brothers do so well, where
amusing. It was a real challenge to figure despite the horror and mayhem, there’s

www.ascmag.com December 2017 63

◗ Strife and Justice
Top: Gardner sits down with his son, Nicky (Noah Jupe), after tragedy strikes. Bottom: Gardner
and his sister-in-law (Julianne Moore) view a lineup of suspects at the police station.
just something intriguing about the
human condition and you can find
comic moments there.
To make the film his own,
Clooney needed something that would
provide a realistic base. He and Grant
Heslov, his producer and writing part-
ner, [incorporated] a true story. There
really was a black family that moved
into Levittown, Pennsylvania, and there
was an extensive race riot. Their idea
was to contrast what happens to the
64 December 2017
Lodge family to this true story. He
thought leavening this insane story with
the [Lodges’ friendly] interaction with
the black family would show some
hope.
What were Clooney’s directives
when you first sat down to discuss the
look?
Elswit: He wanted it very
vibrant. He was influenced by the
movies of the period, which were
Technicolor. So — widescreen, satu-
American Cinematographer
rated primary colors, vivid backgrounds.
We had what we think of as that Fifties
palette: oranges, browns, bright blues,
and yellows.
We’re in a world of naturalistic or
somewhat naturalistic lighting, but
George wanted to push it further. He
wanted sequences where you’d see char-
acters casting shadows on the wall, like
Julianne Moore’s [character’s] murder
and a couple of other scenes. To do that,
we had a more theatrical lighting style
in places. I wish I’d been a little braver
on that.
Unlike Good Night, and Good
Luck, which was Super 35 spherical,
you shot with Arri’s Alexa XT in
anamorphic format. Why that choice?
Elswit: Given the time we had
and all the night work, I felt I ultimately
had more control if I could light [for]
the Alexa. The anamorphic lens was
kind of a throwback, an homage to
those wonderful social dramas in the
1950s. Today we imagine anamorphic
movies as being big outdoor spectacles,
but there were lots that were family
dramas shot in small spaces. We looked
at a few. George loves the way you have
to stage in anamorphic and the way it
isolates characters — when you do
close-ups, the more limited depth of
field. He was very intrigued by that kind
of stuff.
What was your lens package?
Elswit: It was [Panavision’s]
anamorphic C Series. We mostly shot
with wide lenses. The whole movie was
probably 40, 50 and 75mm. I like the
oval [anamorphic artifacts] a lot. The
coatings are new, but the optical quali-
ties are the same as they were. Actually,
a lot of those lenses were designed 40,
50, 60 years ago. Today’s newer lenses
tend to be somewhat antiseptic and
clinical, perfect from edge to edge in a
way that has almost no character. With
the C Series, there’s lots of optical
vignetting, color fringing, and all these
other things you almost never get with
[modern] lenses. The most difficult
thing about shooting digital is that you
just don’t get anything automatically.
You have to spend the time in post to do
◗ Strife and Justice

Right: Elswit and

crew capture a
scene with
Damon and
Moore. Below:
The camera is
dollied into
position for an
exterior scene
featuring Jupe
and Tony
Espinosa, who
portrays Andy.

concern. Then you’re in this scary

the things that automatically happen
when you shoot motion-picture film:
adding grain, doing all these things so it
doesn’t look quite so squeaky clean.
Can you summarize Suburbicon’s
lighting package?
Elswit: It’s a lot of HMIs outside,
and tungsten and LEDs inside. Every
interior, with the exception of the high-
school auditorium, was a set that
[production designer] Jim Bissell built,
so I could put lighting in ahead of time.
It’s a lot of LED lighting — paper
China balls and LitePads — and for
night exteriors as well. LED lighting is a
wonderful way to work, especially when
it’s hybrid and you can change the color
temperature easily.
As the story becomes darker, so
does the lighting. Outline that
progression.
Elswit: For the first 15 minutes,
the film feels almost like a light comedy.
You don’t know something is brewing
— even though you meet the black
family and see the neighbors’ immediate
midnight meeting of the local citizens in
a relatively dark high-school gymna-
sium, plotting what to do. That presages
the dark tone.
For our day-exterior work,
George was really good about planning
it around the time of day. The backyard
location was actually a set, built in
Mystery Mesa in Santa Clarita. Jim and
I laid it out so the sun rises over the
Mayers’ house and sets over the Lodges’
house, so we could organize the shoot-
ing day around time of day, and the
backyard would feel very different in
frontlight or backlight. That informed
how those scenes felt. When we first
meet Mr. Mayers (Leith M. Burke)
when he’s mowing the lawn, and when
the boys first say hello to each other, it’s
bright. Having it feel that way was very
important for George. He didn’t want to
give anything away.
When the bad guys show up in
the middle of the night, that was still
brightly lit. We see very clearly what’s
going on, though the intent of these
guys is very obscure. Then the little kid
wakes up in the hospital and the rest of
his life becomes a complicated mess. ➣

66 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Strife and Justice

Right: An LED
fixture is rigged
off of a car to key
Damon for a
nighttime driving
shot. Below:
Multiple cameras
roll as a practical
flame helps
illuminate
Gardner’s harried
bicycle ride.

Isaac [playing an insurance-claims

George was very good about
trying to make things visually
compelling. Not trying to push things in
an obvious, scary direction — shooting
the whole funeral in backlight, having it
be a sunny day. He didn’t want to make
it into something serious and dark until
later.
That changes after the kid goes
into the police station. Then it becomes
his story. The quality of light in his room
changes. Scenes start to take place more
at night. It becomes more of a mystery
film, a film noir in color. That’s when
George wanted the actors’ shadows on
the wall.
Framing is often from the child’s
point of view.
Elswit: We did put the camera
kind of low, at his eye level. The most
important part for George was that we
feel we’re watching everything from the
kid’s perspective. We discover things as
he discovers them. Like when Oscar
investigator] comes in, [Nicky] just
happens to be on the stairs watching. Or
when he walks into the lineup [at the
police station], we discover him discov-
ering that his dad and aunt are lying. It’s
a wonderful, chilling moment.
Describe your lighting in that
final nighttime kitchen sequence
between Matt Damon’s character and
his son.
Elswit: It’s a relatively dark,
single-source shot, with the two actors
sitting at the table staring at each other
in a wide shot. There’s just the accents of
the practicals built into the set and a
little sense of the outside. When it
becomes day, the units suggest direct
sun hitting the side of the house,
coming into the television room.
Hearing the baseball outside, the kid
walks to the doorway area. We transi-
tion from [this soundstage set], to over
his shoulder, looking outside on the big
day-exterior set. To make that transition
work, it’s just the time of day.
But there was this tricky time
transition I had to work out — from the
night scene, where [father and son sit
across from each other at the table], to
the next morning. How much time has

68 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Strife and Justice
gone by? What time is it? The simplest
lighting setup at that table was just to
do an overhead; I think we used a
China ball, then in the wide shots, a real
light. Full illumination on their faces,
with the backgrounds falling away and
little edges. Transitioning the house to
early morning, we’re literally in the
same setup, but making it feel as if the
sun has just come up. Outside, the
Mayers family is cleaning up in front of
their house [after the riot]. We know
that’s happening contemporaneously
with the kid watching TV, because on
the TV is a live feed of the interview
going on in front of the Mayers’ house.
So that’s the transition back into the
house. I think we came up with the best
solution we could.
Roman J. Israel, Esq. touches on
inequities in the criminal justice
system, but you’ve said that Dan
Gilroy was more interested in explor-
ing the inside of human beings.
Elswit: Danny wanted to make a
movie about the human condition and
what it’s like to be [a] guy [like Roman].
How the world has changed from, say,
1968 to 2017 — the way you fight
injustice. That’s a difficult topic to
address now. But mostly Danny and
Denzel were discovering who this guy
is. It’s a remarkable performance.
Watching Denzel dissolve into that guy,
watching that unfold day to day, was
one of the most remarkable things I’ve
ever seen.
Was this entirely 35mm?
Top: The titular Elswit: Danny felt this would be
civil-rights lawyer one of those movies where, if we had
is forced to adapt film, it really would look and feel differ-
to his new
circumstances ent. But when we first started, we’d
when his life already committed to digital. It was a
abruptly changes money situation — another $100,000
in the drama
Roman J. Israel, to go with film. They always say it’s a
Esq. Above: The wash in the end, but it was up-front
camera is framed money.
for a close-up of
Washington. We started in Roman’s apart-
Right: Washington ment with an Alexa XT [capturing in
and crew work on 4:3 mode, except for footage to be
location in a home
in Pasadena, Calif. enhanced with visual-effects, which was
shot in Open Gate mode]. During
rehearsal a week before we started,
Denzel said to Danny, ‘You want to

70 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Strife and Justice
Top: Gilroy sits beside a car while prepping a driving scene with Washington and Colin Farrell
(portraying George). Above: Elswit frames Farrell as the actor runs down a Los Angeles street.
shoot film?’ Danny said, ‘Yeah, I wish
we could.’ And Denzel said, ‘Well, let’s
do it! I’ll pay for it.’
We switched over after four or
five days, so we could finish off all the
stuff with Roman in his house. The rest
we shot on Super 35 3-perf. The excep-
tion was the night exterior, walking
around downtown L.A., because we
didn’t have the time to light it. And
there was available light all the way
down the street, in both directions. It
just made it simpler to shoot multiple
cameras and work quickly.
72 December 2017
The scene where he’s mugged on
the stairs, we shot on film because we
had control and enough time. The
sequence where he picks up the guy who
seems dead on the side of the street, we
shot that digital. It’s really wonderful —
like on Nightcrawler, you walk into these
spaces where the city is lighting the
background. All you have to do is fill in
the foreground a bit.
What was your general
approach to lighting?
Elswit: The interiors were a lot of
LED lighting. There’s a little more
American Cinematographer
direct lighting, imitating interior fluo-
rescent units. In the criminal courts and
jails, we tried to make it look like they
actually look. The jail itself was the old
simple brand, where you can light
through windows and have overheads
with an institutional style of lighting. In
the courthouses, we just augmented
what was there.
We had very little day exterior.
The day at the beach was pretty much
available light, except for fill — just a big
bounce — but I didn’t have to re-create
the sun. We were very lucky with
weather and time of day, at Venice
Beach and Santa Monica Pier, on the
train, and everything else.
What camera package and film
stock did you use?
Elswit: We had a couple of
Panavision Millennium XL2s with
spherical [Panavision] Super Speeds
[and 17.5-75mm 4:1 SLZ (T2.3) and
11:1 24-275mm SLZ11 (T2.8) Primo
Zooms]. In fact, we had the same set of
Super Speeds that we used on the digital
camera; we sent them to be optimized
for the changeover. Most dated back to
the 1950s and Sixties. I’ve used them
since 1970. [The production employed
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, 50D 5203
and 200T 5213 film stock.]
Gilroy said it was important to
place the character in real-world
settings. How involved were you in
location scouting?
Elswit: Other than finding the
specifics on how to shoot the scenes, all
my time with Danny in prep was about
driving everywhere in the world in Los
Angeles, trying to figure out where the
movie’s going to be shot. It took almost
the entire 10 weeks I was in prep. It’s all
about locations. Nothing was built.
On Nightcrawler, Danny was
insistent on not making the kind of
downtown L.A. movie that we all make.
But this was different. This is a guy in
the criminal-justice system, and the
main court in Los Angeles is down-
town. We couldn’t use the real court-
rooms; they don’t let you shoot there, so
we used a different courthouse interior,
in Compton. We shot three sequences
◗ Strife and Justice
there. Everything else was downtown.
You used a drone for several
wonderful transitional shots.
Elswit: It was a wide lens on an
Alexa Mini. Again, it’s all about placing
the movie in L.A., giving a sense of
scale. Here’s this little guy toiling away
in this giant office building, in this
horrible little nook. Getting a sense of
how sad and lonely and depressed and
lost he must feel.
On a weekend in L.A., if you
clear out the streets and give yourself
enough security, they’ll let you fly
drones. We were lucky in that the office
building was on the side of the freeway,
next to an empty space, so it was easy to
clear and make safe. I would have loved
74 December 2017
to have twice as many drone shots. We
really just ran out of hours.
What kind of visual references
were important?
Elswit: We watched a lot of
courtroom trials, even though there
wasn’t a lot of courtroom stuff. Finding
the right places sometimes tells you
where the movie’s going, visually. When
the whole movie is this one guy, a single
human being, how he looks and where
he lives starts to talk to you. We came at
it from that direction.
Finding the interior of his house
was most important. It had to be some-
what warm and inviting; this is where
he’d spent 30 years of his life listening to
records, eating Jiffy peanut butter, and
American Cinematographer
Top left and above: Roman answers his phone
while walking down St. Vincent Court in Los
Angeles. Bottom left: The camera tracks alongside
Washington on location in the Mojave Desert.
working on this legal obsession of his. It
always seemed it needed to be a build,
but there wasn’t money to do that. We
were lucky that there’s a swath of empty
homes in Pasadena that had been
condemned because they were going to
build a freeway, then the state decided
not to. We used the most wonderful,
craftsman-era late-Twenties home.
Closed up correctly, it felt like the inte-
rior of an old red-brick apartment
house.
One of the things Danny wanted
was to feel the city around Denzel’s
character growing and changing — and
him resisting. All those condos going up
downtown. Even next to his red-brick
apartment building, they’re building a
six-story condo. Inside his house, he
pulled the shades down, because he
didn’t want to experience the building
going up next to him. He avoided
everything new and modern. He had a
flip phone, an old computer — nothing
that reeked of modernity. It feels like he
bought his lighting fixtures when he
moved into the place in the 1970s.
The other space we desperately
 ◗ Strife and Justice
Gilroy and crew
prepare to shoot
in downtown
Los Angeles.
needed was Colin Farrell’s office. We
found an office building that an engi-
neering company had just left. Our
production designer, Kevin Kavanaugh,
laid the whole thing out. It was very
important to Danny that you end up
with Denzel in this little white box, with
one little window looking out onto the
76
freeway — a completely alien environ-
ment, in contrast to where he’d worked
before. His old boss’ office — that beau-
tiful, weird, wood-paneled front office
— was part of a marvelous old series of
offices [from] the 1920s.
Both Suburbicon and Roman J.
Israel, Esq. were graded at Company 3,
working with ASC associate member
Stefan Sonnenfeld. Can you tell us a
bit about the color correction?
Elswit: The approach on
Suburbicon was to get the right level of
saturation all the way through.
Originally, Clooney talked about desat-
urating slowly as the film became darker
and descended into mayhem. I did a
version like that and just hated it. I
called and said, ‘You know, I could do
this, but I don’t think you’re going to like
it.’ He went, ‘You’re right! I don’t like it.’
So we went back to doing it straightfor-
ward, but slightly saturated for most of
the day work, and taking it down a
notch for night. And a lot of optical
vignetting, making the corners of the
frame darker, which the long lenses do
naturally. Some directors fear the level
of dark that I think is interesting.
George never does. He sometimes
wants to go even further.
As for Roman Israel, the great
thing about film is, if you set it up
correctly, you don’t want to do much. I
was happy with dailies, so it was just
finding the right balance between shad-
ows and highlights, foreground and
background. It was tricky in Farrell’s
office; we really didn’t have the money
to gel all the windows, so we went with
an available-light look.
I don’t want to spend much time
in postproduction fixing things. Often
with digital, you’re trying to find the
look of your movie eight months later,
sitting in a room for three weeks. I just
despise that. I know some people love it.
On both these movies, the directors
were pretty happy with what I handed
them, so the changes were pretty mini-
mal.
There was an uptick in 35mm
films at the Toronto International
Film Festival, where Roman J. Israel,
Esq. showed. Are you hopeful about
the future of film?
Elswit: Film is always around.
Danny’s next will be on film. Paul
Thomas Anderson always shoots film. TECHNICAL SPECS
So do Spielberg and Chris Nolan. A lot
of them, actually. Suburbicon
You know what’s really viable,
still, is Super 16. I recently did a Super 2.39:1
16 movie that cost a million dollars and
Digital Capture
shot for 24 days. The Arriflex 16SR is
not much bigger than a Canon. The Arri Alexa XT
director didn’t want playback. The
camera connected to nothing. I proba- Panavision C Series, T Series
bly had more fun shooting that than I
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
had in 30 years! There’s just something
freeing and wonderful about not having 1.85:1
20 people sitting around the monitor
watching your shots. Film simplifies 3-perf Super 35mm and
everything and focuses everyone’s atten- Digital Capture
tion a little differently. Maybe it’ll stick Panavision Millennium XL2;
around for a while. ● Arri Alexa XT, Alexa Mini
Panavision Super Speed,
Primo zooms; Zeiss Macro
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219,
200T 5213, 50D 5203
Digital Intermediate
 Delta
Rachel Morrison, ASC and
Blues Even before Ronsel and Jamie meet, their families are
already connected. Ronsel’s parents — Hap (Rob Morgan)
director Dee Rees craft a portrait and Florence (Mary J. Blige) — dream of land ownership, but
of post-World War II Mississippi toil as tenant farmers on property recently purchased by
Jamie’s brother and sister-in-law, Henry ( Jason Clarke) and
in the feature Mudbound. Laura (Carey Mulligan). Ronsel is willing to work alongside
his siblings, but has a hard time accepting hometown racism
By Mark Dillon after being heralded as a hero overseas.
Though the McAllans had planned to live in a
comfortable country home some distance from the farm,
•|•
Henry discovers that his ‘purchase’ of the house had been a
swindle, and the family is forced into living conditions far

T
he feature Mudbound tells the story of a pair of disparate
families whose lives become intertwined during and
after World War II. Following their military service, tank
sergeant Ronsel Jackson ( Jason Mitchell), who is black,
and bomber pilot Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund), who is
white, come home to respective hardships in the Mississippi
Delta.
below what they were accustomed to in the city. Thus, Laura
brings up their young children in muddy desolation — a situ-
ation not dissimilar to that of the Jacksons — amid the chal-
lenges of Henry’s live-in, mean-spirited father, Pappy
( Jonathan Banks), and a lack of emotional support from her
husband. She also contends with a growing attraction to
Jamie.

78 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 Ronsel and Jamie, the latter of
whom suffers from alcoholism, eventu-
ally cross paths and forge a bond
through their war experiences. It is a
Unit photography by Steve Dietl, courtesy of Netflix. Black-and-white photo of Rachel Morrison, ASC by Bob Bates.
connection that no one else in town can
understand, and that some — Pappy in
particular — won’t tolerate.
Based on Hillary Jordan’s award-
winning novel of the same name,
Mudbound was adapted for the screen by
director Dee Rees and Virgil Williams.
Rees collaborated with director of
photography Rachel Morrison, ASC,
whom she had first met at Sundance in
2011 when their respective films
premiered. She was particularly struck
by Morrison’s work on the 2015 crime-
caper comedic drama Dope (AC July
’15). As additional motivation, Rees
says, “Rachel came recommended by
HBO Films President Len Amato, who
had worked with her on [the 2016
HBO movie] Confirmation.”
Morrison was attracted to the
project’s setting, which she associated
with such Farm Security
Administration (FSA) photographers as
Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks and
Arthur Rothstein, who chronicled the
lives of poor U.S. farmers in the 1930s
and ’40s. “That time period has been
incredibly influential for me,” the cine-
matographer says from her adopted
home of Los Angeles, shortly after
Opposite and this
page, above:
Returning to their
respective hardships
in 1940s Mississippi,
Ronsel Jackson
(Jason Mitchell) and
Jamie McAllan
(Garrett Hedlund)
bond over their
wartime
experiences in the
feature Mudbound.
Left:
Cinematographer
Rachel Morrison,
ASC and 1st AC
Robert Baird line up
a shot.
Mudbound screened at the Toronto to pay the bills — though always want-
International Film Festival. “I started in ing to shoot drama, she attended the
photography and was most interested in AFI Conservatory’s graduate cine-
documentary and photojournalism, and matography program.
the FSA photographers may be why I She considers the 2011 sci-fi
got the crazy notion that this could be thriller Sound of My Voice, directed by
my career. Dee had me at ‘post-Dust Zal Batmanglij, to be her breakthrough
Bowl era,’ before I had even read the into the narrative world. More indie
script.” features quickly followed, including
A native of Cambridge, Mass., 2013’s Fruitvale Station (AC April ’13),
Morrison finished a double major in which she considers the turning point in
photography and film at New York her career, as well as 2014’s Cake, and
University. She scored an early success Dope. She also shares a Primetime
with the 2005 Showtime doc Rikers Emmy nomination with cinematogra-
High, for which she shared an Emmy pher Igor Martinovic for the 2015
nomination. She worked in reality TV documentary What Happened, Miss
www.ascmag.com December 2017 79
◗ Delta Blues
Top and middle: Ronsel returns home from World War II, after serving as a tank sergeant. Bottom: Back
from service as a bomber pilot, Jamie approaches his brother’s home, where he’ll be greeted by his
sister-in-law, Laura (Carey Mulligan), and her children.
Simone? Mudbound is distributed by
Netflix, which picked up the movie at
last year’s Sundance Film Festival for
simultaneous online and theatrical
release. Following Mudbound will be
Morrison’s first big-budget franchise
project, Marvel’s Black Panther — her
80 December 2017
second collaboration with Ryan
Coogler, for whom she shot Fruitvale
Station.
Rees was especially inspired by
documentarian Les Blank’s late-’60s doc
The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins.
“Les has a style where it doesn’t feel like
American Cinematographer
you’re watching a film — it feels like
you’re observing life,” she notes.
The filmmakers looked at the
work of photographer Robert Frank,
with Rees responding to the images’
candor and the subjects’ seeming oblivi-
ousness to the camera. “To me, it’s all
about the camera being out of the actors’
way, and using blocking to heighten
what’s going on in relationships,” the
director says.
Morrison adds, “We talked about
Robert Frank and the myth of the
American dream. The thing that unifies
people across all cultures and times is the
desire for something better. She liked
how his frames feel like they’re bursting
at the seams. I wanted to contrast that
with the isolation of the reality. The goal
is to have everything, and the reality
often is having nothing.”
Given the vintage, naturalistic
look they sought, the filmmakers’ first
instinct was to shoot on celluloid, but
given budget limitations, that would
have meant cutting two days out of an
already challenging schedule. “It felt
nearly sacrilegious to not shoot on film,
because that era is so analog, so tactile,”
Morrison admits. “But we just wouldn’t
have been able to pull off the scope of
the film on a shorter schedule.”
Morrison worked with New Orleans-
based FotoKem dailies colorist Illya
Laney to develop a LUT that more
closely resembled film emulsion, begin-
ning with a 15-percent reduction in
saturation and altering the knee and
shoulder of the contrast curve.
“We introduced some blues in the
blacks and lifted them a bit to have a
base LUT that felt more cinematic,”
adds the cinematographer, who shot
with the camera rated at EI 1,280 and
sometimes 1,600 to introduce digital
noise for texture. She also knew they
could add more grain in post. “I feel
good about what we were able to achieve
shooting digitally,” Morrison says. “We
made it feel as analog as we could.”
The filmmakers shot the entire
movie on Arri’s Alexa Mini, which
suited their location — a plantation 40
minutes outside of New Orleans, La.
“We were shooting in such tight spaces,”
Rees recalls. “We shot the Jackson
family home in an actual sharecropper’s
cabin. We needed a smaller camera
because there was no room for the back
of a bigger one. Rachel and the focus
puller would be squeezed in with the
actors. [The Mini] worked well.”
Morrison operated A camera with
Robert Baird as 1st AC, while Robert
Stenger served as B-camera operator
with Zachary Sieffert as first AC.
The production downsized to one
camera when focusing on a single char-
acter in cramped conditions, but gener-
ally it was a two-camera show, as Rees Top: Jamie’s brother, Henry (Jason Clarke), and Laura have been swindled into living in conditions worse
than what they are accustomed to. Middle: Jamie sits with Laura. Bottom: Laura finds solace in the
wanted to move efficiently and mini- shower that Jamie built for her.
mize takes. The production shot for 29

www.ascmag.com December 2017 81

◗ Delta Blues

Right: Gaffer Bob

Bates (far left)
holds the bounce,
while Morrison
frames a scene in
which Ronsel’s
father, Hap (Rob
Morgan), injures
his leg. Below:
Director Dee Rees
(left) discusses a
scene with Mary J.
Blige (portraying
Hap’s wife,
Florence).

their circumstances,” the director of

days in Louisiana and two days in
Budapest.
They shot in 2.39:1 anamorphic
in the camera’s Open Gate mode, with
de-squeeze for 2048x858, recording in
3.4K resolution to 256GB CFast 2.0
memory cards. “We shot Open Gate
anamorphic partly because I like the
falloff — the softening around the
edges,” Morrison says. “For us, that
brought a lot of authenticity. We wanted
it to feel like an old photograph. The
widescreen frame allowed us to contrast
the beauty of the ideal with the isolation
and powerlessness of reality.”
Morrison shot mainly with
Panavision C Series and D Series
anamorphic primes — 35mm, 75mm
and 100mm for the former, and 40mm
and 50mm for the latter. The produc-
tion primarily maintained an aperture of
T2.8 or a 2.8/4 split.
“When it came to visualizing the
claustrophobia, characters trapped by
photography says, she shot with a
150mm T Series and a 180mm E Series
prime. The production’s kit also
included a 48-550mm ALZ11 (T4.5)
Primo Anamorphic Zoom, used occa-
sionally for b-roll and crane work.
Morrison sometimes switched to
spherical lenses to gain a stop in
candlelit night scenes and to minimize
horizontal flares when facing the sun,
headlights, or any other hard source.
“The horizontal flare feels very contem-
porary or even futuristic to me, so I
avoided it whenever I could,” she says.
In these instances she turned to
17.5mm and 40mm Primos; 24mm,
29mm and 50mm PVintage Primes;
and 75mm and 100mm Mark II
detuned Ultra Speeds.
The Alexa Mini’s internal ND
filters were a bonus, given the harsh
brightness of the Louisiana sun in June
and July of 2016. Morrison would often
set the camera to ND 2.1, then add an
external ND 0.3 or 0.6 without getting
excessive color variants or “ghosting”
from the older glass.
“When shooting day interiors,
some of the wider C Series lenses had a
tendency to flare in an unpleasing milky
wash,” adds on-set digital-imaging

82 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Delta Blues

technician Nate Borck, who was often

joined in his tent by gaffer Bob Bates to
evaluate images on a Flanders Scientific
CM240 monitor. “It could be a chal-
lenge to keep the two cameras in our
narrow aperture range, but NDs and
polarizers kept depth of field where we
wanted.”
A Tiffen Black Pro-Mist 1⁄8 lens
filter was used for an early exterior scene
in which Henry courts Laura, adding
what the cinematographer calls “the
subtly romantic touch” — but other-
wise, she says, they kept the lens clean.
Morrison further notes that the C
Series is already soft, and “we were
going for reality. Dee wanted it to feel
raw and dirty, that there was soil caked
in every crease and under every finger-
nail.”
Living up to the movie’s title, the
terrain was naturally muddy, enhanced
by thunderstorms that would appear
sometimes twice a day, followed by hot
sun that would dry it up again. The
volatile weather made it challenging to
Top: The Jackson family toils as tenant farmers on the McAllans’ property. Middle: Florence agrees to
work for Laura and her family. Bottom: Hap leaves the field after sunset. match exterior shots, and required the
special-effects team to keep wetting the

84 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Delta Blues

ground. No setup was muddier than the

opening scene — a flash-forward in
which Jamie and Henry dig a grave in a
downpour at dusk.
Cast and crew were prepared to
take advantage of the dark clouds and
rain that inevitably rolled in, enabling
them to get the wide shots essential for
this scene. For work under brighter
skies in this scene, the crew set up a
flyswatter with a 20'x20' solid negative
fill and 12'x20' solids all around in a tent
configuration. They also had to make
room for rain machines. “I was afraid
the audience wouldn’t be able to see the
rain, so we had 18Ks and M90s [placed
behind the solids and aimed through a
gap between them] to help backlight
it,” recalls Bates. “We were right next to
a small line of trees, so it took a lot of
maneuvering to make all this happen.”
Lightning effects were created
with 360K Outsight Creamsource
Doppio+ Daylight 1x2 LED Panels
with 1⁄4 CTB for extra blue. These were
wrapped around the set just out of
frame and controlled by dimmer opera-
tor Nate Selee.
“It took a massive amount of
light to bring the interiors within range
of the bright exteriors,” Morrison says,
“so 18Ks were diffused and pushed in
through nearly every open window.”
Top and middle: The Jackson family hopes to one day own a piece of land for themselves.
Bottom (from left): Henry, Hap and Jamie bow their heads at Pappy’s funeral. There wasn’t room for many lights
inside the Jackson and McAllan houses,

86 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 ◗ Delta Blues
As a storm brews,
Morrison tracks a
pickup truck down
a dirt road.
which were both pre-existing buildings
that the production moved closer to
open fields. The Jacksons’ cabin had few
windows and, in the story, no electricity.
For daytime scenes, the crew would
place a LiteGear LiteMat LED fixture
on the wall, motivated by the screen
door beside it. There wasn’t enough
headroom to hang lights, so Morrison
88
asked production designer David J.
Bomba to cut a couple of large holes in
the wooden ceiling, where they would
place more LiteMat units. One was
above the dining-room table, amplify-
ing a practical lantern chandelier.
“It was such small quarters and
we were working all day in the heat, so
I wanted smaller fixtures that were less
intrusive and not as hot,” Bates explains.
“We typically had several units playing
— LiteMats and flicker lanterns — all
run through the board to control flicker
and intensity on the fly.” Bates’ custom
lanterns comprised aluminum boxes in
various sizes with 100-watt halogen
bulbs and three circuits enabling them
to flicker. They were diffused with
Light Grid, with 1⁄4 or 1⁄2 CTO added
for warmth.
These DIY lanterns were also
used for fill and sometimes for key in a
brutal scene in which Pappy and his
cronies — some of whom are KKK
members — drag Ronsel and Jamie to a
sawmill. While the tormentors’ half-
dozen torches provided most of the
light, Bates’ team also rigged three 30"
Jem Balls with high-wattage globes that
could be dimmed for warmth.
At times, the mill doors were
open, allowing the crew to throw in
light from 20Ks, 12-light Maxi-Brutes
and PAR cans, with a moonlight gel
pack to backlight the rain and illuminate
characters as they come and go. Selee
produced lightning flashes with Mac
Quantum Wash LEDs on two condors.
Though it would have been easier to
keep the mill doors shut, Morrison
notes, “there was more authenticity in
being able to see even a little bit of the
rain and the world outside, and
metaphorically speaking, the water to
put out the fire could be seen and heard
but was just out of reach.”
The filmmakers were grateful for
the opportunity to re-create some of the
characters’ war experiences during a
couple of days of shooting around
Budapest — “about a 40-minute drive
from the city center,” the cinematogra-
pher reports. Sequences included a
battle in which Ronsel’s tank is fired
upon, and interior scenes in the apart-
ment of his German girlfriend — who is
white — including a sequence in which
they hear of Germany’s surrender and
she fears losing him. “The movie was
never intended to have many visual
effects, so when they look out the
window and see the soldiers marching
in the background — we wanted that to
be done in real space,” Morrison says.
The director of photography’s
Black Panther schedule prevented her
from attending sessions with supervis-
ing digital colorist Joe Gawler at New
York’s Harbor Picture Co. — but she
viewed the reels on a calibrated monitor
and communicated with Gawler by
altering stills in Photoshop and sending
them back with detailed notes. He then
made corrections and reviewed them in
the DI theater with Rees.
“We maintained a softer contrast
in the shadows throughout, to stay
true to the movie’s naturalistic feeling,”
offers Gawler, who worked with
MXF/ArriRaw data on Blackmagic
Design DaVinci Resolve 12 on a Linux
system. “We would add contrast for
dramatic effect in certain areas, such as
the thunderstorm early on and the
torch-lit scene at night in the barn.
Rachel also captured some amazing
moments of the sun setting and rising
that benefited from just a touch of addi-
tional magic in the sky.”
Morrison concludes, “I try to
choose projects that are meaningful to
me and ideally have a message that will
engage the audience in some form of
social consciousness. Mudbound had the
added bonus of being a period film,
which is a gift to any cinematographer.”
●
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.39:1
Digital Capture
Arri Alexa Mini
Panavision C, D, T, E Series;
Primo Anamorphic Zoom;
Primo Prime; PVintage Prime;
Ultra Speed
 Timeless
Romance
R
obert Redford and Jane Fonda first appeared onscreen
Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC together in Arthur Penn’s 1966 feature The Chase, which
embraces LED lighting for led to a lifelong friendship and further big-screen pair-
ings in the movies Barefoot in the Park and The Electric
the romantic drama Horseman. For the first time in almost 40 years, the actors have
Our Souls at Night. reunited for the Netflix movie Our Souls at Night, an intimate,
elegant portrait of love in old age. Redford plays Louis
By Jim Hemphill Waters, a widower who gets a surprising proposition from
neighbor Addie Moore (Fonda): Since her husband is now
gone, too, why don’t they start — platonically — sleeping
•|• together? Thus begins a delicate, subtle romance in which
both characters are forced to deal with complicated issues in
their past, present and future.
Director of photography Stephen Goldblatt, ASC,

90 December 2017 American Cinematographer

 Opposite and this page,
left: Louis Waters
(Robert Redford) and
Addie Moore (Jane
Fonda), who have both
lost their spouses, find
unexpected romance in
the feature Our Souls
at Night. Below:
Cinematographer
Stephen Goldblatt, ASC,
BSC (right) waves from
his perch atop a
Chapman/Leonard Titan
crane.
Unit photography by Kerry Brown, courtesy of Netflix. Additional images courtesy of Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC.

BSC has a history with Redford as a

longtime participant in the actor’s
Sundance Lab program. “I’ve been
working as an adviser at the Sundance
Directors Lab every June for more than
20 years,” Goldblatt says.
The director of Our Souls at
Night, Ritesh Batra, is a graduate of the
lab, and Redford felt that he and
Goldblatt should meet. The cinematog-
rapher recalls, “I looked at his film The
Lunchbox [AC April ’14] and read the
script for Our Souls at Night, and I loved
it — it’s exactly the kind of film I want
to do.” After a positive first meeting,
however, months went by during which
Goldblatt didn’t hear anything. “Then
on a Saturday morning,” he recalls with
a laugh, “they said, ‘Can you be in
Colorado on Monday?’” and Netflix insists on 4K. So I was so cumbersome and difficult,” Goldblatt
Goldblatt headed to Colorado required to use the Sony F55. says. To minimize his footprint on and
and started prep with Batra. The duo “The crucial scenes in the movie, around the car, the cinematographer
quickly bonded as they discussed the ones at its heart, take place at night,” opted to shoot driving scenes with
the script in detail, shared ideas and the cinematographer continues. Canon’s C300 Mark II camera. “Quite
refined their approach. An otherwise “Lighting was the key — you make it honestly, I regret not using it as the A
smooth preproduction did hit a speed look dark, but it isn’t really dark. You camera,” he laments. “It was superb at
bump, though, when it came time to light to what the sensor can handle.” night. The combination of that camera
choose a camera. “The [Arri] Alexa In addition to night work, the with the LED lighting we used really
is my favorite,” Goldblatt submits. script also featured a number of driving transformed the experience. Normally,
“Unfortunately, it is not a 4K camera, scenes. “I hate car shooting because it’s going into a car, it can take four hours

www.ascmag.com December 2017 91

 •|• Camera-Department POV
D uring camera prep, we got the
camera department’s truck situated
enough for Dustin Keller, the loader, to
start streaming content from pre-
installed Rokus to two TV screens that
were mounted on the truck’s interior
walls. We had also promoted ourselves
from sitting hunched over on vertical
Pelican cases to leaning back in
individually sourced fold-out camping
chairs, a much better vantage point for
the streamed entertainment.
Henry Tirl, the A-camera and
Steadicam operator, had recently
finished hauling an Imax MSM 9802
across the beaches of France for
Dunkirk (AC Aug. ’17). Video assist
Dan Furst and the Teamsters came in
right off of their work on the Marvel hit
Logan. And we all assumed 1st AD
Scott Robertson — nicknamed “The
Rev” after surviving The Revenant (AC
Jan. ’16) — must now be on a perpetual
prowl for more relaxed work.
Indeed, there was a sense that
many on this crew had come to Our
Souls at Night — a Netflix original
feature directed by Ritesh Batra
— looking for something more
intimate and idyllic, and smaller in
scale, than their recent projects. With its
primary location being a bedroom
interior and a cast that rarely exceeded
two, Our Souls at Night promised to be
just that.
Yet, at the same time, it was being
touted by the local papers as the
biggest film to shoot in Colorado since
The Hateful Eight. The production
encompassed 38 days of principal
photography over eight weeks, and
would receive half of the state’s annual
incentives budget. It attracted daily
throngs of onlooking locals, who would
line up in their camping chairs. Some
stayed the whole 12 hours, some yelled
for Robert Redford’s attention when he
arrived on set, and a good many of them
found their enthusiasm reciprocated by
Redford’s co-star Jane Fonda, who liked
to entertain and sign autographs.
92 December 2017
A Chapman/Leonard 32' Hydrascope is
angled into position for a scene in the
Brown Palace Hotel.
For locals on the crew, like
myself, this production was a rare
opportunity, and for the out-of-towners
a modest respite. For director of
photography Stephen Goldblatt, ASC,
BSC, the production represented a
measured decision. Known for being
particular about his job selections,
Stephen brought a deliberate zeitgeist
to the project. No one was spared his
sharp wit and wisecracks — not Ritesh,
and definitely not the camera, grip or
electrical departments.
Stephen brought a relentless
forward-moving energy, and he wasn’t
afraid to present his opinions to Ritesh.
I can recall many an instance when our
director called for cast and crew to
move on from a scene, only for Stephen
to belay that order with a squawk from
the DIT tent. These differences of
opinion were never met with
resentment, and even began to assume a
playful pattern. Smiling, Ritesh would
poke his head into the DIT tent to ask
what Stephen wanted this time.
With Netflix’s hard-and-fast 4K
mandate, two Panavised Sony CineAlta
PMW-F55s were selected as our A and
B cameras. As the production’s camera
American Cinematographer
•|•
PA, I was often situated near digital-
imaging technician Abby Levine, who
requested that he be hardwired to the
cameras and made exceptions only in
the face of true impossibility. A Tiffen
¼ Black Satin was always at the ready,
and our workhorse lens was the 17.5-
75mm (T2.3) 4:1 Primo Zoom.
Given the movie’s storyline, it
made sense that Stephen wanted these
stars to look their best. The Black Satin
filter helped to smooth the actors’ skin,
give a glow to highlights, and strip
some contrast for the unassuming look
he was going for. But I was always
surprised by his open-ended approach
to acquiring that look. A film’s language
can be defined by deliberate limitations,
e.g. only shooting at a particular focal
length or aperture, or only moving the
camera in specific instances. With
Stephen, though, every tool was always
on the table.
He would stop down if we
needed more information, and open up
if we needed less. It was a scene-by-
scene, shot-by-shot assessment that
was beholden to no precious rule. There
are static frames, subtle moves, and a
single elaborate crane shot that was
executed in the Brown Palace Hotel in
downtown Denver with a 32'
Hydrascope from Chapman/Leonard.
Stephen’s approach to lighting was no
less expansive. Redford and Fonda had
to look attractive, yes, but that didn’t
scare him away from practicals or
harder light sources, and he boldly
embraced the darkness of the film’s
many night scenes while still managing
to keep the action visible.
Watching the finished film a year
later brings back the feelings of being
on set during the production: calm,
concentrated, mild. After wrap, the
crew dispersed, and the tiny towns of
Colorado, having lost the light that
beamed down on them from condors,
felt a little smaller once again.
— Aaron Hunt
◗ Timeless Romance
Left: Louis and
Addie drive at
night. Below:
With the Canon
C300 Mark II
camera supported
on a wire rig,
A-camera/
Steadicam
operator Henry
Tirl frames a shot
from behind
Redford and
Fonda, who get
some additional
fill light courtesy
of a LiteGear
LiteTile flexible
LED panel that’s
taped overhead.
Bottom: A
monitoring
station was set
up in the back of
the truck.

before you’re ready to shoot.”

For day work with the C300,
Goldblatt used an Angenieux Optimo
15-40mm (T2.6) zoom lens, while at
night he relied on Panavision 24mm
Ultra Speed and 35mm Super Speed
primes. The cinematographer also
employed the Optimo zoom and Ultra
Speed and Super Speed primes — as
well as Primo 17.5-75mm (T2.3) and
24-275mm (T2.8) zooms — with the
Panavised F55.
Both the F55 and C300 recorded
spherical 4096x2160 imagery at
23.976p, framed for a 1.78:1 full-height
center extraction (3840x2160). The F55
captured raw 4K S&Q files to Sony
AXSM memory cards via an AXS-R5
recorder, while the C300 captured
Canon 4K raw files to 2.5" SSDs via
a Convergent Design Odyssey7Q+
monitor-recorder.
“Ritesh was very much concerned
with the tone of the performance, and
the tone of the cinematography, but he
wasn’t nitpicking obsessively,” Goldblatt
notes. “He gave me a good deal of
control, which I enjoyed. My longtime
gaffer, Colin Campbell, had decided to
retire, so I worked with Steve Mathis;
he’s a wonderful gaffer, but he and I had
never done a movie together. This coin-
cided with a new generation of LED

www.ascmag.com December 2017 93

◗ Timeless Romance
lighting, and we lit almost the whole
movie with prototype LED units.” This
newer lighting technology enabled the
crew to forgo generators for the produc-
tion’s car work in favor of using batteries
directly on the fixtures, which cut down
considerably on setup time. “If the call
time was 8 a.m., we were ready to shoot
at 9:30 a.m.,” Goldblatt enthuses.
For wide night exteriors, the crew
still rigged conventional lamps — mostly
20K Fresnels — on condors for cross-
and backlight. “We used generators all
the time in the studio and on location,”
the cinematographer explains, “but small
LED accents were used with batteries. It
was just so fast to be able to tape up a
small LED with its own battery. I should
give a special mention to Sophie
Shellenberger, who was our lighting
technician on set and who built and
rigged wonderful little lights for us with
remote controllers.”
During prep, Mathis worked
closely with Al DeMayo, president and
CEO at LED lighting company
LiteGear. “Steve was looking for some-
thing new that could allow for a stream-
lined lighting workflow,” DeMayo
recalls. “We settled on the first prototype
of LiteTile, which is a flexible fabric-
based light source that is super-thin and
inherently soft, allowing for the place-
ment of a light source in otherwise diffi-
cult positions, especially on location.”
The LiteTile, Goldblatt adds, “was
particularly helpful in cars. Redford’s a
very good driver and was confident that
he could drive and act simultaneously,
and the roads were controlled and empty,
Top: Addie and so I was able to use these flat LED panels
Louis decide to
share a bed.
that I could control from the back of the
Above: truck, watching live. I could make them
Goldblatt and brighter or darker and I could change the
crew prep the
bedroom set.
color temperature according to the
Right: LiteGear natural light. That meant everything to
LiteMat LED not only the crew but the actors — I
units were
used in the
think they liked that they didn’t have
bedroom. endless hours of waiting while I fiddled
with this light and that camera, and so on
and so forth.”
Citing an example of the lighting
setup’s versatility, Goldblatt points to a
nighttime driving scene near the end of

94 December 2017 American Cinematographer

◗ Timeless Romance
Goldblatt embraced LED lighting for the production’s location work. “Traditional lighting gets so
hot and uncomfortable,” he says. The LEDs, on the other hand, were “completely cool to the
touch. It takes a lot of the work and complexity out of rigging.”
the movie, when Louis and Addie’s rela-
tionship is in trouble. “I was able to
balance the light to them according to
whatever the streetlights were doing,
and I could do it as we were traveling in
the car,” the cinematographer remem-
bers. “I was very pleased with the
results.”
Throughout the production,
Mathis adds, “We used the LiteTile
prototype for fill and as a soft source.
But the coolest thing we did was putting
up Velcro and using the LEDs and
dimmers in Bob’s truck — especially the
free-driving stuff in the daytime with no
insert car.”
Most of Our Souls at Night was
96 December 2017
shot on real locations rather than sets,
and Goldblatt feels that the LED light-
ing provided another benefit in this
regard. “Traditional lighting gets so hot
and uncomfortable, and here I could put
up a soft bank of LEDs,” he says. “The
light source was maybe 8 feet across and
12 feet high. I could place it outside of a
window, it could angle down and
bounce, and it was completely cool to
the touch. It takes a lot of the work and
complexity out of rigging; you’re often
able to control lights wirelessly without
necessarily having anybody go up on a
ladder.”
On the subject of LEDs’ impact
on motion-picture production,
American Cinematographer
DeMayo — a former gaffer — offers, “I
believe that LED lighting has really
made an impact in two areas. The first is
the ability to adjust the brightness of a
lighting instrument without the nega-
tive effects of color shift. This was a key
turning point in cinema lighting, as it
finally allowed for accurate blending of
multiple colors. But dimming two
colors of white — tungsten and daylight
— really changed everything. You could
finally choose the intensity and Kelvin
temperature on the fly without the use
of scrims and CTO or CTB gels. There
was no turning back after that. This was
only possible because of the unique
characteristics of the LED technology
itself. Let’s say an LED dims to 50
percent; it does that by turning on at
100 percent, but for only 50 percent of
the time, resulting in half the light. Do
that correctly, and it’s suitable for use
with cinema cameras.
“The second impact is in the use
of many smaller LEDs arranged over a
large area, thereby creating soft light
without the need for diffusion or filters,”
DeMayo continues. “The modern trend
is to light mostly with soft light —
Steve and Stephen used the LiteTile as
a soft source that is thin and provides a
very wide output. If you want hard light
from an LED fixture, that’s a greater
challenge, especially if you really want a
5K Fresnel. There are some options, but
they require heavy heat sinks and fans.
My generation grew up using incandes-
cent Fresnel lights pushed through a 4-
by-4 of silk, muslin, or 216; modern
LED fixtures from nearly every
company offer soft and easily control-
lable arrays.”
Goldblatt says that the stripped-
down production was in perfect
harmony with the simplicity of the story
and what Batra was trying to achieve
visually. “Ritesh was insistent, in the
nicest possible way, that this film be
humble,” the cinematographer notes. “It
was about two elderly people drawn
from loneliness into companionship and
then a love affair. Therefore, if the film
was going to be successful, it couldn’t
and shouldn’t be flashy — that would do
◗ Timeless Romance
Director Ritesh
Batra discusses a
scene with
Redford.
the material a terrible disservice.
“There’s always a danger you
could overdo it, because if you’ve got the
skill and the eye, some part of you wants
to demonstrate that,” he continues.
“God knows I’ve been flashy in the past
— maybe too flashy. But I don’t have
anything to prove, and for this movie I
really wanted to step back and let the
performance be the hero of the scene.”
To that end, Goldblatt kept
camera movement to a minimum and
tried to avoid any hint of self-
consciousness. “My biggest concern all
the time was that the night scenes didn’t
take the viewer out of the story,” he
recalls. “I didn’t want anyone saying,
‘Oh, this is a beautifully lit night scene,’
because that means it’s clearly a lit scene
— which it is, but you don’t want it to
look that way. It’s tricky, because you’ve
got to see the actors’ eyes — you just
have to — and you can’t light it so dimly
that you can’t see the performance. That
would be just as disastrous as being
flashy. Keeping that balance was a worry
for me.”
Ultimately, however, Goldblatt
knew he had a secret weapon waiting
for him in post: ASC associate member
Steven J. Scott, Technicolor’s supervis-
ing finishing artist. “Steve and I first
worked together on Angels in America
[AC Nov. ’03],” Goldblatt explains.
“He’s got such a wonderful appreciation
of what the cinematographer is trying
to do. We didn’t have the money to
spend a long time together — we had
just two weeks — but I knew that
98 December 2017
before I even joined him at Technicolor
in New York he would do a pre-pass. I
would send him photographs taken on
set which I had timed myself, and he
could see what I was going for.”
Goldblatt is enamored of the DI
process, not for fixing errors but as a
tool for creative expression. “More and
more, on every film I do, I find the DI
to be a beautiful thing, whether you
shoot on film or digitally,” he enthuses.
“Obviously you can fix mistakes or
adjust problems forced on you by bad
weather or very little time, but it’s much
more transformative than that. You can
further develop the mood that you’ve
begun in your principal photography.”
In the case of Our Souls at Night,
Goldblatt made conscious choices to
darken the areas around the actors in
order to emphasize the surrounding
night while keeping their faces and eyes
appropriately lit.
Aside from the 4K mandate and
a brief quibble over aspect ratio — Batra
wanted to frame for 2.39:1, but Netflix
dictated 1.78:1 — Goldblatt says that
shooting for a streaming service rather
than a theatrical release didn’t alter his
methodology. “Netflix wanted a cine-
matic look, so it didn’t change my
approach,” he says. “The technology has
gotten to the point that you can watch a
movie at home on a perfectly calibrated
screen and it meets very high standards.
For an intimate film like this, as long as
you have a good television or projector
it will really hold up.
“We’re in a golden age of home
American Cinematographer
viewing with Netflix, and Amazon, and
FilmStruck,” Goldblatt adds. “We can
have a virtual cinematheque at home,
which is quite extraordinary. And the
quality is unbelievable compared to the
prints I saw 10, 20 or 40 years ago at
curated screenings. I don’t think we’re
missing anything now, except sitting in
an audience.”
As enthusiastic as Goldblatt is
about new tools, there were a few
hiccups on Souls. “When we tried to use
an aerial drone for a proposed title
sequence, we encountered a mysterious
jamming signal at an altitude of 200 feet
that prevented communication with
the drone and scuppered our aerial
photography,” he recalls. “We believe it
emanated from the high-security
federal prison outside Florence,
Colorado, which is home to the
Unabomber and others. The jamming
signal was not, however, confined to just
this location. We made another attempt
in a similar rural town two hours’ drive
away and encountered the same
jamming. It seems that Colorado is so
full of federal facilities, private lockups
and secret or highly secure establish-
ments that flying drones in the state is
entirely problematic. This was a new,
interesting and expensive problem
during our production.”
That said, Goldblatt remains
optimistic and excited about changing
technologies, both as a filmmaker and a
viewer. Above all, he says, “I’m glad I’m
still actively working. I enjoy all this
new technology after 41 years of shoot-
ing the other way. I think we all do.” ●
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.78:1
Digital Capture
Sony PMW-F55 CineAlta,
Canon EOS C300 Mark II
Panavision Ultra Speed,
Super Speed, Primo Zoom;
Angenieux Optimo
 FILMMAKERS’ FORUM

Carolina (Juno
Temple) walks
beneath the
eponymous
Coney Island
attraction in the
1950s-set feature
Wonder Wheel,
which marks the
second
collaboration
between writer-
director Woody
Allen and
cinematographer
Vittorio Storaro,
ASC, AIC.

I Who’s Afraid of Red, Green and Blue?

By Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC
“I see in colors the effort of matter to become LIGHT.”
— Plato, Greek philosopher
“RED also has an Expiatory, Protective function.” — Lia
Luzzatto and Renata Pompas, Italian scholars
“GREEN is a Moral color.” — J. M. Vincent, American scholar
“BLUE, King of colors, comforts the Heart.” — Guillaume de
Machaut, French poet
I think I heard someone say: “Look what those two ‘young’
visionaries of the cinematic image, Woody Allen and Vittorio Storaro
— one writing with WORDS, the other writing with LIGHT — are up
to on their second film together, Wonder Wheel! And they’ve only
just entered the world of digital cinema with their first movie, Café
Society!”
Indeed, we seemed quite happy in our classic world of cellu-
loid, and so familiar with the mysterious image that is revealed after
it has been conceived, as if it were being born. Each film is a specific
creature.
Despite our knowledge and our experiences over time, we
visualized that IMAGE through dreams or nightmares, according to
the various moments and films … right from the start, as soon as it
was filmed, not only the first night, but during many nights after the
day of shooting … until it was projected on a screen where, after the
countdown frames, the first image finally appeared … in motion,
with sound … and in COLOR.
Despite the research, knowledge and experience that helped
me to “know” how they would turn out, I can honestly say that, like
all cinematographers, I always experienced surprise or, more often,
wonder — and even disappointment, but luckily only a few times —
when I saw on the screen the images that were framed, lit and
filmed on the set.
MATTER — the physical elements of the camera, lenses, film
stock, etc. — was transformed through the language of LIGHT into Photos by Jessica Miglio, courtesy of Amazon Studios.
visible ENERGY, into an IMAGE.
With that image, all doubts, uncertainties and questions
vanished, and we reveled in the WONDER OF CINEMA. A terrific
thrill that we experienced every time, especially at the first screening
of a new film. By constantly imagining/thinking/dreaming, it had
been possible to materialize the feelings, emotions and filmic intu-
itions that both the director and the cinematographer, each in his
own “space” and in his own imagination, had in mind and wanted
to see on the screen.
At that time, the reels of film were sent to a lab, the images
were developed, corrected, printed, and then projected a day or
more later in a movie theater, or a specially equipped room during
the shoot. As I recall, the image was viewed with the trepidation that

100 December 2017 American Cinematographer

precedes a discovery. Despite our knowl-
edge of its history, of technique, of the
mysterious nature of the camera obscura,
etc., we were accustomed to and had
developed and matured with a system that
could be improved, that was not finite, but
INFINITE.
The initial education regarding
photographic and cinematic images — for
many years in BLACK-AND-WHITE — the
knowledge, and distinctly pictorial style of
the period — till around the 1970s in fact —
had led the film industry to believe that
black-and-white was appropriate for
dramatic films and that color could work for
comedies, Westerns, musicals. Shade, they
thought, was not captured well by color.
Then, probably with the arrival of color tele-
vision, they insisted on films being made in
color for the benefit of the international film
industry. The public wanted color, so black-
and-white appeared to be a thing of the
past. On the majority of productions, most
directors and cinematographers preferred
to stay with the MONOCHROMATIC style,
with tone on tone, nearly always imagining
the beautiful look of the daguerreotype: a
warm ochre/orange tonality — very mater-
nal, as some psychoanalysts would say. Bold
color images were not considered creative,
refined or artistic, and many people still see
it that way.

“COLORS are the children of Light

and Darkness.” — Leonardo da Vinci, Italian
genius

I instead rebelled against a classic

education and ventured excitedly into the
world of COLOR, though unaware of its
various meanings, during the years I studied
photography and cinematography. Some-
one chose to comment: “Reckless … unpre-
dictable figurative ideas, and a NAÏF style at
first.” In fact, not having had a traditional
education, I discovered naïf painting before
classical art. With its bold, primitive colors
inspired by nature, and its bright and often
contrasting tones, naïf art was my first
TEACHER OF COLOR.
At the start of my cinematography
career, my first color film with Bernardo
Bertolucci was La Strategia Del Ragno,
whose images were inspired by René
Magritte and Antonio Ligabue, a primitivist

101

As Storaro explains, the movie’s characters — including Carolina (top) and Ginny (Kate Winslet, above)
— inhabit a world that is “all sweetness and light on the outside, but conflicted at its heart.”
painter from Parma, Bertolucci’s hometown.
”COLOR has an amazingly varie-
gated, expressive and harmonious vocabu-
lary.” — Alexander Blok, Russian poet
Then I gradually encountered the
great Italian masters, Leonardo, Michelan-
gelo, Caravaggio. In my early films, my chro-
matic inspirations sprang from emotion, an
innate instinct, and being in love with the
IMAGE.
At that time we drew on the cinema
102 December 2017
of the past: Woody with iconic cinematog-
raphers like Gordon Willis [ASC], Carlo Di
Palma [AIC], Sven Nykvist [ASC] and Darius
Khondji [ASC, AFC], on films like Manhat-
tan, Shadows and Fog, Crimes and Misde-
meanors, and Midnight in Paris. Myself with
iconic directors like Bertolucci, Francis
Coppola, Warren Beatty and Carlos Saura,
with films like Il Conformista, Apocalypse
Now, Reds and Flamenco, Flamenco.
So many images that were reminis-
cent of the figurative culture of the past,
that had the feel of the present and enabled
American Cinematographer
us to imagine … images of the future. Then
someone invented the digital image, and in
the last five years the film industry has virtu-
ally changed completely.
So when Woody asked me to collab-
orate on Café Society, I read the screenplay,
which gave me various figurative ideas for
the different stages of the story, based on
the works of painters like Georgia O’Keeffe
and Tamara de Lempicka in contrast with
Otto Dix and Edward Hopper, and arrived
ready to embark on a figurative path that
was new to both of us. Well aware that
progress can be slowed down or speeded
up but never stopped, we decided, after
having traveled a long path with celluloid, to
enter the DIGITAL WORLD together.
Although Woody’s regular collabora-
tors suggested I adopt a SINGLE “WARM”
COLOR TONALITY for the whole film, I
proposed to him two very different worlds
for the Bronx and Hollywood in the 1930s
and ’40s, actually dividing the story into four
parts and using as many chromatic tonalities
to distinguish them — AND HE
COMPLETELY AGREED. He immediately
loved the idea of DIGITAL and the COLOR
VARIATIONS THAT ACCOMPANIED THE
STORY in the various stages of its develop-
ment.
And that’s not all! Although they had
assured me that he would never have
looked at the monitor during filming, after
the very first day and my having explained to
him that the image would bear an 80–90%
resemblance to the definitive one, he imme-
diately immersed himself in the feelings
conveyed by the acting and the figurative
image that we were constructing in
complete agreement, day by day, right on
schedule. In actual fact, digital cinema was
not something new for us, but rather a
confirmation of the individual paths we had
trodden so far.
In previous years, Woody and I had
actually worked together on the same
projects: New York Stories, but on two
different episodes; then Picking up the
Pieces, directed by Alfonso Arau, with me as
cinematographer and Woody as actor. It
was Café Society that finally brought us
together in our respective fields: he as
screenwriter-director, me as cinematogra-
pher.
Woody, with all the nostalgic evoca-
tions, the “Amarcord” of his New York in
tow; me, with a weighty baggage of
images, which were often markedly pictor-
ial since I love the Renaissance and am
obsessed with Caravaggio and his constant
conflict between light and shade.
Woody, with his monochromatic,
desaturated tones; me, with my powerful
chromatic emotions deriving from my stud-
ies on Isaac Newton, Goethe and so forth,
and with the symbolism, dramaturgy and
physiology of color.
Initially, I was not so sure that I
would be able to visualize one of his films. I
have always needed to find a specific style,
and personalities who would help me to
identify and pursue a specific path of
research. I have always thought that no
matter what profession we practice, we
inevitably seek to identify our expressive
possibilities, to come up with answers to
our own questions.
When I read the second script he
had prepared, with just the working title
“WASP 2016” (Woody Allen Summer
Project 2016), I was faced with a story that
at first seems tranquil on the surface, but
has a variety of conflicts going on under-
neath. It is a story about an American family
set in 1945 on Coney Island, a resort area in
Brooklyn, with very long scenes full of
dialogue between the various individuals.
In my ignorance I knew nothing
about Coney Island, and this left my figura-
tive imagination somewhat at a loss;
however, the respect and collaboration I
received from Woody on both a profes-
sional and human level convinced me that
our expressive relationship would continue.
Nonetheless, I was afraid that I
would not be able to come up with a
pivotal figurative idea for the visual. I
confessed all this to Woody, who immedi-
ately put my mind at rest by assuring me
that we would come up with a specific
vision of the film. And then the idea of a
superficially serene world in which life’s
problems later surface suddenly brought to
mind Norman Rockwell’s painting of the
postwar period: a vision of life that was all
sweetness and light on the outside, but
conflicted at its heart.
When I arrived in New York, Woody
immediately gave me the necessary support
to implement a vision that contrasted

Ginny’s marriage to Humpty (Jim Belushi) belies the amusement park’s surface charms.
outward appearances with what was really
happening inside. Then we began the
scouts — “we” being myself, Woody,
production designer Santo Loquasto and
co-producer Helen Robin — and when I
discovered Coney Island, I understood its
visual potentialities right away.
We had an amusement park located
on a beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean,
with the protagonist family living right in
the middle of the park. The characters in the
story — Ginny (Kate Winslet), Mickey (Justin
Timberlake), Carolina (Juno Temple) and
Humpty (Jim Belushi) — made up a great
cast and truly completed the whole picture.
They lived with the fantastic world of the
amusement park outside their windows,
104 December 2017
and with their family conflicts inside the
apartment. My specific vision for the cine-
matography was inspired by various
painters of the period, especially Reginald
Marsh, one of the many who depicted the
fantasy of Coney Island.
Then I had an even more important
idea for visualizing the story while waking
up one morning at dawn — something that
often happens to me at that preconscious
moment. Ginny’s world and that of
Carolina, in conflict because they were both
in love with Mickey, made me think of
applying the “PHYSIOLOGY OF COLOR”
theory. Human beings not only receive
LIGHT through their eyes, but all over their
body. In fact, we are like a sensitive photo-
American Cinematographer
graphic plate, because when visible
ENERGY and its COLORS strike our body,
they modify our metabolism and blood
pressure according to their intensity and
chromatic frequency, creating unconscious
emotions. Woody immediately saw the
visual potential of the story told according
to this specific vision, and — NO LONGER
AFRAID OF RED, GREEN AND BLUE — he
helped, indeed spurred me, to formulate a
figurative structure, a cinematography
concept that divided the two worlds:
fantasy and reality, one with suffused lights,
the other with contrasting lights. Ginny’s
world, experienced through the warm
tonalities of an ORANGE SUNSET, and
Carolina’s world, experienced through the
cold tonalities of a BLUE DUSK.
This is how we created a palette of
LIGHTS and COLORS that accentuated the
variations in the dialogue by reflecting the
characters’ emotions.
When I shared my theories with
production designer Santo Loquasto and
costume designer Suzy Benzinger, in full
agreement we started to create a specific
vision of the film together. This is what
should always happen: each film should
have a special vision, in keeping with a
particular story.
RED has represented our existential
dawn since human life began. When we
awake it is the first Color that impinges on
our Consciousness. Symbol of vital energy, it
is Male, and increases blood flow, muscular
tension, and pulse rate. It signals the Posi-
tive, and is the flame of the human spirit. It
is the Color of the PAST.
So with the help of different sceno-
graphic and costume elements; with various
filters in front of the Cooke S4 lenses on the
two Sony F65 4K 16-bit color digital
cameras that had been prepared for image
composition with an aspect ratio of 2:1 at
Panavision by Chris Konash and Steve Wills;
with assistants Bobby Mancuso and Beka
Venezia; with Rosco gels on the projectors
provided by Cinelease and Iride controlled
by the lighting console; with the collabora-
tion of gaffer Steve Ramsey and key grip Bill
Weberg; and especially through using the
natural light of the afternoon/sunset and
dusk/evening, and dividing the spectrum

Storaro (left)
and Allen plan
their next
setup on the
beach at
Coney Island.
into two different emotive tonalities — I was
able to WRITE WITH LIGHT the story of
Wonder Wheel.
Thanks to Isaac Newton’s science
and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Theory
of Colors, and their palette of RED–
ORANGE–YELLOW–GREEN–BLUE–INDIGO–
VIOLET, I had the “seven” colors at my
disposal — but I used the LANGUAGE OF
COLORS, basically extracting only two,
orange and blue, which, although often in
conflict with each other, best helped me to
visually recount the feelings and emotions
of the various protagonists of this story that
starts out as a comedy but takes on increas-
ingly dramatic tones, and certainly
enhanced the different moods of the film.
No one should be afraid of color. We
have to get to know it and its expressive
potentialities. By creating harmony or
conflict between the three primary colors
red/green/blue, and their three complemen-
tary colors cyan/magenta/yellow, we can
convey visual emotions to the audience, in
the same way that words convey emotions
in literature, and notes in music. I think a
knowledge of the symbolism, dramaturgy
and physiology of color is fundamental,
particularly in the digital age. It allows us to
use color with greater awareness in the
visual arts, and especially in cinema.
Today, the cinematic image no
longer has the mystery it once had, and a
knowledge of the meanings of LIGHT and
COLORS is both indispensable and essential
to intuit, to suggest, to create and, if neces-
sary, to modify the COLOR IMAGES THAT
THE MONITOR SHOWS US ON THE SET —
106 December 2017
IN FRONT OF EVERYONE.
In digital cinema, the arrival of the
HDR (High Dynamic Range) system that
offers enhanced color saturation and
produces bright, high-contrast, color-satu-
rated images suitable for action movies and
spectacular special effects, may lead us to
believe — as in the 1950s — that this kind
of vision is not appropriate for films about
human feelings or for dramatic stories. To
satisfy the vast young public, HDR images
will be requested for all films. But this will
not be a problem, even for the most creative
movies, as long as we are familiar with the
meanings and symbols of the language of
color. Indeed, it could be a great help if we
use the dramaturgy of color “with aware-
ness,” like the great Russian director Sergei
Eisenstein advised us to in the chapter
“Color and Meaning” of his book The Film
Sense. I know that Amazon Studios will
request the HDR version of Wonder Wheel,
and I will be happy to prepare it, because it
will be in line with the vision of the story.
GREEN represents protection from
the dangers of the outside world. Its inner
vitality indicates peace. Positioned in the
middle of the spectrum, it links the two
worlds of Beginning and End, of Light and
Darkness. It divides materiality from the
destiny of spirituality. It is the Color of the
Soul, and represents Knowledge.
The composition and rhythm of
the images captured by the digital cameras
guided by operator Will Arnot, the quality
controls carried out by DIT Simone
American Cinematographer
D’Arcangelo, and the close examination of
those images for the rushes by colorist
Anthony Raffaele at Techniclor-PostWorks in
New York, were certainly fundamental for
me in envisaging, creating and perfecting
the figurative quality of the film during the
entire period of preparation and production.
The latter was actually very fast: 30 days of
shooting. With the digital-intermediate
session, which also took place at Technicolor
with Anthony Raffaele, and with the confir-
mation of some additional images outside
the windows of the family’s apartment
by the visual-effects department of Brain-
storm and visual-effects supervisors Rich
Friedlander and Eran Dinur, the visual work
in harmony with the dramaturgy of
Woody’s original screenplay was completed.
When every aspect of a film, from its
conception to its realization and postpro-
duction, melds so perfectly, and the various
protagonists and co-authors are in harmony
and well-directed by the director, that film
has all the ingredients for conveying its story
to the audience as effectively as possible.
Indeed, I believe that today’s SENSOR and
the film stock that came before it have
always been and will always be more sensi-
tive than technicians tell us. They are actu-
ally able to capture the EMOTIONS OF THE
WHOLE CREW THAT PARTICIPATES IN
MAKING A FILM. And when this is done in
CREATIVE HARMONY, there is a probability
that the film will turn out well — THAT IT
WILL BE A GOOD FILM.
BLUE is the color of thought and
intuition; it is conducive to keen intelligence.
Of a spiritual nature, it has something supe-
rior to the human being itself; it represents
awareness, its sensory perception is Gentle-
ness, its emotive content, Tenderness.
Psychologically speaking, it increases a
tendency toward Sensibility, its movement is
Centrifugal, it tends to recede from the eye.
Blue is the color of INTELLIGENCE and the
FUTURE.
Leonardo da Vinci says: “A good
painter should paint two principal things:
the man and the concept of his own mind.”
While we were wrapping the film, I
heard someone say: “If Woody and Vittorio
have a bit of a future together, who knows
what THOSE TWO will do next!” ●
 NEW PRODUCTS & SERVICES
• SUBMISSION INFORMATION - Please email 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.

GoPro Expands Action Waterproof to a depth of 16', Fusion can also capture 18MP spher-
Offerings ical photos and 360 audio. The camera boasts time-lapse video and
GoPro has unveiled the photo, night lapse, and burst modes; other features include compat-
Hero6 Black camera. Powered by ibility with most GoPro mounts, voice control in 10
GoPro’s custom-designed GP1 languages, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, GPS, Accelerometer,
processor, Hero6 offers 4K60 and Gyroscope, and Compass. The Fusion also comes
1080p240 video with advanced with a grip mount.
video stabilization. The camera is Additionally, GoPro has updated Karma with
packed into a rugged design two new auto-shot paths: Follow and Watch. Using
that’s waterproof to 33'. When GPS, Karma can now automatically follow the Karma
the camera is paired with the Controller while the user is on the go, keeping the operator
GoPro App, users can automati- framed in the shot. The Watch auto-shot path will keep
cally transform their adventures Karma hovering in place while it rotates, keeping the Karma
into sharable QuikStory videos. Controller in frame wherever it goes. Other new Karma
Developed from the ground up to maximize a GoPro updates include Hero6 compatibility, an expanded Cable-
camera’s capabilities, the GP1 processor enables twice the video Cam auto-shot path, and “Look Up” camera-tilt capability.
frame rates along with improved image quality, dynamic range, low- Current Karma owners can unlock the new features via a
light performance and video stabilization. The GP1 automates all of firmware update.
these benefits, allowing users to shoot without having to navigate Also new from GoPro are the Shorty, a
complex image settings. The GP1 also advances GoPro’s capabilities pocketable extension pole and tripod; the
in computer vision and machine learning, enabling the Hero6 to Handler, an updated floating handgrip with a
analyze scenes and sensor data for improved automated QuikSto- quick-release mounting feature; and the Bite
ries. Mount + Floaty, a versatile bite mount with an easy-to-spot float.
Additional features of the For additional information, visit www.gopro.com.
Hero6 Black include a new touch
zoom, 3x faster offload speeds via Sony Goes Full Frame With Venice
5GHz Wi-Fi, compatibility with Sony Electronics has unveiled Venice, the company’s first full-
GoPro’s Karma drone and existing frame digital motion-picture camera and the next generation
GoPro mounts, raw and HDR photo of Sony’s CineAlta systems. Venice was designed through close
modes, voice control in 10 collaboration with the creative community to ensure the
languages, Bluetooth accessibility, camera fulfills the needs of production professionals.
GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope. “We really went back to the drawing board for this one,”
GoPro has also launched says ASC associate member Peter Crithary, marketing manager
Fusion, a mountable camera capable for Sony Electronics. “It is our next-generation camera system,
of 5.2K30 and 3K60 spherical video a ground-up development initiative encompassing a
with gimbal-like stabilization. With completely new image sensor. We carefully considered key
the GoPro App, users can play back and share their footage as VR aspects such as form factor, ergonomics, build quality, ease of use,
content, or they can use the app’s OverCapture feature to recapture a refined picture and painterly look — with a simple, established
and share spherical shots as a traditional fixed-perspective video. workflow. We worked in close collaboration with film-industry
professionals. We also considered the longer-term strategy by
designing a user interchangeable sensor that is as quick and simple
to swap as removing four screws, and can accommodate different
shooting scenarios as the need arises.”
Venice combines a newly developed 36x24mm full-frame
sensor, which offers the advantages of compatibility with a wide
range of lenses, including anamorphic, Super 35mm, spherical and
full-frame PL-mount lenses for a greater range of expressive free-
dom with shallow depth of field. The lens mount can also be

108 December 2017 American Cinematographer


changed to support E-mount lenses for situ-
ations that require smaller, lighter and wider
lenses. User-selectable areas of the image
sensor allow shooting in “4-perf” Super
35mm. Future firmware upgrades are
planned to allow the camera to handle
36mm-wide 6K resolution.
A new color-management system
with an ultra-wide color gamut gives users
more control and greater flexibility to work
with images during grading and postpro-
duction. According to Sony’s specs, Venice
also offers more than 15 stops of latitude,
with a gentle roll-off into highlights.
The Venice camera system’s high-
quality, efficient file-based workflow is real-
ized with Sony’s established 16-bit raw/X-
OCN via the AXS-R7 recorder, and 10-bit
XAVC workflows. Venice is also compatible
with current and upcoming CineAlta hard-
ware accessories, including the DVF-EL200
Full HD OLED Viewfinder, AXS-R7 recorder,
and AXS-CR1 and AXS-AR1 card readers.
Venice’s modular, intuitive design
supports efficient on-location operation. It
features a built-in eight-stage glass ND filter
system, which further streamlines camera
setup, and intuitive control panels are incor-
porated on both the assistant and operator
sides of the camera. A 24-volt power
supply input/output and Lemo connector
110 December 2017
allow use of many standard camera acces-
sories.
With Venice, Sony is giving users the
option to customize their camera by
enabling the features needed, matched to
their individual production requirements.
Optional licenses will be available in perma-
nent, monthly and weekly durations to
expand the camera’s capabilities with new
features including 4K anamorphic and full
frame, each sold separately.
Venice was officially unveiled on
Sept. 6, in front of an audience of ASC
members and other industry professionals.
During the event, Sony also screened the
short film The Dig, which was the first
project to shoot with a Venice camera. The
short was written and directed by Joseph
Kosinski and shot by Claudio Miranda,
ASC, who paired the camera with anamor-
phic lenses.
“It was nice to actually shoot full-
frame anamorphic,” Miranda said prior to
the screening. “We shot the whole piece
and ended up in 2.66, not 2.4 as originally
intended, because we ended up loving the
landscape.
“Also, we were looking at skin tone
and color, and it didn’t feel artificial or
pushed,” Miranda continued. “When it
gets low in the shadows, it didn’t dive into
red. I really appreciated that.”
For additional information, visit
www.sony.com/venice.
Litepanels Illuminates Gemini
Litepanels, a Vitec Group brand, has
introduced the Gemini 2x1 RGB-WW soft
panel that combines daylight, tungsten, and
red-green-blue LEDs to deliver highly flexible
American Cinematographer
and precise color adjustment. The Gemini
soft panel produces full-spectrum white
light and an extensive choice of control
options designed to suit any professional
lighting application.
Gemini eliminates the undesirable
color spikes that can result from mixing red,
green and blue LEDs by giving users a
daylight-to-tungsten light foundation and
then enabling them to finely adjust color
throughout the full 360-degree color
wheel. This means that users can match a
broad range of ambient lighting conditions
quickly and simply.
Gemini offers this flexibility through
its easy-to-use menu interface in three
lighting modes: Correlated Color Tempera-
ture Mode, for bicolor (daylight to tung-
sten) operation with +/- green adjustment;
Color Mode, offering hue saturation and
intensity (HSI) control; and Gel Mode,
providing the ability to dial-up a variety of
popular gels. All three modes offer users
complete intensity control with smooth
dimming from 100 percent to zero, with-
out any color shift. Users can define presets
to save their favorite lighting attributes,
including intensity, for quick and conve-
nient recall.
Gemini offers flexible remote control
through DMX (5-pin XLR or RJ45), Wireless
DMX (using standard 512 protocol), or
Bluetooth. Gemini can be remotely
controlled using the Litepanels SmartLite or
SmartLite Director apps for Apple devices.
Recent independent testing demon-
strated that Gemini delivers high photomet-
ric performance, measuring TLCI/CRI levels
of 97 in daylight and 99 in tungsten. This
means that lighting professionals can reli-
ably achieve accurate color and realistic skin
tones, in turn saving postproduction time
and money.
With its onboard power supply,
Gemini is significantly lighter than panels
that require an external ballast. Without the
need for external power components, the
panel can also be transported easily and
rigged rapidly with fewer cable connec-
tions. Gemini panels can run from battery
power (3-pin XLR 28 VDC), or power can be
daisy-chained from other devices using an
industry-standard powerCON connection.
“The color quality of the Litepanels
Gemini allows me to precisely match exist-
ing tungsten lighting sources in a variety of
applications, especially when dimming,”
says cinematographer Andrew Dunn, BSC.
“I can dim all the way to zero, which is
incredible. My gaffer, Jose Ruiz, and I find
rigging the Gemini incredibly easy. Its
output compared to its weight makes it
even more extraordinary, giving us on-set
versatility that is a tremendous time-saver.
“Gemini works well as a bounce,
and it’s soft enough to be used as a fill for
our talent,” Dunn adds. “Plus, the ability to
dial in a range of unique colors and smash
them into a background so easily [can
bring] depth, texture, and interest to the
scene.”
Gemini is complemented by a full
line of light-shaping accessories, such as
honeycomb grids and barn doors, to offer
users extra creative lighting control. By the
end of this year, Litepanels will release a
mounting hardware kit that will enable
customers to stack multiple Gemini panels
either vertically or horizontally.
For additional information, visit
www.litepanels.com.
Sachtler Deals Pair of Aces
Sachtler, a Vitec Group brand, has
introduced two aluminum tripod systems
in the company’s popular Ace XL family.
Equipped with the new Ace XL 75mm fluid
head, the Ace XL GS AL and Ace XL MS AL
tripod systems offer many of the benefits of
their carbon-fiber counterparts in a lower-
cost package.
Both the Ace XL GS AL — which
features a ground
spreader — and Ace XL
MS AL — with a
mid-level
spreader — are
compatible
with DSLR cameras as
well as cine-style
cameras such as
Blackmagic Design’s
Ursa Mini Pro,
Canon’s EOS C200
and C300 Mark II,
Panasonic’s Lumix
GH5, and Sony’s
PXW-FS7. The
75mm fluid
head supports
an extended payload range of 2 to 8kg (up
to 17.6 pounds), giving it the versatility
needed to support a broad range of config-
urations.
Both tripod systems offer eight
counterbalance steps for quick and easy
camera balancing. The Ace XL’s patented
SA drag (synchronized actuated drag)
damping provides an authentic broadcast
feel and familiar dependability for precise
panning and tilting. The long 104mm
(4.1") sliding range of the camera plate
allows for quick camera setup, and clearly
marked counterbalance settings aid in
setting repeatable moves and provide a tilt
range of +90 degrees to -75 degrees.
The Ace XL aluminum tripods can
operate in a broad temperature range,
from -30°C (-22°F) to 60°C (140°F). At
4.5kg (9.9 pounds) and 4.1kg (9
pounds), respectively, the Ace XL MS XL
and Ace XL GS AL weigh only a fraction
more than their carbon-fiber predeces-
sors. The Ace XL GS AL provides a
height range of 56-173cm (22-68"),
while the Ace XL MS AL offers a height
range of 79-170cm (31-67").
Both tripod systems include Sachtler
rubber feet and come with a padded bag
featuring practical grips and a carrying
strap.
For additional information, visit
www.sachtler.com. ➣
111
 Red Unleashes Monstro
Red Digital Cinema has introduced a
new full-frame sensor for Weapon
cameras, Monstro 8K VV. Monstro is a step
beyond the Red Dragon 8K VV sensor, with
improvements in image quality, including
dynamic range and shadow detail.
This Weapon 8K VV camera and
sensor combination offers full-frame lens
coverage, captures 8K full-format motion at
up to 60 fps, produces detailed 35.4
megapixel stills, and delivers fast data
speeds of up to 300 MB/s. Like all of Red’s
DSMC2 cameras, Weapon records simulta-
neous raw and Apple ProRes or Avid
DNxHD/HR, and adheres to Red’s dedica-
tion to “obsolescence obsolete,” a core
operating principle that allows current Red
owners to upgrade their technology as
innovations are unveiled as well as move
between camera systems without having to
purchase all-new gear.
The new Weapon will be priced at
$79,500 for the camera Brain, with
upgrades for carbon-fiber Weapon
customers available for $29,500. Monstro
8K VV will replace the current Red Dragon
CineJet Takes Flight
Helinet Aviation, a full-service provider of aerial production services to the motion
picture and advertising industries, has unveiled CineJet, an Aero L-39 Albatros jet featuring
a customized gyro-stabilized Shotover F1 camera system designed for high-speed aerial cine-
matography. Developed in partnership with Patriots Jet Team — a San Francisco Bay Area-
based precision aerobatic demonstration team — CineJet provides excellent jet-aircraft
performance, maneuverability, and camera-angle options thanks to the sleek profile of the
aircraft and the mounting of the F1 camera platform.
CineJet has been developed for television, feature, high-performance photography,
scientific research, and commercial aircraft-marketing applications. The Shotover F1 system
has been specifically tailored for the unique capabilities of the jet platform, and can handle
speeds exceeding 350 knots and maneuvers approaching 3Gs. The open-platform design of
the F1 system allows for a comprehensive range of professional camera and lens combina-
tions depending on the needs of each client, and as new technology comes to market. “We
are thrilled to support Helinet and Patriots Jet Team with a customized 6-axis gyro-stabilized
Shotover F1 camera platform for cutting-edge aerial cinematography,” says Shotover CEO
Brad Hurndell.
Further increasing CineJet’s functionality and capabilities is a specially developed
multiple antenna array, installed by RF Film Inc., to deliver high-definition video, GPS data,
and ground-to-air audio communication.
The aircraft will be flown by Helinet’s VP of aerial film production Kevin LaRosa II, and
Patriots Jet Team founder and owner Randy Howell. For more than 16 years, LaRosa has
served the motion-picture industry as a stunt pilot and aerial coordinator; he is a member of
SAG as well as the Motion Picture Pilots Association. Howell has accumulated more than
23,000 hours of flight time and has more than 30 years of flying experience with United
Airlines; he has been an advanced instructor in aerobatics, formation and UPRT, and has
served as a check airman and simulator instructor in a multitude of aircraft.
“Patriots Jet Team is extremely proud to launch the new CineJet high-speed cine-
matography platform with Helinet,” says Howell. “We look forward to providing produc-
tions with a turnkey solution for high-velocity camerawork.”
To watch a video of the CineJet in action, visit vimeo.com/237487951. For additional
information, visit www.helinet.com, www.patriotsjetteam.com and www.shotover.com.

8K VV sensor in Red’s lineup, and
customers who had previously placed an
order for a Red Dragon 8K VV sensor will
now be offered this new sensor. New
orders will start being fulfilled in early 2018.
Red has also announced a compre-
hensive service for Weapon carbon-fiber
camera owners. Red Armor-W offers
enhanced and extended protection beyond
basic Red Armor, and also includes one
sensor swap each year.
Additionally, Red’s enhanced image
processing pipeline (IPP2) is now available
in-camera for all cameras with Helium and
Monstro sensors through the v7.0
firmware update. IPP2 offers a completely
overhauled workflow experience, featuring
enhancements such as smoother highlight
roll-off, better management of challenging
colors, and an improved demosaicing algo-
rithm.
For additional information, visit
www.red.com.

112 December 2017 American Cinematographer


Rosco Acquires DMG Lumière
DMG Lumière, a company specializ-
ing in LED fixtures for the motion-picture
industry, has been acquired by Rosco.
DMG Lumière was founded in Lyon,
France, in 2014 by brothers Jean, Nils and
Mathieu de Montgrand, and their partner
Nicolas Goerg (all pictured, left to right).
Their company’s technology and talent will
further develop the Rosco LED lighting
product range, and Rosco’s global sales,
marketing, distribution and customer-
service teams will provide customers easier
access to the DMG product-range world-
wide. “DMG Lumière is the perfect partner
as we look to grow our business, and we’re
delighted to welcome them into the Rosco
family,” said Rosco CEO Mark Engel.
The founders of DMG Lumière are
all joining the Rosco team to continue
developing customer-driven LED solutions
such as DMG Lumière’s Switch range of
mobile, robust and power-efficient LED
units. DMG Lumière’s product line is now
available from any Rosco dealer.
For additional information, visit
www.dmglumiere.com and
www.rosco.com.
Leader Widens Color Capabilities
Leader Electronics Corporation has
expanded the feature set of its LV5333
compact 3G/HD/SD-SDI waveform monitor
with the addition of measurement facilities
for BT.2020 color space and full-range
video. The company has also introduced its
LV5333SER02 HDR option, which enables
the LV5333 to measure HD HDR and 2SI 4K
in ITU.BT.2100 hybrid log gamma, Dolby PQ
or Sony S-Log3 protocols.
“With the advent of 4K digital cine-
matography and UHD television, produc-
tion companies have been introduced to
the wider color space of BT.2020,” says
Kevin Salvidge, Leader’s European regional
development manager. “BT.2020 accom-
modates approximately 75.8 percent of the
CIE 1931 color chart, considerably more
than the BT.709 color space that the broad-
cast industry had been using previously. The
LV5333 now allows producers to ensure
that their content makes full use of the new,
wider color space.”
Full-range video has until recently
been the preserve of digital cinematogra-
phers. High-end editing and grading
systems have the capability of switching
between legal range, as used for television
production, and full range. With the addi-
tion of full-range video support, the LV5333
portable waveform monitor is now suited to
both television and cinema production.
The LV5333 is now HDR agnostic.
Available as an option, Leader’s Cinezone
real-time false-color display has been
enhanced to support false-color display of
high-dynamic-range images, supporting PQ
and HLG S-Log3.
“An increasing number of television
production companies are working with
log-based curves for production on Arri,
Canon and Sony camcorders,” Salvidge
notes. “Production staff who are more
familiar with BT.709-type gamma produc-
tion can be confused when they see what
appears to be incorrectly exposed images.
The addition of Sony S-Log3, Canon C-Log
and Arri Log C support in the LV5333 now
allows production staff to monitor and
correct log-based content quickly and easily,
irrespective of which HDR camera from
these companies is being used.”
Compatible with more than 20 HD-
SDI/SD-SDI formats, the Leader LV5333 is
designed for deployment in studios or tech-
nical areas, or attached to a camera tripod.
113
 The integral 6.5" XGA TFT LCD
screen can also be used to display
video signal waveform, vectorscope,
or the video image. Cinelite, Cine-
zone, histogram, gamma display,
and level error display functions are
included as standard.
Features include cable length
display, external timing display and field
frequency deviation display. SDI-
embedded audio can be extracted and two
user-selectable audio channels can be sent
as an AES/EBU stream to a BNC output. The
levels of up to eight audio channels can be
checked using onscreen bar displays.
User-configurable multi-display
combinations within the LV5333 allow easy
inspection of signal parameters. Full-screen
displays can alternatively be selected to
allow detailed review of specific elements.
The LV5333 occupies a 215x128x63mm
housing and weighs 1.3 kg. It can be
powered from battery or a universal mains
adapter.
For additional information, visit
www.leadereurope.com.
Samsung Enables VR Production
Samsung Electronics has introduced
the 360 Round camera for developing and
streaming high-quality 3D virtual-reality
content. The Samsung 360 Round uses 17
lenses — eight stereo pairs positioned hori-
zontally and one single lens positioned verti-
cally — to livestream 4K 3D video and
spatial audio with little to no latency, and
create engaging 3D images with depth.
The Samsung 360 Round uses a uni-
body chassis designed to reduce heat,
removing the need for a cooling fan and
minimizing size and weight. The durable,
compact design helps eliminate excess noise
and reduce power consumption for hours
114 December 2017
an external mic, and storage for saving
large files.
Of interest to video editors, Samsung
also offers a range of monitoring solu-
tions, including the 49" “Super Ultra-
Wide” C49HG90DMN curved gaming
monitor. Timelines can be expanded
across the screen’s entire 1,800mm
length, and favored panel setups can be
quickly accessed. With a 32:9 aspect ratio
— the equivalent of two 16:9 panels — the
QLED monitor uses Quantum Dot LED tech-
of continuous shooting. Additionally, the nology to achieve 600 nits in brightness,
360 Round is IP65 dust- and water-resistant, 1.07 billion colors, and an HDR-ready
making it well suited to challenging environ- 3,000:1 contrast ratio. The monitor offers
ments. 95-percent coverage of the DCI/P3 color
The f1.8 lens system is capable of space and 125-percent coverage of sRGB. A
capturing 4096x2048 at 30 fps in 3D and 144hz refresh rate enables crisp playback.
2D MP4 formats (H.265/H.264). Additional For additional information, visit
features include PC software for controlling www.samsung.com.
and one-step stitching, expandable external
storage, and six internal microphones. With New Products & Services is compiled
expandable connectors and ports, the 360 by David Alexander Willis. For more, visit
Round is designed to easily and quickly ascmag.com/articles/new-product. ●
connect to additional equipment, such as
Autodesk Expands
Creative Flexibility
Autodesk has released update 3 for its Flame 2018 family of 3D visual-effects and
finishing software, which includes Flame, Flare, Flame Assist and Lustre. Flame 2018.3
provides more efficient ways of working in post, with feature enhancements that offer
greater pipeline flexibility, speed, and support for emerging formats and technology.
Flame 2018.3 highlights include the Action Selective image-isolation tool, motion
warp tracking, 360-degree VR viewing mode, HDR waveform monitoring, Shotgun software
loader, and user-requested improvements for action, batch, timeline and media hub. The
addition of HDR waveform monitoring, in particular, allows users to set their viewport to
show luminance waveform, RGB parade, color vectorscope or 3D cube; users can also now
monitor a range of HDR and wide-color-gamut color spaces, including Rec 2100 PQ, Rec
2020 and DCI P3.
Flame Family 2018.3 is available immediately at no additional cost to customers with
a current Flame Family 2018 subscription.
For additional information, visit www.autodesk.com.
American Cinematographer
 INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE

116 December 2017 American Cinematographer

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 ADVERTISER’S
INDEX
20th Century Fox Films
2-3, 16-17, 34-35
AC 101, 116
Adorama 55, 75
Alan Gordon Enterprises 117
Amazon Studios 19, 25, 31
Arri 47, C4
ASC Film Manual 88
ASC Master Class 8
B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio
97
Backstage Equipment, Inc.
103
Band Pro Film & Digital 43
Barger 76
Blackmagic Design, Inc. 45
Canon USA 41
Cavision Enterprises 116
Chapman/Leonard
Studio Equip. 85
Cinekinetic 116
Cinematography
Electronics 101
Cooke Optics 53, 105
CW Sonderoptic Gmbh 59
118
Deluxe Entertainment 77 Red Digital Cinema 67
DJI Creative Studio 57, 83 Rosco Laboratories, Inc. 89
Filmotechnic USA 113 RST Visions 76
Fluotec 111 Selected Tables 118
Focus Features 10-11 Slamdance 109
Fox Searchlight Pictures Sony Pictures Classics 49
9, 21, 27 Sundance 115
G-Technology/HGST, Inc. 73 Super16, Inc. 117
Gripandelectric.com, LLC. Technicolor Content &
116 Theatrical Services 99
Hexolux/Visionsmith 116 Teradek, LLC C2-1, 65
Tiffen 95
Kino Flo 48
Koto Electric Co., LTD. 87 VER Los Angeles 107
Vitec Creative Solutions
Lights! Action! Co. 116 C2-1, 65
Maccam 60 Warner Bros. 7, 15, 23
Manfrotto Distribution 61 Willy’s Widgets 116
Moab to Monument Valley www.ascmag.com 103, 117
Film Commission 103
Mole-Richardson/Studio XEEN by Rokinon 69
Depot 116
Netflix 13, 29, C3
NBC/Universal 71
NBC/Universal Pictures 33
P+S Technik Feinmechanik
Gmbh 117
Paralinx 65
PED Denz 117
Pille Filmgeraeteverleih
Gmbh 116
Pixipixel Limited 116, 117
Pro8mm 116

by Cinematographer, Project Title, Format, Subject and Author
35MM (SUPER 35MM LISTED
SEPARATELY)
Beguiled, The, Aug. p. 50
Fences, Jan. p. 82
Hidden Figures, Jan. p. 70
Lost City of Z, The,
May p. 44
Silence, Jan. p. 38
Wonderstruck, Oct. p. 30
65MM
Dunkirk, Aug.
pp. 30, 34, 36
Adams, ASC, Marshall,
July p. 42
Aguirresarobe, ASC, AEC,
Javier, May p. 54,
Dec. p. 50
Alien: Covenant, June p. 50
American Gods, Sept.
pp. 32, 34, 36, 42
American Honey,
March p. 54
ANAMORPHIC
American Gods,
Sept. pp. 32, 34, 36, 42
Back of My Mind, The,
June p. 14
Bad Batch, The, July p. 60
Eyes of My Mother, The,
March p. 49
Fences, Jan. p. 82
Going in Style, May p. 75
Great Wall, The, March
p. 20
Hidden Figures, Jan. p. 70
Hitman’s Bodyguard, The,
Sept. p. 52
It, Oct. p. 46
It Happened Again Last
Night, Nov. p. 24
La La Land, Jan. p. 56
Logan, May digital
Lost City of Z, The, May
p. 44
Moonlight, March p. 46
Mountain Between Us,
The, March p. 68,
Nov. p. 46
Mudbound, Dec. p. 78
Rogue One: A Star Wars
Story, Feb. p. 30
Silence, Jan. p. 38
Sleight, June p. 26
Stand, The, March p. 14
2017 Index
Compiled by Christopher Probst, ASC
Suburbicon, Dec. p. 62
Wall, The, June p. 20
Anderson, ASC, Peter, Jan.
p. 106, Sept. p. 126
ASC CLOSE-UP
Bernstein, Steven, June
p. 124
Bokelberg, Oliver, Nov.
p. 88
Cady, Patrick, Dec. p. 128
Chomyn, Christopher,
March p. 88
Darby, David, Oct. p. 88
Fey, Cort, Feb. p. 96
Flinn III, John C., May
p. 88
Holzman, Ernie, April
p. 108
Jensen, Johnny E., July
p. 88
Lonsdale, Gordon C., Aug.
p. 80
Shaw, Steven, Sept.
p. 128
Sher, Lawrence, Jan.
p. 108
Back of My Mind, The,
June p. 14
Bad Batch, The, July p. 60
Bailey, ASC, John, Oct. p. 86,
Nov. p. 60
Ballhaus, ASC, Michael, July
p. 84
Beguiled, The, Aug. p. 50
Bennett, ASC, Bill, March
p. 86, Dec. p. 126
Berkofsky, Ava, March p. 50
Bernstein, ASC, Steven, June
p. 124
Better Call Saul, July p. 42
Bigazzi, Luca, May p. 24
Big Boi, “Kill Jill,” Oct.
p. 24
Billeter, Manuel, April p. 52
BLACK-AND-WHITE
Eyes of My Mother, The,
March p. 49
Wonderstruck, Oct. p. 30
Blade Runner 2049, Dec.
p. 36
Bokelberg, ASC, BVK, Oliver,
Nov. p. 88
Braham, BSC, Henry, June
p. 34
www.ascmag.com
Briesewitz, ASC, Uta, Jan.
p. 106
Buddy Thunderstruck,
April p. 28
Byrne, ASC, Bobby, June
p. 120
Cabana, Carmen, Feb. p. 14
Cady, ASC, Patrick, Dec.
p. 128
Cameron, ASC, Paul, June
p. 62, July p. 22, Nov.
p. 58
Caniglia, AIC, Valentina,
March p. 14
Cantini, Federico, June p. 14
Chan, Tinx, Dec. p. 28
Chapman, ASC, Michael,
Feb. p. 94, Nov. p. 58
Charpentier, SBC, Bjorn, Feb.
p. 14
Charters, ASC, CSC, NZCS,
Rodney, May p. 75
Chicago Justice, April
p. 66
Childhood of a Leader,
The, March p. 48
Chomyn, ASC, Christopher,
March p. 88
Christensen, Charlotte Bruus,
Jan. p. 82
Chung-hoon, Chung, Oct.
p. 46
Churchill, ASC, Joan, Jan.
p. 106
Closer, Jan. p. 14
Connor, John, Oct. p. 24
Cox, ASC, SASC, Vincent G.,
Nov. p. 85
Crawley, BSC, Lol, March
p. 48
Crothers, Jayson, Nov. p. 24
Dadabhoy, Nausheen, May
p. 14
Darby, ASC, David, Oct. p. 88
D’Audiffret, Alexandre, Aug.
p. 26
Deakins, ASC, BSC, Roger,
Dec. p. 36
Deschanel, ASC, Caleb, Nov.
p. 58
Dibie, ASC, George Spiro,
May p. 86
DIRECTORS INTERVIEWED
Abu-Assad, Hany, Nov.
p. 46
Amirpour, Ana Lily, July
p. 60
Arenas, Nacho, Aug.
p. 26
Aronofsky, Darren, Nov.
p. 30
Barber, Bryan, Oct. p. 24
Chazelle, Damien, Jan.
p. 56
Davidson, Adam, Sept.
p. 80
Dillard, J.D., June p. 26
Fedore, Max R.A., July
p. 24
George, Terry, May p. 54
Gilligan, Vince, July p. 42
Gould, Peter, July p. 42
Gray, James, May p. 44
Gunn, James, June p. 34
Haynes, Todd, Feb. p. 54,
Oct. p. 30
Hughes, Albert, Nov. p. 58
Jenkins, Patty, July p. 28
Larraín, Pablo, Jan. p. 90
Legato, ASC, Robert,
March p. 26
Lowery, David, Aug. p. 58
Melfi, Theodore, Jan. p. 70
Morano, ASC, Reed, June
p. 80
Muschietti, Andrés, Oct.
p. 46
Nolan, Christopher, Aug.
p. 30
Oldroyd, William, July
p. 52
Podcaminsky, Luciano,
June p. 14
Ray, Billy, Aug. p. 42
Rees, Dee, Dec. p. 78
Rønning, Joachim, June
p. 62
Salomon, ASC, Mikael,
April p. 80
Sandberg, Espen, June
p. 62
Scott, Ridley, June p. 50
Shepherd, Colin F., Jan.
p. 14
Slade, David, Sept.
pp. 32, 34
December 2017 119
 Sorrentino, Paolo, May
p. 24
Tovah, Mageina, April
p. 14
Towner, Eric, April p. 28
Von Puttkamer, Peter,
March p. 74
Waititi, Taika, Dec. p. 50
Wider, Jedd, June p. 96
Wider, Todd, June p. 96
Yaitanes, Greg, Oct. p. 56
DOCUMENTARIES
“Energy and Instinct,” Feb.
p. 78
God Knows Where I Am,
June p. 96
Into the Microscope, Jan.
p. 14
“Preserving the Film-
maker’s Legacy,” March
p. 74
Dod Mantle, ASC, BSC, DFF,
Anthony, Feb. p. 94,
March p. 32
Doyle, HKSC, Christopher, Nov.
p. 62
Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS, Stuart,
March p. 20
Dunk, ASC, CSC, Bert, March
p. 86
Dunkirk, Aug. pp. 30, 34, 36
Elmes, ASC, Fred, Jan. p. 22;
March p. 86; Aug. p. 78;
Nov. pp. 58, 86
Eloise, March p. 26
Elswit, ASC, Robert, Feb. p. 94,
Dec. p. 62
Empty Skies, Dec. p. 28
Eyes of My Mother, The,
March p. 49
Fences, Jan. p. 82
Fey, ASC, Cort, Feb. p. 96
FILMMAKERS’ FORUM
“Drones Lend an Antarctic
Advantage,” Aug. p. 68
“Preserving the Filmmak-
ers’ Legacy,” March
p. 74
“A Soul’s Story,” June
p. 96
“Switching in Style
Between TV and
Features,” May p. 75
“Who’s Afraid of Red,
Green and Blue?” Dec.
p. 100
Flinckenberg, FSC, Peter,
Sept. p. 80
Flinn III, ASC, John C., May
p. 88
120 December 2017
Fontaine, AFC, Stéphane, Jan.
p. 90
Fraser, ASC, ACS, Greig, Feb.
pp. 30, 94; Nov. p. 58
Free in Deed, March p. 50
Gainer, ASC, ASK, Steve, Nov.
p. 70
Galler, Zachary, Oct. p. 56
Game of Thrones, March
p. 69
Garcia, ASC, Ron, Feb. p. 64
Garrison, Gavin, Aug. p. 68
Genius, July p. 68
Ghost in the Shell, May
p. 30
Ghost Story, A, Aug. p. 58
God Knows Where I Am,
June p. 96
Going in Style, May p. 75
Goldblatt, ASC, BSC,
Stephen, Dec. pp. 90, 92
Grace and Frankie, May
p. 20
Great Wall, The, March
p. 20
Greenberg, ASC, Robbie, Nov.
p. 58
Grillo, John, April p. 36
Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 2, June p. 34
Hall, BSC, Jess, May p. 30
Handmaid’s Tale, The, June
p. 80
Herndl, AAC, Mathias, July
p. 68
Herse, Carl, April p. 94
Hidden Figures, Jan. p. 70
Hirschfeld, ASC, Gerald,
May p. 84
HISTORICAL
“Arri’s Second Century,”
Sept. p. 96
“A Storied Camera,” Nov.
p. 70
Hitman’s Bodyguard, The,
Sept. p. 52
Holzman, ASC, Ernie, April
p. 108, Oct. p. 86
Hux, April p. 14
IMAX
Dunkirk, Aug. pp. 30, 34, 36
I’m Dying Up Here, Sept.
p. 80
Impens, SBC, Ruben, Feb.
p. 14
IN MEMORIA
Ballhaus, ASC, Michael,
July p. 84
Byrne, ASC, Bobby, June
p. 120
American Cinematographer
Cox, ASC, SASC, Vincent “Tech Essentials: Drone
G., Nov. p. 85 Primer,” Aug. p. 18
Hirschfeld, ASC, Gerald, “Tech Essentials: False
May p. 84 Color,” Dec. p. 26
Koenekamp, ASC, Fred J., “Tech Essentials: The
Aug. p. 77 Histogram,” Nov. p. 16
Mack, Patty, March p. 86 “Tech Essentials: The
Negrin, ASC, Sol, July Waveform,” Aug. p. 24
p. 83 “To Meter or Not to
INSTRUCTIONAL Meter,” Dec. p. 18
“Cine-Style vs. Still-Style “Where Do You Put the
Optics,” July p. 14 Camera?” Sept. p. 16
“Communicating Is Into the Microscope, Jan.
Collaborating,” Nov. p. 14
p. 14 Irola, ASC, Judy, Jan. p. 106
“Deep Focus: The Ubiqui- Iron Fist, April p. 52
tous Ks,” Dec. p. 20 It, Oct. p. 46
“DIY: Temporary It Happened Again Last
Wallpaper,” Nov. p. 20 Night, Nov. p. 24
“DIY: The (Almost) Instant Jackie, Jan. p. 90
Diffusion Frame,” Oct. Jafarian, Hossein, Jan. p. 30
p. 18 Jensen, ASC, Johnny E., July
“DIY: The Covered p. 88
Wagon,” Oct. p. 16 Jensen, ASC, Matthew, July
“DIY: The Pie-Pan Leko p. 28
Gobo,” Nov. p. 18 Jeric, Andrew, Jan. p. 14
“The Fault in Your CRIs,” Kelly, Kira, Feb. p. 14
Aug. p. 18 Khondji, ASC, AFC, Darius,
“Field Guide: Understand- May p. 44
ing Carnet,” Sept. Kijowski, PSC, Kuba, Feb.
p. 20 p. 14
“Fixtures 101: Fresnel, Klein, ASC, David, April p. 80
ERS, PAR,” Oct. p. 14 Kline, ASC, Richard, Feb.
“Learning to Fly,” Aug. p. 95
p. 14 Koenekamp, ASC, Fred J.,
“Meter Case: David Aug. p. 77
Stump, ASC,” Oct. Kuperstein, Zach, March
p. 20 p. 49
“Practical Optics: Intro- Kuras, ASC, Ellen, Jan.
duction to Anamor- p. 106, Nov. p. 58
phic,” May p. 62 Lachman, ASC, Edward, Feb.
“Pro Perspective: Be p. 54; Oct. p. 30; Nov.
Prepared,” Sept. p. 24 pp. 58, 86; Dec. p. 126
“Pro Perspective: Clear as Lady Macbeth, July p. 52
a Bell,” July p. 18 La Femme et le TGV, May
“Pro Perspective: Location p. 14
Sensibility,” Sept. p. 18 La La Land, Jan. p. 56
“Pro Perspective: Roll Laliberté Else, CSC, Marc,
With It,” July p. 16 Sept. pp. 32, 34, 36, 42
“Pro Perspective: Sleep Laskus, ASC, PSC, Jacek,
Tight,” July p. 22 Nov. p. 62
“Pro Perspective: The Last Man on Earth, The,
Heavy Lifters,” Aug. April p. 94
p. 20 Last Tycoon, The, Aug.
“Pro Perspective: The p. 42
Sonic Mnemonic,” July Laustsen, ASC, DFF, Dan,
p. 20 Dec. p. 126
“Rising Stars of Cine- Laxton, James, March p. 46
matography,” Feb. p. 14 Legato, ASC, Robert, March
p. 26, April p. 106
Le Sourd, AFC, Philippe, Aug. Mother!, Nov. p. 30
p. 50 Mountain Between Us,
Libatique, ASC, Matthew, The, March p. 68, Nov.
Nov. pp. 30, 58 p. 46
Lieberman, ASC, Charlie, Mudbound, Dec. p. 78
April p. 14 Murphy, ASC, Brianne, Jan.
Lighthill, ASC, Stephen, Nov. p. 106
p. 58 Murphy, Stephen, Sept. p. 26
LIGHTING DIAGRAMS MUSIC VIDEOS
Better Call Saul, July Big Boi, “Kill Jill,” Oct.
p. 45 p. 24
I’m Dying Up Here, Sept. Lucy Rose, “No Good at
pp. 86, 88 All,” Sept. p. 26
Iron Fist, April p. 63 Navarro, ASC, Guillermo,
Mother!, Nov. p. 33 March p. 86, Nov. p. 58
Pirates of the Caribbean: Negrin, ASC, Sol, July p. 83,
Dead Men Tell No Sept. p. 127
Tales, June p. 65 Neihouse, ASC, James, Sept.
Lindenlaub, ASC, Karl p. 18
Walter, Nov. p. 58 NEW ASC ASSOCIATES
Lindsey, ASC, Jimmy, May Hammond, Dan, Aug.
p. 86 p. 78
Logan, May digital Patel, Snehal, Aug. p. 78
Lonsdale, ASC, Gordon C., Roudebush, Jim, June
Aug. p. 80 p. 122
Lost City of Z, The, May NEW ASC MEMBERS
p. 44 Lindsey, Jimmy, May
Lucy Rose, “No Good at p. 86
All,” Sept. p. 26 Morrison, Rachel, June
Manhunt: Unabomber, Oct. p. 122
p. 56 O’Loughlin, Jules, May
Mathieson, BSC, John, May p. 86
digital Yatsko, Thomas, May
McFarland, David, Sept. p. 24 p. 86
McGarvey, ASC, BSC, Nicholson, ASC, Sam, March
Seamus, Feb. p. 95, p. 86
March p. 65 Nocturnal Animals, March
McLachlan, ASC, CSC, Rob, p. 65
March p. 69 Ohashi, ASC, CSC, Rene,
McNutt, ASC, CSC, Stephen, March p. 86
Oct. p. 66 O’Loughlin, ASC, ACS, Jules,
Meadowland, March p. 72 May p. 86, Sept. p. 52
Medencevic, ASC, Suki, Nov. Opera of Cruelty, July p. 25
p. 86 Orbach, Yaron, April p. 22
Menges, Oona, Feb. p. 14 Our Souls at Night, Dec.
Middleton, ASC, CSC, pp. 90, 92
Gregory, Sept. p. 126 Outlander, Oct. p. 66
Miller, ASC, David, Nov. p. 86 Palermo, Andrew Droz, Aug.
Moder, Danny, Aug. p. 42 p. 58
Momma, Aug. p. 26 Parsons, Becky, Feb. p. 14
Moonlight, March p. 46 Passengers, Jan. p. 38
Morano, ASC, Reed, Jan. Paterson, Jan. p. 22
p. 106, March p. 72, Nov. Path, The, April p. 22
p. 86 Peaky Blinders, Sept. p. 66
Morgan, ASC, Donald A., Pearl, ASC, Daniel, Nov. p. 62
Nov. p. 86 Pirates of the Caribbean:
Morrison, ASC, Rachel, June Dead Men Tell No
p. 122, Dec. p. 78 Tales, June p. 62
Morton, NZCS, Aaron, Sept. Pope, ASC, Bill, April
pp. 32, 34, 36 pp. 36, 106
Pope, BSC, Dick, Nov. p. 66
www.ascmag.com
POSTPRODUCTION
“CBS Digital Supports
The Last Man on
Earth,” April p. 94
“HPA Celebrates Accom-
plishments in Post,”
Jan. p. 96
Preacher, April p. 36
PRESERVATION/RESTORATION
“Preserving the Filmmak-
ers’ Legacy,” March
p. 74
“A Storied Camera,” Nov.
p. 70
Prieto, ASC, AMC, Rodrigo,
Jan. p. 38, Feb. p. 94
Prisoner, Jan. p. 14
Promise, The, May p. 54
Puglia, Gerardo, June p. 96
Pusheck, ASC, Cynthia, Jan.
p. 106
Reiker, ASC, Tami, Jan.
p. 106
Richmond, ASC, BSC, Tony,
April p. 106
Riestra, ASC, ACK, AMC,
Antonio, March p. 26
Rogue One: A Star Wars
Story, Feb. p. 30
Roizman, ASC, Owen, Nov.
p. 58
Roman J. Israel, Esq., Dec.
p. 62
Rose, BSC, Laurie, Sept. p. 66
Rousselot, ASC, AFC,
Philippe, Feb. p. 72
Ryan, BSC, Robbie, March
p. 54
Salas, Armando, April p. 80
Salesman, The, Jan. p. 30
Sandgren, FSF, Linus, Jan.
p. 56
Schaefer, ASC, AIC, Roberto,
Nov. p. 58, Dec. p. 126
Schreiber, ASC, Nancy, Jan.
p. 106, Feb. p. 78,
Nov. p. 58
Schwartzman, ASC, John,
July p. 16
Seale, ASC, ACS, John,
Nov. p. 58
Shaw, ASC, Steven, Sept.
p. 128
Shepherd, Colin F., Jan. p. 14
Sher, ASC, Lawrence, Jan.
p. 108
Silence, Jan. p. 38
Simmons, ASC, John, Jan.
p. 106
Sissel, ASC, Sandi, Jan. p. 106
Six, April p. 80
Sleight, June p. 26
Sobocinski, PSC, Witold,
Nov. p. 58
Soffer, Oren, July p. 24
SPECIALIZED CINEMATOGRAPHY
Buddy Thunderstruck,
April p. 28
Dunkirk, Aug. pp. 30, 34, 36
“Surveying the Virtual
World,” March p. 56
SPECIAL VENUE
“Polish-Disco Fever,” Nov.
p. 64
“Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
p. 58
Spinotti, ASC, AIC, Dante,
Nov. p. 58
Sprenger, Christian, April
p. 94
Stand, The, March p. 14
Storaro, ASC, AIC, Vittorio,
June p. 122, Dec. p. 100
Stump, ASC, David, March
p. 56; Sept. pp. 32, 34,
36, 42; Oct. p. 20
Suburbicon, Dec. p. 62
SUPER 8MM
Closer, Jan. p. 14
SUPER 16MM
God Knows Where I Am,
June p. 96
Hidden Figures, Jan.
p. 70
Jackie, Jan. p. 90
La La Land, Jan. p. 56
Lucy Rose, “No Good at
All,” Sept. p. 26
Mother!, Nov. p. 30
Wall, The, June p. 20
SUPER 35MM
Childhood of a Leader,
The, March p. 48
La La Land, Jan. p. 56
Mother!, Nov. p. 30
Nocturnal Animals,
March p. 65
Roman J. Israel, Esq.,
Dec. p. 62
Wonderstruck, Oct. p. 30
Wonder Woman, July
p. 28
Sutherland, Emmett, Jan.
p. 14
T2 Trainspotting, March
p. 32
Tattersall, Gale, May p. 20
TELEVISION
American Gods, Sept.
pp. 32, 34, 36, 42
December 2017 121
 Better Call Saul, July Whale Wars, Aug. p. 68 Calhoun, John “Paradise Lost,” June
p. 42 Wiegand, ASC, Lisa, April “A Family’s Passion,” p. 50
Buddy Thunderstruck, p. 66, July p. 18 Jan. p. 82 “Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
April p. 28 Willems, ASC, SBC, Jo, Sept. “Speed of Light,” July p. 58
Chicago Justice, April pp. 32, 36 p. 68 “Railway Romance,”
p. 66 Windon, ASC, ACS, Stephen Charters, ASC, CSC, NZCS, May p. 14
Genius, July p. 68 F., July p. 86 Rodney “Rap Fusion,” Oct. p. 24
Grace and Frankie, Wise, Aaron, April p. 28 “Switching in Style “Rising Stars of Cine-
May p. 20 Wolski, ASC, Dariusz, June Between TV and matography,” Feb.
Handmaid’s Tale, The, p. 50 Features,” May p. 75 p. 14
June p. 80 Wonderstruck, Oct. p. 30 Dillon, Mark “Spirit Awards Salute
I’m Dying Up Here, Sept. Wonder Wheel, Dec. “Between Heaven and Cinematography,”
p. 80 p. 100 Hell,” April p. 36 March p. 46
Iron Fist, April p. 52 Wonder Woman, July p. 28 “City of Stars,” Jan. p. 56 “Timeless Romance,”
Last Man on Earth, The, Wu, Ed, Feb. p. 14, June “Cosmic Avengers,” June Dec. p. 90
April p. 94 p. 26 p. 34 Heuring, David
Last Tycoon, The, Aug. Xiaoding, CSC, Zhao, March “Delta Blues,” Dec. p. 78 “Not Quite Human,” May
p. 42 p. 20 “East Meets West,” p. 30
Manhunt: Unabomber, Yatsko, ASC, Thomas, May March p. 20 “Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
Oct. p. 56 p. 86 “Fear Itself,” Oct. p. 46 p. 58
Outlander, Oct. p. 66 Yedlin, ASC, Steve, Feb. “A Warrior Rises,” July Hogg, Trevor
Path, The, April p. 22 p. 95, Dec. p. 126 p. 28 “Question of Faith,” April
Peaky Blinders, Sept. Yeoman, ASC, Robert, Nov. Fish, Andrew p. 22
p. 66 p. 58 “Funny Business,” Sept. Holben, Jay
Preacher, April p. 36 Young, ASC, Bradford, Feb. p. 80 “HPA Celebrates Accom-
“Shot From the Heart,” p. 94 Friedberg, Lionel plishments in Post,”
Feb. p. 64 Young Pope, The, May In Memoriam, Nov. p. 85 Jan. p. 96
Six, April p. 80 p. 24 Garrison, Gavin Shot Craft, July p. 14,
Whale Wars, Aug. p. 68 Zeitlinger, ASC, BVK, Peter, “Drones Lend an Antarc- Aug. p. 18, Sept.
Young Pope, The, May March p. 66 tic Advantage,” Aug. p. 16, Oct. p. 14, Nov.
p. 24 p. 68 p. 14, Dec. p. 18
Thor: Ragnarok, Dec. p. 50 Index by Author Goldman, Michael “Trouble at Home,” Nov.
Tiernan, ISC, Darran, Sept. “Arri’s Second Century,” p. 24
pp. 32, 34, 36, 42 Bergery, Benjamin Sept. p. 96 “War Story,” June p. 20
Tran, Quyen, Feb. p. 14 “Imagination for All “CBS Digital Supports Hunt, Aaron
Van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC, Ages,” Oct. p. 30 The Last Man on “Camera-Department
Hoyte, Aug. pp. 30, 34, 36 “Polish Hospitality,” Earth,” April p. 94 POV,” Dec. p. 92
Van Oostrum, ASC, Kees, Nov. p. 58 “Great Escape,” Aug. Kadner, Noah
Jan. p. 106, Aug. p. 78 “Practical Optics: Intro- p. 30 “Hammer Time,” Dec.
Vasyanov, RGC, Roman, June duction to Anamor- “Inside Panavision’s Opti- p. 50
p. 20 phic,” May p. 62 cal Engineering,” Aug. “Street Fighter,” April
Vermeer, Pieter, Feb. p. 14 “Rebel Assault,” Feb. p. 34 p. 52
Vincent, ASC, Amy, Jan. p. 30 “Polish Hospitality,” Nov. “Surveying the Virtual
p. 106 “Time of Grief,” Jan. p. 58 World,” March p. 56
Vincent, Lyle, July p. 60 p. 90 “Practical Lighting Kaufman, Debra
Von Puttkamer, Peter, March Bosley, Rachael K. Approach,” Aug. p. 36 “Student Honors,” Jan.
p. 74 “Darkness Gains Dimen- “Shot Across the Bow,” p. 14
Walker, Alasdair, Oct. p. 66 sion,” July p. 42 June p. 62 “Weight of the World,”
Walker, ASC, ACS, Mandy, “Shot From the Heart,” Gray, Simon June p. 14
Jan. p. 70, March p. 68, Feb. p. 64 “Killer’s Keeper,” Sept. Kogge, Michael
July p. 86, Nov. p. 46 “Uncanny Valley,” Dec. p. 52 “Youth Movement,” Dec.
Wall, The, June p. 20 p. 36 Hemphill, Jim p. 28
Walters, BSC, Nigel, Nov. “Worlds Apart,” Jan. “At Home and at War,” Kuzma, Darek
p. 68 p. 38 April p. 80 “Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
Watkinson, Colin, June p. 80 Brinker, Kelly “Classic Hollywood,” p. 58
Watters, ISC, Cathal, Sept. “A Dog’s Life,” April p. 28 Aug. p. 42 Lachman, ASC, Ed
p. 66 “Love Is a Battlefield,” “Directing Sleight,” June “Imagination for All
Wegner, Ari, July p. 52 Oct. p. 66 digital Ages,” Oct. p. 30
Wexler, ASC, Haskell, Jan. “‘Stoodio’ Lighting,” April “Magic and Mystery,” Marcks, Iain
p. 106 digital June p. 26 “Dark Hospitality,” Aug.
p. 50
122 December 2017 American Cinematographer
 “Devil in the Details,”
Oct. p. 56
“French Evolution,” Feb.
p. 72
“Lust for Light,” March
p. 32
“A New Testament,” Nov.
p. 30
“Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
p. 58
“Quotidian Vision,” Jan.
p. 22
“Rules of Engagement,”
June p. 80
“Time Immemorial,” May
p. 44
McLane, Betsy A.
“A Soul’s Story,” June
p. 96
“Standing Together,”
March p. 14
Mulcahey, Matt
“Cannibal Run,” July
p. 60
“Legal Power,” April p. 66
Oppenheimer, Jean
“In the Cold,” Nov. p. 46
“Living Situation,” May
p. 20
“Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
p. 58
“Shooting on Location,”
March p. 64
“Stellar Calculations,”
Jan. p. 70
Pizzello, Stephen
“Polish-Disco Fever,” Nov.
p. 64
“Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
p. 58
Prevost, Lauretta
“Childhood Interrupted,”
Aug. p. 26
Rhodes, Phil
“Asylum Seekers,” March
p. 26
“Family Strife,” Jan. p. 30
“Last Action Hero,” May
digital
“Mean Streets,” Sept.
p. 66
“Vintage Style,” Sept.
p. 26
Schruers, Fred
“Survival Story,” May
p. 54
Silberg, Jon
“Masterful Vision,” Feb.
p. 54
“Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
p. 58
Stettler, Derek
“Deeper Truth,” July p. 24
Storaro, ASC, AIC, Vittorio
“Who’s Afraid of Red,
Green and Blue?” Dec.
p. 100
Stump, ASC, David
“Divine Visions,” Sept.
p. 34
“Sacred and Profane,”
Sept. p. 32
“Second-Unit Style,”
Sept. p. 42
“Standout Sequences,”
Sept. p. 36
Thomson, Patricia
“Crimes of Passion,” July
p. 52
“Energy and Instinct,”
Feb. p. 78
“A New Pope,” May p. 24
Shot Craft, Aug. p. 16
“Strife and Justice,” Dec.
p. 62
Tonguette, Peter
“Personal Touch,” April
p. 14
Von Puttkamer, Peter
“Preserving the Filmmak-
ers’ Legacy,” March
p. 74
Williams, David E.
In Memoriam, May p. 84
Willis, David Alexander
“Canon Opens Burbank
Center,” Nov. p. 78
“Digital Sputnik Launches
Voyager,” Oct. p. 76
“A Storied Camera,” Nov.
p. 70
Witmer, Jon D.
“Haunted House,” Aug.
p. 58
“Imagination for All
Ages,” Oct. p. 30
In Memoriam, May p. 84
“Polish Hospitality,” Nov.
p. 58
“Rebel Assault,” Feb. p. 30
“A Soul at Home,” Aug.
p. 64
www.ascmag.com
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP,
MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION
Title of publication:
AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER
Publication no. 0002-7928
Date of filing: October 16, 2017
Frequency of issue: Monthly
Annual subscription price: $50
Number of issues published annually: 12
Location of known office of publication:
1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028.
Location of the headquarters or general business offices of the
publishers: Same as above.
Names and address of publisher: ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr.,
Hollywood, CA 90028; Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, Stephen Pizzello, 1782
N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028. Owner: ASC Holding Corp.
Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning
or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or
other securities: same as above.
Extent and nature of circulation: Total numbers of copies printed (net
press run): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12
months, 31,920; actual number copies of single issue published nearest to
filing date, 31,500.
Paid and/or requested circulation: Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail
Subscriptions stated on Form 3541: average number of copies each issue
during preceding 12 months, 25,995; actual number of copies of single issue
published nearest to filing date, 26,600.
Paid and/or requested circulation: Sales through dealers and carriers,
street vendors and counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution: aver-
age number copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 4,250; actual
number of copies single issue published nearest to filing date, 4,150.
Total paid and/or requested circulation: average number copies each
issue during preceding 12 months, 30,245; actual number copies of single
issue published nearest to filing date, 30,750.
Nonrequested copies distributed outside the mail (samples, compli-
mentary and other free copies): average number of copies each issue
during preceding 12 months, 1,450; actual number copies of single issue
published nearest to filing date, 600.
Total nonrequested distributions: average number of copies each issue
during preceding 12 months, 1,450; actual number copies of single issue
published nearest to filing date, 600.
Total distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding
12 months, 31,695; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest
to filing date, 31,350.
Copies not distributed (office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled
after printing): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12
months, 225; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to
filing date, 150.
Total: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months,
31,920; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing
date, 31,500.
Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: average number of copies
each issue during preceding 12 months, 95%; actual number of copies of
single issue published nearest to filing date, 98%.
I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete.
— Stephen Pizzello, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher
December 2017 123
 MEMBERSHIP ROSTER
OFFICERS – 2017-’18 ACTIVE MEMBERS Jack Cooperman Robbie Greenberg Jimmy Lindsey
Kees van Oostrum Thomas Ackerman Jack Couffer David Greene Robert F. Liu
President Lance Acord Jeff Cronenweth Xavier Grobet Walt Lloyd
Marshall Adams Richard Crudo Alexander Gruszynski Bruce Logan
Bill Bennett Javier Aguirresarobe Dean R. Cundey Rob Hahn Gordon Lonsdale
1st Vice President Lloyd Ahern II Stefan Czapsky Henner Hofmann Emmanuel Lubezki
John Simmons Russ Alsobrook David Darby Adam Holender Julio G. Macat
2nd Vice President Howard A. Anderson III Allen Daviau Ernie Holzman Glen MacPherson
James Anderson Roger Deakins John C. Hora Paul Maibaum
Cynthia Pusheck Peter Anderson Jan de Bont Tom Houghton Constantine Makris
3rd Vice President Tony Askins Thomas Del Ruth Gil Hubbs Denis Maloney
Levie Isaacks Christopher Baffa Bruno Delbonnel Paul Hughen Isidore Mankofsky
Treasurer James Bagdonas Peter Deming Shane Hurlbut Christopher Manley
King Baggot Jim Denault Tom Hurwitz Michael D. Margulies
David Darby
John Bailey Caleb Deschanel Judy Irola Barry Markowitz
Secretary
Florian Ballhaus Ron Dexter Mark Irwin Steve Mason
Isidore Mankofsky Michael Barrett Craig DiBona Levie Isaacks Clark Mathis
Sergeant-at-Arms Andrzej Bartkowiak George Spiro Dibie Peter James Don McAlpine
John Bartley Ernest Dickerson Johnny E. Jensen Don McCuaig
MEMBERS Gary Baum Billy Dickson Matthew Jensen Michael McDonough
OF THE BOARD Bojan Bazelli Bill Dill Jon Joffin Seamus McGarvey
Paul Cameron Affonso Beato Anthony Dod Mantle Frank Johnson Robert McLachlan
Russell Carpenter Mat Beck Mark Doering-Powell Shelly Johnson Geary McLeod
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Curtis Clark
Bill Bennett Stuart Dryburgh Adam Kane Steve McNutt
Richard Crudo Bert Dunk Stephen M. Katz Terry K. Meade
Andres Berenguer
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Victor J. Kemper Steven Bernstein Richard Edlund Wayne Kennan Rexford Metz
Stephen Lighthill Ross Berryman Eagle Egilsson Francis Kenny Anastas Michos
Karl-Walter Lindenlaub Josh Bleibtreu Frederick Elmes Glenn Kershaw Gregory Middleton
Roberto Schaefer Oliver Bokelberg Robert Elswit Darius Khondji David Miller
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ALTERNATES Stephen H. Burum John C. Flinn III George Koblasa Donald M. Morgan
Bill Butler Anna Foerster Lajos Koltai Kramer Morgenthau
Dean Cundey
Frank B. Byers Larry Fong Pete Kozachik Rachel Morrison
Lowell Peterson Patrick Cady Ron Fortunato Neil Krepela Peter Moss
Steven Fierberg Sharon Calahan Greig Fraser Willy Kurant David Moxness
Stephen Burum Antonio Calvache Jonathan Freeman Ellen M. Kuras M. David Mullen
Mandy Walker Paul Cameron Tak Fujimoto Christian La Fountaine Dennis Muren
Gary Capo Alex Funke George La Fountaine Fred Murphy
Russell P. Carpenter Steve Gainer Edward Lachman Hiro Narita
James L. Carter Robert Gantz Jacek Laskus Guillermo Navarro
Lula Carvalho Ron Garcia Dan Laustsen Michael B. Negrin
Alan Caso David Geddes Rob Legato James Neihouse
Vanja Černjul Dejan Georgevich Denis Lenoir Bill Neil
Michael Chapman Michael Goi John R. Leonetti Alex Nepomniaschy
Rodney Charters Stephen Goldblatt Matthew Leonetti John Newby
Enrique Chediak Adriano Goldman Philippe LeSourd Yuri Neyman
Christopher Chomyn Paul Goldsmith Peter Levy Sam Nicholson
James A. Chressanthis Dana Gonzales Matthew Libatique Crescenzo Notarile
T.C. Christensen Nathaniel Goodman Charlie Lieberman David B. Nowell
Joan Churchill Victor Goss Stephen Lighthill Rene Ohashi
Curtis Clark Jack Green Karl Walter Lindenlaub Daryn Okada
Peter L. Collister Adam Greenberg John Lindley Jules O’Loughlin

124 December 2017 American Cinematographer

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Thomas Olgeirsson Steven V. Silver Ralph Woolsey David Dodson Lou Levinson Jim Roudebush
Woody Omens John Simmons Peter Wunstorf Judith Doherty Suzanne Lezotte Bill Russell
Michael D. O’Shea Sandi Sissel Tom Yatsko Peter Doyle Grant Loucks Chris Russo
Vince Pace Santosh Sivan Steve Yedlin Cyril Drabinsky Howard Lukk Kish Sadhvani
Anthony Palmieri Michael Slovis Robert Yeoman Jesse Dylan Andy Maltz Dan Sasaki
Phedon Papamichael Dennis L. Smith Bradford Young Kavon Elhami Gary Mandle Steve Schklair
Daniel Pearl Roland “Ozzie” Smith Richard Yuricich Seth Emmons Steven E. Manios Jr. Peter K. Schnitzler
Brian Pearson Reed Smoot Peter Zeitlinger Jonathan Erland Steven E. Manios Sr. Walter Schonfeld
Edward J. Pei Bing Sokolsky Jerzy Zielinski Ray Feeney Chris Mankofsky Wayne Schulman
James Pergola Peter Sova Kenneth Zunder William Feightner Michael Mansouri Alexander Schwarz
Dave Perkal Glynn Speeckaert Chris Fetner Gray Marshall Steven Scott
Lowell Peterson Dante Spinotti ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Jimmy Fisher Peter Martin Yang Shao
Wally Pfister Buddy Squires Pete Abel Thomas Fletcher Robert Mastronardi Alec Shapiro
Sean MacLeod Phillips Terry Stacey Rich Abel Claude Gagnon Joe Matza Don Shapiro
Bill Pope Eric Steelberg Alan Albert Benjamin Gervais Albert Mayer Jr. Milton R. Shefter
Steven Poster Ueli Steiger Richard Aschman Salvatore Giarratano Bill McDonald Ryan Sheridan
Michael A. Price Peter Stein Gerhard Baier John A. Gresch Dennis McDonald Marc Shipman-Mueller
Tom Priestley Jr. Tom Stern Kay Baker Dan Hammond Karen McHugh Leon Silverman
Rodrigo Prieto Robert M. Stevens Joseph J. Ball Jim Hannafin Andy McIntyre Rob Sim
Robert Primes David Stockton Amnon Band Bill Hansard Jr. Stan Miller Garrett Smith
Frank Prinzi Rogier Stoffers Carly M. Barber Lisa Harp Walter H. Mills Timothy E. Smith
Christopher Probst Vittorio Storaro Craig Barron Richard Hart George Milton Kimberly Snyder
Cynthia Pusheck Gavin Struthers Thomas M. Barron Robert Harvey Mike Mimaki Stefan Sonnenfeld
Richard Quinlan David Stump Larry Barton Michael Hatzer Michael Morelli Michael Sowa
Declan Quinn Tim Suhrstedt Wolfgang Baumler Josh Haynie Dash Morrison John L. Sprung
Earl Rath Peter Suschitzky Bob Beitcher Fritz Heinzle Nolan Murdock Joseph N. Tawil
Richard Rawlings Jr. Attila Szalay Mark Bender Charles Herzfeld Dan Muscarella Ira Tiffen
Frank Raymond Masanobu Takayanagi Bruce Berke Larry Hezzelwood Iain A. Neil Steve Tiffen
Tami Reiker Jonathan Taylor Steven A. Blakely Sean Hise Otto Nemenz Arthur Tostado
Robert Richardson Rodney Taylor Joseph Bogacz Frieder Hochheim Ernst Nettmann Jeffrey Treanor
Anthony B. Richmond William Taylor Jill Bogdanowicz Bob Hoffman Tony Ngai Bill Turner
Tom Richmond Romeo Tirone Mitchell Bogdanowicz Vinny Hogan Jeff Okun Stephan Ukas-Bradley
Antonio Riestra John Toll Jens Bogehegn Cliff Hsui Marty Oppenheimer Mark van Horne
Bill Roe Mario Tosi Michael Bravin Robert C. Hummel Walt Ordway Dedo Weigert
Owen Roizman Salvatore Totino Simon Broad Zoë Iltsopoulos-Borys Ahmad Ouri Marc Weigert
Pete Romano Luciano Tovoli Michael Brodersen Jim Jannard Michael Parker Steve Weiss
Giuseppe Rotunno Jost Vacano William Brodersen George Joblove Dhanendra Patel Alex Wengert
Philippe Rousselot Stijn van der Veken Garrett Brown Tor Johansen Snehal Patel Evans Wetmore
Juan Ruiz-Anchia Theo van de Sande Terry Brown Joel Johnson Gary Paz Franz Wieser
Marvin Rush Eric van Haren Noman Reid Burns Eric Johnston Eliott Peck Beverly Wood
Paul Ryan Hoyte van Hoytema Vincent Carabello John Johnston Kristin Petrovich Jan Yarbrough
Eric Saarinen Kees van Oostrum Jim Carter Mike Kanfer Ed Phillips Hoyt Yeatman
Alik Sakharov Checco Varese Elisabetta Cartoni Andreas Kaufmann Nick Phillips Irwin M. Young
Mikael Salomon Ron Vargas Martin Cayzer Marker Karahadian Tyler Phillips Michael Zacharia
Paul Sarossy Mark Vargo Leonard Chapman Frank Kay Joshua Pines Bob Zahn
Roberto Schaefer Amelia Vincent Mark Chiolis Dan Keaton Jorg Pohlman Nazir Zaidi
Tobias Schliessler William Wages Michael Cioni Michael Keegan Carl Porcello Michael Zakula
Aaron Schneider Fabian Wagner Denny Clairmont Debbie Kennard Sherri Potter Joachim Zell
Nancy Schreiber Roy H. Wagner Adam Clark Glenn Kennel Howard Preston Les Zellan
Fred Schuler Mandy Walker Cary Clayton Robert Keslow Sarah Priestnall
John Schwartzman Michael Watkins Dave Cole Lori Killam David Pringle HONORARY MEMBERS
John Seale Michael Weaver Michael Condon Douglas Kirkland Doug Pruss Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
Christian Sebaldt William “Billy” Webb Grover Crisp Mark Kirkland David Reisner Col. Michael Collins
Joaquin Sedillo Mark Weingartner Peter Crithary Scott Klein Christopher Reyna Bob Fisher
Dean Semler Jonathan West Daniel Curry Timothy J. Knapp Colin Ritchie David MacDonald
Ben Seresin Jack Whitman Marc Dando Franz Kraus Eric G. Rodli Cpt. Bruce McCandless II
Eduardo Serra Lisa Wiegand Ross Danielson Karl Kresser Domenic Rom Larry Mole Parker
Steven Shaw Jo Willems Carlos D. DeMattos Ross La Manna Andy Romanoff D. Brian Spruill
Lawrence Sher Stephen F. Windon Gary Demos Jarred Land Frederic Rose Marek Zydowicz
Richard Shore Alexander Witt Mato Der Avanessian Chuck Lee Daniel Rosen
Newton Thomas Sigel Dariusz Wolski Kevin Dillon Doug Leighton Dana Ross

www.ascmag.com December 2017 125

 CLUBHOUSE
NEWS
Left: Stephen Pizzello (right) accepts the Technicolor William A. Fraker Cinematography Journalist of the
Year Award. Right: AC received two top honors at the Folio: Eddie Awards.
Yedlin, Silverman Welcomed to
AMPAS Sci-Tech Council
Steve Yedlin, ASC and associate
member Leon Silverman recently
accepted invitations to join the Science and
Technology Council of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nafees
Bin Zafar, Maryann Brandon, Bill Corso,
Andrea Kalas and Ai-Ling Lee also
accepted invitations, bringing the Council’s
2017-’18 membership to 25. They join
Council co-chairs Craig Barron — an
Academy governor and ASC associate —
and Paul Debevec; Academy President
John Bailey, ASC; fellow Society members
David Stump and Bill Taylor; associate
members Rob Hummel, Joshua Pines
and Beverly Wood; and fellow Council
members Wendy Aylsworth, Rob Bredow,
Annie Chang, Douglas Greenfield, John
Knoll, Beverly Pasterczyk, Cary Phillips,
Doug Roble, Steve Sullivan and Michael
Tronick.
Schaefer Presents IALD Keynote
Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC
recently delivered a keynote address at the
International Association of Lighting
Designers 17th Annual Enlighten Americas
conference, which was held in Denver,
Colo. Sponsored by LED Linear, Schaefer’s
keynote — titled “The Key to the Light Is in
the Dark” — focused on cinematography
and lighting for storytelling and emotions.
126 December 2017
Enlighten Americas is an interna-
tional event focusing on the unique educa-
tional and networking needs of lighting
designers. Both emerging and established
professionals benefit from the event’s
advanced educational sessions, which are
led by thought leaders in the field of light-
ing, and meaningful networking with
peers and partners from around the world.
More Coffee, More
Conversations
The Society recently held two
“Coffee and Conversation” events at the
Clubhouse in Hollywood. New active
member Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF
discussed his work on the feature The
Shape of Water, which AC will be covering
next month. Directed by Guillermo del Toro,
the movie received the Golden Lion for Best
Film at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
Ed Lachman, ASC also participated
in the popular interview series, discussing
his work on Wonderstruck (AC Oct. ’17),
his latest feature collaboration with direc-
tor Todd Haynes.
Both sessions were moderated by
AC contributor Jim Hemphill.
Bennett, Pizzello Saluted
at ECA Luncheon
The International Cinematogra-
phers Guild recently held its 2017 Emerg-
ing Cinematographers Awards luncheon
American Cinematographer
at the ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood. Local
600 President Steven Poster, ASC
opened the event, which — in addition to
recognizing this year’s group of talented
upcoming directors of photography —
presented three special awards. The Canon
Award for Advancement in Digital Technol-
ogy, presented by ASC associate Tim
Smith, went to the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences for the group’s
continued efforts with ACES. Presented by
Stephen Lighthill, ASC, the Mentor of
the Year Award was given to Bill Bennett,
ASC, for his exemplary work with young
filmmakers. The Technicolor William A.
Fraker Cinematography Journalist of the
Year Award was given to AC editor-in-chief
and publisher Stephen Pizzello, recognizing
his outstanding work in documenting the
art and craft of cinematography.
AC Wins Folio: Honors
American Cinematographer came
away with top accolades from the recent
Folio: Eddie Awards. Recognizing editorial
excellence, the awards were presented
during the Folio: Show’s awards luncheon,
Photo of Clubhouse by Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; lighting by Donald M. Morgan, ASC.
which was held at the Hilton Midtown in
New York City on Oct. 11. In the B-to-B
Media/Entertainment category, the January
‘17 issue, featuring Silence, took top
honors for Best Full Issue; June ‘17, featur-
ing Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, and
March ‘17, featuring T2 Trainspotting,
each received an honorable mention. Addi-
tionally, Iain Marcks’ article on T2
Trainspotting (“Lust for Light,” March ‘17)
took top honors for Best Single Article;
Mark Dillon’s coverage of La La Land (“City
of Stars,” Jan. ‘17) and David Heuring’s
story on the series Empire (“Family Busi-
ness,” Oct. ‘16) received honorable
Folio: photo by Iain Marcks.
mentions.
For further coverage and additional
news, visit theasc.com/asc/news.
●
 CLOSE-UP
Patrick Cady, ASC
When you were a child, what film
made the strongest impression on
you?
Watching Peter Pan in the Aurora Theatre
in western New York, and my dad’s child-
like expression when the pirate ship floated
into the night sky at the end. For that
moment, he was a fellow kid. The next
time my whole family felt like that was
watching Star Wars.
Which cinematographers, past or
present, do you most admire?
Owen Roizman, ASC, for his sense of naturalism that reflected story.
The first movie I worked on was shot by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC —
I just love his lighting. Also, a tumble of first names that any film fan
should know: Haskell, Conrad and Slawomir. I am amazed at how
much beautifully executed work there is out there today, by my
mentors, my peers, and students.
What sparked your interest in photography?
My Grandpa Frank. He was the photographer of the family. Then
Ithaca College handed me a Filmo, a Sekonic, and a can of Kodak
reversal film and I never looked back — even though I had no idea
how the meter worked.
Where did you train and/or study?
Ithaca College, NYU’s Tisch School, labeling cases for Robin Brown
and Robin Melhuish, hauling cable for Eric Schmidt. Andy Watts and
Paul ‘Conan’ Bolles taught me how to not electrocute myself. Maybe
I should have led with them.
Who were your early teachers or mentors?
My middle-school teachers encouraged me that a country kid could
actually end up working in the movie business. I learned from a slew
of wonderful cinematographers in the Nineties when I was a gaffer.
Sol Negrin, ASC and [honorary ASC member] Larry Parker have
mentored me in both film and family.
What are some of your key artistic influences?
That is always changing. Robert Frank, Caravaggio, Eggleston. The
light in Monet’s ‘Haystacks.’
How did you get your first break in the business?
Sarah Green was producing with Maggie Renzi for John Sayles, and I
was ‘adopted’ by that wonderful group. I would sleep on the floor of
John’s writing room if I worked really late, because the buses ran so
infrequently. From there I served as camera intern on Passion Fish.
Years later, I met Karyn Kusama, which led to my shooting Girlfight.
128 December 2017 American Cinematographer
What has been your most satisfying
moment on a project?
I was shocked at how wonderful the
response to Girlfight was at Sundance. To
have the audiences react so well was really
special.
Have you made any memorable blun-
ders?
Oh boy — ahem, no.
What is the best professional advice
you’ve ever received?
Roger Deakins told me to go to school and shoot everything I could
instead of trying to work as a loader. I ended up working as an electri-
cian and shooting everything I could at the same time — but that was
great advice. Learn by doing. I also had a friend tell me, ‘Love what you
do, not what you have done.’
What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?
Director Tim Hunter introduced me to photographer Todd Hido’s work.
I recently saw the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-
Time, which was very inspiring and wonderfully designed. I think it’s crit-
ical to experience different ways we tell stories to each other. Connect-
ing creatively with each other is a victory of being human.
Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to
try?
I love film noir. I don’t know how you would categorize Krzysztof Kies-
lowski, or Fellini, or the Brothers Quay — magical realism? I’d like to
shoot a movie that isn’t afraid to have some wonder about it.
If you weren’t a cinematographer, what might you be doing
instead?
House painting? I very seriously considered steel sculpture while at
Ithaca College. My fantastic professor Ray Ghirardo just retired this year.
Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for member-
ship?
Sol Negrin, Michael Watkins and M. David Mullen.
How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
Some of my happiest off-set career moments have been at the ASC
Clubhouse or during the awards ceremony. Before I was even a
member, getting to talk shop with all these amazing cinematographers
was — and is — very special. I love that the ASC is working hard to be
a beacon for all new cinematographers to come and do the same. Also,
seeing the initials after my name on a slate makes me wonder how I got
so damn lucky. It makes me work hard to represent the Society as well
as I possibly can. ●