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For up-to-the-minute screening information go to: Awards.FilmInFocus.com
2009 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.
man
serious
a
####.
ONE OF THE COEN BROTHERS BEST AND MOST PERSONAL FILMS.
BEAUTIFULLY PHOTOGRAPHED BY ROGER DEAKINS. ITS A MOVIE MITZVAH.
-LOU LUMENICK, NEW YORK POST
BEST PICTURE
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY ROGER DEAKINS, ASC, BSC
SERIOUSLY.
For up-to-the-minute screening information go to: Awards.FilmInFocus.com
BEST
ANIMATED
FEATURE
Directed By Henry Selick
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Pete Kozachik, ASC
A VISUAL MARVEL.
Gorgeous to watch in all its dazzling
stop-motion animation splendor.
Coralines exquisite images have
an undeniable whimsical appeal,
and director Henry Selicks
imagination is indisputable.
Claudia Puig, USAToday
is the first-ever stop-motion animated
feature to be conceived and shot entirely in Stereoscopic 3-D.
For Your Consideration In All Categories Including
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On The Office, our shots must
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Director and Cinematographer Randall Einhorn
is a two-time Emmy nominee for his work on
the series Survivor. He has shot and/or directed
over 113 episodes of The Office and directed
episodes of series including Modern Family,
Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Parks and
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36 Remixing Fellini
Dion Beebe, ASC trips the light fantastic with the
musical extravaganza Nine
48 A Tapestry of Textures
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC combines three formats
on Broken Embraces
60 Healing a Family
Fred Elmes, ASC captures sibling rivalry in Brothers
70 An Exceptionally Sly Fox
Tristan Oliver illuminates Fantastic Mr. Fox
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8 Editors Note
10 Presidents Desk
12 Short Takes: We Are ODST
18 Tomorrows Technology
22 Production Slate: Red Cliff
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
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D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 V O L . 9 0 N O . 1 2
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4
Gorgeous. An Achievement. Shot in the Most Pristine Black and White
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Looks a Series of Gelatin-Tin Photographs from the Start of the 19th Century.
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6
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
TOM STERN, ASC, AFC
F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N
T
he musical is back, ladies and gentlemen! So
declared an effusive Hugh Jackman during his
duties as host at this years Academy Awards,
which he kicked off by singing and dancing his way
through an exuberant production number. While
Jackmans prophecy has yet to unleash a stampede
of hoofers, Nine will undoubtedly excite the base.
A lavish extravaganza based on a Broadway show
that salutes Fellinis 8 , the film reteamed Dion
Beebe, ASC, ACS with director Rob Marshall the
gents behind Chicago, which won the 2002 Oscar for
Best Picture. Most of the movies big numbers were
shot on the massive H Stage at Englands Shepperton Studios, where Beebe and his
collaborators strove to create a variety of diverse settings and looks. As Beebe tells
AC contributing writer Noah Kadner (Remixing Fellini, page 36), We found ways
to change the architecture of the space by adding specific set pieces for specific
songs, building the choreography around certain parts of the set and creating multi-
ple lighting changes. The many resulting moods help to convey the existential
angst of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a movie director who has lost touch with
his muse.
Filmmaking is also the main theme of Broken Embraces, which paired
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC with Pedro Almodvar. In Patricia Thomsons detailed
account of the production, Prieto explains his strategy for mixing three formats:
35mm anamorphic, standard 35mm and Super 16mm. I had ideas about using
lighting and film stocks to establish certain visual styles for each character, his or
her environment and the different time periods, Prieto recalls. There are so many
layers in this movie, and I found that interesting to play with. I presented Pedro with
various ideas, mainly as a starting point of discussion so I could hear his vision.
Fred Elmes, ASC lent his support to director Jim Sheridan on Brothers, a
drama in which sibling rivalry threatens to tear a marriage apart. In David Heurings
article (Healing a Family, page 60), Elmes notes that Sheridans reputation as an
actors director is well founded: Jims focus is on the evolution of the characters,
and all of our discussions and decisions grew out of that. He works very instinctu-
ally. Whenever an issue comes up on set, whether it concerns story or design or
character, he spontaneously finds the creative solution; he has so fully internalized
the lives of the characters, he is able to do that.
Cinematographer Tristan Oliver and director Wes Anderson faced a very
different set of parameters on Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop-motion comedy that found
them coaxing memorable performances from handcrafted puppets. In a compre-
hensive discussion with London correspondent Mark Hope-Jones (An Exception-
ally Sly Fox, page 70), Oliver notes that Andersons unique sensibilities and pref-
erences impacted every frame: Wes didnt want any live-action elements in the
film at all. For example, instead of shooting a live-action smoke element against
black and then dropping it in, we made cotton-wool smoke by hand. It became quite
an interesting challenge. The result of all this meticulous labor is a droll, fleet-
footed caper that fascinates the eye.
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
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Editors Note
8
Please visit
www.twcawards.com
for more information
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
I
n this industry, we are constantly asked about the best (and worst) projects weve worked
on. Usually, the best is the most artistically satisfying. The worst tends to center around
a bad relationship with someone on a production.
I have a best project. It wasnt an especially great piece of cinematography; it wasnt
a groundbreaking script; it didnt have hugely famous actors or an exotic location. But it
remains the best experience in my career as a cinematographer.
In the summer of 2000, I got a call from a producer with whom I had done a few
feature films in the past. She had a $750,000 project that would be shot in Vega, Texas, a
town of 800 people. It was called What Matters Most, and it appeared to be a fairly conven-
tional Romeo-and-Juliet-type love story about a rich boy and a poor girl who fall in love
despite their parents objections. Salaries for everyone involved would be rather low, and
the closest accommodations to the filming location had only one telephone outside by
the motel office.
I had already agreed to shoot another film before I got this call, so it was easy to say no. The producer pleaded with me to
meet with Jane Cusumano, the writer/director, and at least talk about the project. I met with Jane later that same day. She
explained that the film was a labor of love for her entire family; her daughter, Polly, would be the star, and her husband, Jim, would
be the executive producer. Jim had liquidated a couple of his companies to get the money, and they would start shooting in three
weeks. As the line producer had been hired just two days earlier, this seemed like quite a short amount of prep for a film shoot-
ing on a remote location.
Jane went on to explain that she had advanced breast cancer. She was undergoing chemotherapy, but her condition was
worsening, and it was estimated that she only had several more months to live. What Matters Most was the legacy of love and
hope that she wanted to leave her family. She needed a cinematographer who would be comfortable taking the reins and guid-
ing the production on days when she was disoriented from treatment, a cinematographer who would be tolerant of the fact that
she would not be able to understand even simple things on some days. And she needed someone to protect her vision of the film.
Jane said the producer had told her I was the right person, and she had no intention of disputing that opinion, nor did she have
the time to start looking at a hundred reels.
That night, I did what I never do: I backed out of a job I had committed to. The next morning, I got on a plane to Texas.
What Matters Most was the biggest thing to hit Vega, Texas, since the opening of Route 66. The entire town turned out to
watch us shoot. For the Cusumano family, production was a mix of professionalism and a visit to Disneyland. One day, Jane asked
me if Jim could have a ride on the crane because he had always wanted to see what it was like. We gave him a seat and boomed
him up over a massive field of cows, and he snapped pictures like a happy kid.
Jane and I had a wonderful collaboration. It wasnt always easy. At times I could sense her frustration when she didnt
comprehend what I was saying, even though I would repeat it slowly and simply. But she always focused on my every word, and
she had great, creative ideas for the film. On her chemotherapy days, the assistant director and I would schedule fewer scenes
so that Jane would miss as little of the experience as possible.
I gave my color-timing notes for the answer print just before I left to shoot a movie in Morocco. A week later, I got a call
from Jim saying that Jane had passed away three days after seeing the final answer print. He said she laughed at the humorous
scenes and gazed in wonder at the sweeping shots of the Texas landscape at sunrise. And she was so proud of her daughters
performance. When the film was over, she told Jim, Tell Michael thank you.
A happy holiday season to you and yours, and may the coming year be filled with many of your own best experiences.
Michael Goi, ASC
President
Presidents Desk
10 December 2009
F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N
Philippe Rousselot, AFC, ASC
W
ar is hell, but for a soldier its a way
of life. In the Halo: We Are ODST
trailer, director Rupert Sanders and
cinematographer Greig Fraser attempt to
imbue a video game about war with
some of the hell of realistic battle. War
films are a favorite subject for Sanders,
who also directed 2008s Halo: Believe
ad. Believe was about fighting along-
side a hero, he says. With ODST I
wanted to examine what compels a
soldier to fight.
We Are ODST tells the story of a
soldier named Tarkov. As a young boy, he
attends a military funeral, which inspires
him to sign up for the United Nations
Space Commands elite Orbital Drop
Shock Trooper Squad. After succeeding
in boot camp, he endures years of
combat against an alien race known as
the Covenant and grows into a battle-
hardened veteran.
Sanders drew inspiration for
ODST from news footage captured by
journalists and filmmakers embedded in
various areas of Iraq. Not wishing to
appear jingoistic, the filmmakers chose
to shoot in a non-specific setting (actu-
ally near Budapest, Hungary), placing
European actors in the most other-
worldly locales they could find. Rupert
and I worked hard to find interesting
locations, says Fraser. Halo is set in a
foreign, futuristic world, so we tried to
find oddly futuristic locations. We even
considered filming at Chernobyl! He
found his inspiration for ODST in Russ-
ian cinema, specifically the World War II
drama Come and See and the sci-fi
thriller Stalker. He even used a set of
lenses made in St. Petersburg, Optica
Elite primes.
The production shot for three
days, using minimal crew and equip-
ment. The first scene they filmed was
the military funeral, set in an intergalac-
tic cathedral of concrete and steel; in
actuality, it was the base of a cooling
tower for a decommissioned nuclear-
power plant in Hungary, dressed with
gravestones (repainted road markers
rigged with Bic lighters) and an open
grave. That place was real its a
concrete funnel that goes 600 feet
straight into the heavens, says Fraser.
Part of the joy of shooting there was
that we had everything we needed, but
if wed pointed the camera in the wrong
direction, we would have given away
the game.
Frasers primary concern was
maintaining balanced compositions, and
he strove to keep extraneous informa-
tion out of the 1.78:1 frame while retain-
ing a sense of place. There was almost
no lighting to be done. We talked about
bringing in construction cranes with
hundreds of kilowatts of light on them,
but the biggest film crew in the world
An Ambitious Trailer for Halo
by Iain Stasukevich
Short Takes
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The trailer for
Halo: We Are
ODST follows a
soldier through
his years with
the United
Nations Space
Commands
Orbital Drop
Shock Trooper
Squad,
examining what
compels him to
battle the alien
race known as
the Covenant.
12 December 2009
Robert Richardson, ASC
Please visit www.twcawards.comfor more information Artwork 2009 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.
for your consideration
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, shot by
Robert Richardson, stands as an
expertly crafted and gorgeous
piece of moviemaking.
Rene Rodriguez, MIAMI HERALD
dodging explosions and engaging
monstrous enemy combatants. Fraser
and Sanders had a single day to stage
the ambitious scenario, so they
employed guerilla tactics: shooting
handheld with no filtration and using
natural light and mostly practical
effects. For the alien world, the produc-
tion dug out pits in a coalmine location
and filled them with water and orange
dye. The explosions and fires are all
real, as are the alien Brutes (designed by
the Stan Winston Co., which also built
the ODST armor). We tried to keep the
camera moving convincingly with
Tarkov, either behind him or alongside in
a tracking vehicle, Fraser explains.
When film crews went out with Amer-
ican soldiers, they stayed behind the
soldiers the whole way. They were
never in front of them.
The battle was covered with two
Arri 235s, with Fraser following the
action from behind with an EasyRig
while Hungarian Martin Szecsanov
operated the second camera from a
tracking vehicle. I wanted to make the
camera one of them, says Fraser, refer-
ring to the embedded photographers. If
Id hung back and used longer lenses,
the viewer would feel more distant from
the subject, so I used wider lenses close
up, anywhere from a 40mm to a 25mm
prime. The tracking camera used some-
thing a bit longer. (He shot the trailer on
three Kodak stocks, Vision2 50D 5201
and 250D 5205 and Vision3 500T 5219.)
The battles climax arrives when
Tarkov is stopped in his tracks by a hulk-
ing Covenant Brute. It knocks the soldier
down and looms over him, ready to kill.
To sell the terror of the moment,
Sanders had the Brute slathered with
mud and K-Y jelly and had Fraser shoot
it tight and aggressively.
Tarkovs life is spared when an
alien ship swoops out of the sky and
fires a missile that fells the giant beast.
CGI was created by Asylum Effects
under the direction of visual-effects
supervisor Rob Moggach. We knew
from the beginning that we were going
to do CG ships, laser blasts, muzzle
flashes, explosion enhancement and
environment extensions, says
14 December 2009
couldnt physically light that place, he
says. He ended up using available light,
accentuating it with a silver-and-white-
checkered 12'x12' bounce.
The scene ends with a close-up
of young Tarkovs face, then match-cuts
to an older Tarkov at a recruiting facility
an industrial compound outside
Budapest as a barber shaves his
head. Tarkov is put through a punishing
training regimen, which includes a mock
combat drill in which the soldiers crawl
under barbed wire with a bellowing
instructor firing live rounds over their
heads. This scene was shot at night,
and Fraser looked for a night-vision
effect to heighten its realism. Because
he was shooting on 35mm, he brought
in some strong green LED units and
cobbled together a circular rig that could
be mounted to the camera to shoot light
straight at the actors. The pale, mono-
chromatic image mimics the night-
vision look and even picks up some
glints in the eyes. A lot of what we
were doing was improvised, notes
Sanders. Its like cooking with only
what you have in the fridge.
Tarkovs training ends when he is
dropped into a scorched landscape and
armed for battle. His orbital drop pod
hits the ground in the middle of the fray
where ODST soldiers are already
advancing across the alien terrain,
Above:
Cinematographer
Greig Fraser
captures the
soldiers
encounter with a
Covenant Brute
with an Arri 235
mounted on an
EasyRig. The Stan
Winston Co.
designed and
built the Brutes
and the ODST
armor. Below: The
ground-combat
sequence was
shot at a coalmine
in a single day
with natural light
and mostly
practical effects.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
K
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.
ing with John as his cinematogra-
pher. How did the collaboration
come about?
Lu Yue: I first met John in the
summer of 1991 in Paris, when he shot
his gangster film Once a Thief. I was
living in the city as an art student, and I
worked for him as a translator in the
lighting crew. In 2006, producers Hu
Xiaofeng and Lora Yan Chen recom-
mended me to John for Red Cliff. Later,
producer Terrence Chang saw some
rushes of my work on Assembly,
directed by Feng Xiaogang, and he then
reintroduced me to John.
John Woo: Ive loved Lu Yues
work. The way he lit To Live is so realis-
tic and dramatic, and I wanted to make
Red Cliff realistic because it is also a
character-driven movie.
I also need a cinematographer
who really cares about the actors face
and about the performance. Lu Yue
really cares, and he can make an actor
even more of a character I think he
uses magic! Hes artistic, and he is a
gentleman very calm, very nice. He
never loses his temper. I really like to
work with intelligent gentlemen.
Were there specific visual
references you turned to for inspi-
ration on Red Cliff?
Lu: During preproduction, I
watched relevant historical films and
war films, such as Apocalypse Now,
The Longest Day and Das Boot. I also
watched John Woos works from both
Hong Kong and the U.S., like Face/Off
and Windtalkers [AC June 02], in order
to adapt myself to his visual style.
Woo: There are three movies I
showed to the cinematographers and
production designer [Tim Yip]: Lawrence
of Arabia, Spartacus and The Seven
Samurai. Ive always dreamed of
making a movie like Lawrence of Arabia
and creating that kind of CinemaScope
feel. Theres a huge fight scene on the
ground in Red Cliff where [the warlords
forces employ a defensive technique
called] the turtle formation; that scene
was inspired by Spartacus. Im not very
good at any language, so to communi-
cate with my crew, I think its best to
show movies!
The sequence with the turtle
formation the Battle of San Jiang
Kou begins with Sun Shangxi-
ang [Zhao Wei] leading a group of
riders on horseback, who kick up a
massive dust cloud to confuse Cao
Cao [Zhang Fengyi] and his
soldiers. How much of the dust
thats seen onscreen did you actu-
ally have to contend with at the
location?
Lu: San Jiang Kou was shot at a
reservoir in Yi Xian County and at a mili-
tary tank-training base. The battle is
supposed to happen in one day, but
shooting it took six months even
with three units! About 70 percent of
the dust storm was added in post, but
dirt and dust are inevitable in kung-fu
films, so Chinese filmmakers are quite
Cao Cao (Zhang
Fengyi) surveys
his camp at
Crow Forest,
just across the
Yangtze River
from Red Cliff.
The camp was
designed by
production
designer Tim Yip
and constructed
in Yi Xian in
Hebei Province.
24 December 2009
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Ki
used to dealing with it. We have a lot of
plastic zipper bags and trash bags [to
protect the equipment], and Ill put an
[optical flat] on the camera lens,
although otherwise I dislike using filtra-
tion.
Did the dust affect the light-
ing enough to require any addi-
tional fixtures be used for the day
exterior?
Lu: Rather than bring in addi-
tional lighting, we spent more time in
the digital intermediate. I was lucky to
have experienced colorists at Park Road,
and I want to thank [colorists] David
Hollingsworth and Clare Burlinson and
[head of digital intermediate] Adam
Scott. They did a great job and showed
a lot of patience; I had to work on
almost every shot to maintain visual
continuity.
In the films first battle
sequence, Changban Village is
burned to the ground. Did you
supplement the practical fire with
any fixtures?
Lu: In order to save money on
CGI, we almost burnt the village down
to ashes, and I really didnt need to
supplement the flames with any lighting
fixtures. Then, with the DI, it was not
that difficult to maintain lighting conti-
nuity. For kung-fu films, you have to rely
on bouncing and flagging the natural
light for day exteriors because action
directors change the camera angles all
the time.
How long did you have to
shoot the Changban sequence?
Lu: Because the actors had
different schedules, it was hard to get
them all together to shoot the large
scenes. The Changban sequence took
four months to shoot, and the battle at
Red Cliff took six months. We went from
having green leaves to snow.
The battle at Red Cliff begins
at night. What fixtures did you and
gaffer Ji Jian Min use to create the
moonlight source?
Lu: For night scenes, I often use
Par 64-by-24s, and for the Red Cliff
battle, we set up 16 of those on a
nearby hill.
When you had to leave the
26 December 2009
Top: In
preparation for
war, Zhuge
Liang (Takeshi
Kaneshiro)
tricks Cao Caos
archers into
sharing their
arrows with Sun
Quans army.
Middle: Xiao
Qiao (Chiling
Lin), wife of Sun
Quans viceroy,
Zhou Yu, travels
to Crow Forest
to stall Cao Cao
from launching
his attack.
Bottom: Cao
Caos naval
stockade sets
sail against the
forces at Red
Cliff.
2
0
0
9
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S
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production, were you able to
discuss your approach with Zhang
Li?
Lu: Zhang Li was a schoolmate of
mine at the Beijing Film Academy, and
he is also a good friend; we have been
sharing and appreciating each others
works for three decades. As soon as he
entered CCTVs studio in Zhou Zhou
County [where several sets were
constructed], he automatically knew the
framing, the camera movement and the
lighting fixtures to use.
Woo: I hadnt worked with Li
before, but Id seen his movies. He is a
great cinematographer and also a great
director. He is slightly different than Lu
Yue; Zhang Li wants everything to look
rich, and he likes to brighten things he
likes, even if its something small in the
corner. Lu Yue likes painting, and Zhang
Li likes movement he likes the big
crane and the big tracking shots. But
when Zhang Li took over, he combined
his style with the work Lu Yue had done.
He didnt want Red Cliff to feel like two
different movies. I told him what I told
Lu Yue: I wanted the film to look realis-
tic and to be about the characters. Other
Chinese historical films seem heavy,
and I didnt want to make Red Cliff that
way. I wanted to make it more of a
personal movie, about humanity, and
send an anti-war message. I intended to
make it a very encouraging film because
the story is about friendship, courage
and wisdom. I felt we were all making
the same movie.
The camera is incredibly
kinetic throughout Red Cliff, as it is
in much of your work. How do you
work with the cinematographer to
decide on the appropriate move-
ment for a particular shot?
Woo: First of all, I let my cine-
matographer know I love musicals, and I
like to shoot films, even action
sequences, to look like a musical. Thats
why I like dolly and crane shots: to give
the movie the musical feel. But I also
respect the cinematographer; if he feels
he wants to use the crane or the dolly,
thats what well use.
There are also a few
moments in this film where you
punctuate the drama by zooming in
to a close-up of a character. Do you
feel there is a different meaning
associated with zooming as
opposed to pushing in on a dolly?
Lu: I advised John Woo not to
use the zoom any more, but that was his
beloved method!
Woo: We tried to use the zoom
lens emotionally, to make a visual
impact. Sometimes, too, we used the
zoom lens to feel like a dolly shot,
depending on the location and whether
we could lay track. In action scenes, I
always like tight shots; I like to try
making it in Kurosawas style, and we
would use the zoom lens to get the tele-
photo feel. Its a very useful lens. When
Im making a film, I dont much follow
the rules; I just want it to be what I feel.
For example, the dissolve is usually used
for time change, but I like to use the
dissolve for emotional reasons; to me, it
feels so elegant, so romantic, and it
works to make the musical feel. When
Im editing a scene or thinking of a scene
or shooting a scene, I envision the music,
and if I turn a shot into slow motion or
use a dissolve or a freeze frame, its all
based on my feeling. I will use whatever
technique feels musical or lyrical.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Super 35mm
Arri 435; Arricam Studio, Lite
Cooke S4 primes;
Cooke and Angenieux zooms
Kodak Vision2 250D 5205, 500T 5218
Digital Intermediate
28 December 2009
Woo (center in
both photos)
leads cast and
crew through
the films first
battle
sequence,
which results in
Liu Beis army
retreating from
Xin Ye City.
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30 December 2009
A Tennessee Williams
Original
by Iain Stasukevich
Tennessee Williams The Loss of
a Teardrop Diamond takes place in the
waning years of the Roaring Twenties
and tells the story of Fisher Willow
(Bryce Dallas Howard), a young South-
erner struggling to free herself from
Memphis high society and the corrupt
legacy of her father. After being pres-
sured by her Aunt Cornelia (Ann-
Margret) to attend a season of debu-
tante parties, Fisher chooses Jimmy
Dobyne (Chris Evans), a handsome, salt-
of-the earth man working on her fathers
plantation, to be her escort. Their differ-
ences are more than just financial, but
they are drawn to each other.
As a Southerner and lifelong fan
of Williams work, director Jodie
Markell felt a kinship with the script,
which was originally written for Elia
Kazan to direct. (The project was never
produced.) I wanted to wrestle
Williams back from Masterpiece
Theatre, she says. He was always
edgy and on the fringe, but these days
people dont think of him in that way. In
the script, she continues, you can feel
Williams exploring how to tell a story in
a way he couldnt in plays. I feel like he
was enthralled by the idea of letting his
characters go out into the world as
opposed to being stuck in one setting.
Like Markell, cinematographer
Giles Nuttgens, BSC wanted to give the
material as much room to breathe as
possible, which is why he suggested
filming in the anamorphic format.
When shooting in Scope, the edges
are just as important as the middle of
the frame, says Nuttgens. I make full
use of both edges. If the characters are
always in the center, the audience can
get lulled into a false sense of security,
but if theyre working the whole frame,
it energizes the scene and forces the
audience to follow the action. Markell
adds, We really liked the idea that two
characters could share the frame and
interact for long periods of time without
[us] cutting away.
Production designers Richard
Hoover and David Stein worked on the
film, with Hoover, who had designed
theatrical productions of Williams The
Glass Menagerie and Not About
Nightingales, the first on the job. Loca-
tions were scouted in Louisiana, where
Baton Rouge and Donaldsonville even-
tually filled in for Memphis, Tenn. The
story needed a luxurious, hot, swampy
Southern feel, and Memphis today is
too modern, explains Stein. Many of
the scouted locations were old enough
to be period correct, and in most cases,
the New Orleans-based crew was able
to move right in without making too
many changes. Our resources were
limited, but we tried to give the movie a
very strong sense of place, says
Hoover. It was all about what we could
find and what we could add to it.
To create a look that wouldnt
appear too modern, Nuttgens chose
Panavisions E-Series lenses and used
Tiffen White Pro-Mist filters to soften
contrast. A hyper-contrasty look
belongs to today, and modern audiences
Right: Fisher
Willow (Bryce
Dallas Howard)
struggles to
escape high
society and her
family legacy in
The Loss of a
Teardrop
Diamond, shot
by Giles
Nuttgens, BSC.
Below: The
filmmakers
chose locations
in Baton
Rouge and
Donaldsonville
in Louisiana to
stand in for
1920s Memphis,
Tenn.
T
h
e
L
o
s
s
o
f
a
T
e
a
r
d
r
o
p
D
i
a
m
o
n
d
p
h
o
t
o
s
a
n
d
f
r
a
m
e
g
r
a
b
s
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
P
a
l
a
d
i
n
.
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32 December 2009
are getting used to really sharp images,
he notes. I didnt want either of those
things. I wanted to maintain the full lati-
tude of the film stock we were using.
When filming began, the filmmakers
werent planning on finishing with a
digital intermediate, so Nuttgens care-
fully controlled filtration, lighting ratios
and printing levels to create the images
he and Markell had in mind. (After prin-
cipal photography wrapped, production
decided to do a DI; colorist John
Dowdell at New Yorks Goldcrest Post
worked on the digital grade.)
Special consideration had to be
paid to what the light would look like at
a debutante ball in 1928. Film lights and
practicals were kept warm. Many of the
locations were historic sites, which
meant that the production couldnt
mount fixtures to the walls or hang them
from the ceilings. Lighting from the floor
indoors posed some challenges when it
came to blocking the actors and the
camera. I try to limit my imprint on the
set, says Nuttgens, who does his own
operating. I feel an actor should come
into a set that feels completely real, and
if theyre surrounded by technology, that
works against them. Often the camera
had to do 180-degree pans, and it was
difficult to get the ambience that would
allow the actors to work completely free
of distractions.
Nuttgens relied heavily on practi-
cals and used as few lamps and flags as
possible. For day interiors on the planta-
tion where Fisher and her aunt live, he
keyed from windows, using 18K HMIs
through two 12'x12' layers of Full Grid.
He found that this sufficiently diffused
the light but still gave him a proper
exposure. (All interiors were shot on
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219.) Day exteri-
ors, filmed on Kodak Vision2 100T 5212,
Top: The
filmmakers
often blocked
action so it
would play on
both edges of
the anamorphic
frame, as seen
in this frame
grab of Ann-
Margret. If the
characters are
always in the
center, the
audience can
get lulled into a
false sense of
security, but if
theyre working
the whole
frame, it
energizes the
scene and
forces the
audience to
follow the
action, says
Nuttgens.
Middle: In
keeping with
the period feel
for the
debutante
parties,
Nuttgens kept
his sources
warm. Bottom:
Nuttgens
employed a
Tiffen White
Pro-Mist filter
to soften the
contrast for this
encounter
between Jimmy
Dobyne (Chris
Evans) and
Willow.
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34 December 2009
were lit the same way. Night exteriors
were lit with tungsten Maxi-Brutes
through Full Grid. Whatever we did had
to work within the restrictions of the real
period locations, says Nuttgens. We
had 28 days to shoot the entire film, and
we werent always able to prelight,
which put an enormous amount of pres-
sure on the crew.
Whereas Fishers life is idyllic,
Jimmy lives with his alcoholic father in a
ramshackle cabin, and his mother lives
in a local mental asylum. Nuttgens gave
the asylum a darker, colder look than the
films other settings. A mental asylum
is a terrible place, and it was probably
worse in the 1920s, he muses. We lit
the location with HMIs shooting through
windows, with no fill, and I underex-
posed by two-thirds of a stop on the key
side. We used very clear, hard light to
cast shadows across the wall.
After weeks of dragging Jimmy
to parties in an effort to win his affec-
tion, Fisher convinces him to take her to
one more, a Halloween party. They
bicker on the way there, and Fisher
leaps from the car as they arrive, losing
one of her aunts diamond earrings in the
process. She blames Jimmy in front of
everyone and disappears in a huff to the
second floor. There, she turns to her
friends bedridden Aunt Addie (Ellen
Burstyn) for comfort. For this scene,
which comprises about eight pages of
dialogue, Markell and Nuttgens devised
a slightly stylized approach. As Fisher
sits at the side of the bed, she falls into
a reverie, and as she wonders aloud, the
lights in the room (4K softboxes and 2K
Chinese lanterns) dim until only Fisher is
visible, with a single shaft of light hitting
her face. Its a very long scene, and I
wanted to give it a different feel, like a
portal opening into another world, says
Markell. Adds Nuttgens, There needed
to be some kind of visual shift, a theatri-
cal one, during her long monologue, and
a lighting cue was the only way we
could do it. He considered using a
follow-spot for the effect, but opted
instead for a snooted 2K Fresnel through
250 diffusion.
The Halloween party scene
marked the only time the filmmakers
were able to obtain permission to pre-
rig the location. Key grip Richard Ball
rigged the main hall with beams, and
gaffer Paul Olinde hung 4K softboxes
that could be used interchangeably as
key lights, fill and backlights. More soft-
boxes and 2K Chinese lanterns were
rigged in the parlor. We used about 12
softboxes overall, says Nuttgens.
With 5219, that kept us at about T4 the
whole time.
Reluctant to return to the party
after her outburst, Fisher helps herself to
some opium from Addies medicine cabi-
net. She goes downstairs to find that
everything has changed. To suggest her
altered state of mind, Nuttgens crew
covered the softboxes with Fire Red gels
and the floor-level Chinese lanterns with
CTS. She is supposed to be glowing
her perception of the world has
changed, says the cinematographer.
Her spatial awareness changes greatly,
and we had to convey that without
effects.
Despite the projects challenges,
I think everyone involved with it was
enticed by the great Southern poet,
Nuttgens concludes. When youre
working from a script written by
Tennessee Williams, you approach it
with a certain amount of reverence.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Anamorphic 35mm
Panaflex Platinum
Panavision E-Series lenses
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219,
Vision2 100T 5212
Digital Intermediate
Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
I
Above: Willow
climbs the steps
to a Halloween
party, the last
ball of the
season. Below:
Nuttgens
(holding
viewfinder) and
director Jodie
Markell prepare
for the party.
36 December 2009
Fellinis autobiographical film 8,
concerns a movie director, Guido
Contini (played by Daniel Day-
Lewis), whose professional and
personal crises collide through a
series of real and imagined encoun-
ters with the significant women in
his life.
Rob knew he wanted to make
another musical, and he was consid-
ering a number of different projects,
recalls Beebe, who also shot Memoirs
of a Geisha for the director (AC Jan.
06). Nine is essentially a narrative
drama with an amazing cast [includ-
ing Nicole Kidman, Penlope Cruz,
Judi Dench and Sophia Loren], and
the material had a lot of visual
The lavish musical
Nine, photographed
by Dion Beebe, ASC,
ACS, pays homage
to Fellinis landmark
film 8
1
2.
The lavish musical
Nine, photographed
by Dion Beebe, ASC,
ACS, pays homage
to Fellinis landmark
film 8
1
2.
by Noah Kadner
Unit photography by
David James, SMPSP
Remixin
g
Fellini
Remixin
g
Fellini
B
ased on the Tony Award-
winning musical that opened
on Broadway in 1982, the new
film Nine marks the latest
collaboration between direc-
tor Rob Marshall and cinematogra-
pher Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS, who
first teamed on Chicago (AC Feb.
03). The story, inspired by Federico
American Cinematographer 37
potential. Guido is a famous but
tortured director who cant cope with
situations of his own making. Hes on
the verge of a breakdown, and his
escape into fantasy becomes our
language to transition between musi-
cal numbers and the unfolding
drama.
To help prepare for the project,
Beebe screened several of Fellinis
films, including 8, but we were
very careful to not reference that film
directly, he says. All of Fellinis films
are so original, and no one could ever
remake 8. We looked for the spirit
and imagination of his approach.
What also became important for us
was how to best re-create 1960s Italy
in todays North London.
Nine was shot mostly onstage
at Shepperton Studios, with some
location work done in and around
London, followed by a month of
location work in Rome. Beebes main
camera crew comprised A-
camera/Steadicam operator George
Richmond, 1st AC Jonathan
Richmond, gaffer John Biggles
Higgins and B-camera operator
Damien Beebe, the cinematogra-
phers brother.
The Panavised Arri camera
package Arricam Studios and
Lites and Arri 235s was supplied
by Panavision U.K. I knew I wanted
to use the [Arri] 235 for some hand-
held work, explains Beebe, and I
also wanted to stick with Panavision
Primo lenses because I like how they
handle looking directly into lights
and the way they handle flares.
In order to maximize shooting
time on the musical numbers, Beebe
usually worked with multiple
cameras and zoom lenses. We always
had two to three camera units going
on the bigger numbers, and on two
songs we ran four cameras, he recalls.
Opposite: Movie
director Guido
Contini (Daniel
Day-Lewis)
struggles to
summon his
creative muse.
This page, top:
Overhead
lighting defines
a production
number that
illuminates
Guidos inner
turmoil. Bottom:
Italian screen
siren Sophia
Loren portrays
Guidos mother.
P
h
o
t
o
s
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
T
h
e
W
e
i
n
s
t
e
i
n
C
o
.
Right: In an
homage to a key
scene in Fellinis
8, the crew
captures a
black-and-white
flashback to
Guidos
childhood and
his pivotal
encounter with
the prostitute
Saraghina (Stacy
Ferguson).
Below: The
films black-and-
white sequences
were shot in true
black-and-white
on Eastman
Double-X stock.
38 December 2009
Most of the movie, about 75
percent, was shot from 30-foot and
50-foot Technocranes with Scorpio
Stabilized Heads, Arrow jibs and
dollies. Id say about 5 percent was
shot with a Steadicam, and the rest
was handheld. We used handheld on
the story elements to retain the
energy when we were transitioning in
and out of the musical numbers.
George Richmond recalls,
Typically, wed shoot a number in
London over two to four days and
then move on to other scenes to give
the art department some time to turn
the set around. Wed tech-rehearse
and finesse lighting over a couple of
days and then run the number from
beginning to end for the cameras.
Wed start with a wide-angle pass,
then do medium and close passes.
Finally, wed come in for specific
moments we didnt get from those
three perspectives.
Nine was shot in 3-perf Super
35mm for a final aspect ratio of
2.40:1. The most obvious reason to
shoot 3-perf is to save a little money,
of course, but it also made sense
because we knew wed finish with a
digital intermediate, says Beebe.
With Super 35, you never use that
extra portion of the negative,
anyway; the only thing you lose is
the ability to rack up and down in
post, but Im happy to make that
Remixing Fellini
commitment to the framing.
Some portions of the story are
Guidos flashbacks to his childhood,
and these are presented in black-and-
white. Marshall and Beebe advocated
shooting on black-and-white nega-
tive instead of the more common
practice of shooting color and drain-
ing the color out in post. Beebe
explains, We wanted to create a
language to distinguish Guidos actual
memories from his fantasies, and
shooting real black-and-white was
also a nod to the period and Fellini.
Theres a very distinct look and grain
structure to black-and-white negative
thats hard to emulate with a color
negative. I felt it was a difference
worth fighting for, and Rob agreed.
Our first day of shooting was a flash-
back sequence set on the beach at
Camber Sands in Sussex. When
[producer] Harvey Weinstein saw the
dailies, he said wed made the right
choice.
The principal challenge of Nine
was enacting its 14 musical numbers,
all of which are set primarily in a
massive soundstage H Stage, the
largest stage at Shepperton. The big
question for Rob, [choreographer]
John De Luca, [costume designer]
Colleen Atwood, [production
designer] John Myhre and myself
was how to have all those numbers
play out in one space and keep things
fresh. We found ways to change the
architecture of the space by adding
specific set pieces for specific songs,
building the choreography around
certain parts of the set and creating
multiple lighting changes.
As he did on Chicago, Beebe
enlisted a theatrical-lighting specialist
to assist with the musical numbers.
We brought on Mike Baldassari,
whod worked with Rob on a revival
American Cinematographer 39
Left: Guidos
costume
designer and
confidante, Lily
(Judi Dench),
talks her director
through an
impromptu
therapy
session. Below:
Cinematographer
Dion Beebe,
ASC, ACS (left)
sets up a shot
with director
Rob Marshall.
40 December 2009
of Cabaret on Broadway, says the
cinematographer. Mike and I collab-
orated to plot out the lighting and
technically achieve each number on
our budget prior to commencing any
of the pre-light. We dropped in a
massive grid to accommodate all the
different numbers.
I suggested to Dion that we
set up a large truss layout comprised
of single sticks of truss, says
Baldassari. We decided which types
of fixtures we wanted on each stick,
as though we had an unlimited
amount of gear. Each stick was rigged
and cabled to be completely inde-
pendent, so we could customize the
lighting plot for each number. For
example, after we saw the choreogra-
phy for the opening number, Dion
suggested adding two circle trusses,
which we also used in two other
numbers to give us a different kind of
motion from the moving lights and
to make the grid more song-specific.
Everything was drafted in CAD by
Kristina Kloss using Vectorworks
Spotlight. The lighting system was
patched through an MA lighting
network comprising a full-sized
GrandMa board, a GrandMa light,
four network signal processors that
distributed the commands from
Ethernet to DMX, and numerous
laptop links into the network. Peter
Lambert, a West End theatrical-
production electrician, installed and
maintained the massive system.
The set needed to feel like a
1960s soundstage, so we kept the
modern units hidden above the
period gantry-type fixtures up in the
ceiling, notes Beebe. Everything was
broken into two principal hangings
Right: Most of
the productions
14 musical
numbers were
shot on
Shepperton
Studios massive
H Stage. In
preparing for the
shows
ambitious dance
sequences,
Beebe enlisted
the aid of a
theatrical-
lighting
specialist, Mike
Baldassari, who
helped him to
plan out the
rigging and
logistics. Below:
The number
Overture,
whose lighting
is diagrammed
on the opposite
page.
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s
#
1
0
T
r
u
s
s
#
1
1
T
r
u
s
s
#
1
3
15
'
T
r
u
s
s
#
1
4
T
r
u
s
s
#
1
5
T
r
u
s
s
#
1
8
T
r
u
s
s
#
1
9
T
r
u
s
s
#
2
0
T
r
u
s
s
#
2
1
A l t e r . G R O U P 2 t r u s s p o s . 9 ' - 0 "
o
f S
c
a
ffo
ld
C L
o
f S
c
a
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ld
C
L
T
r
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s
s
#
1
6
o
f S
c
a
f f o
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C
L
o
f S
c
a
f f o
l d
C
L
o
f S
c
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C L
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f S
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CL
T
r
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#
1
2
T
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#
3
O
th
e
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n
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f G
R
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2
a
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s
s
p
o
s
itio
n
T
r
u
s
s
#
2
T
r
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s
s
#
1
7
S 35W
2
5
1
S 35W
2
5
2
S 35W
2
5
3
S 35W
2
5
4
S 3 5 W
2
6
0
S 3 5 W
2
5
9
S 3 5 W
2
5
8
S 3 5 W
2
5
7
S 35W
2
6
5
S 35W
2
6
4
S 35W
2
6
3
S 35W
2
6
2
B
O
A
T
S
S
T
A
G
E
L
E
F
T
B
O
A
T
S
S
T
A
G
E
R
IG
H
T
B O A T S U P S T A G E
S 3 5 W
2
6
1
S 35W
2
5
6
S 35W
2
5
5
S
1
0
5
S
c
a
f D
-1s
t L
e
v
e
l
S
1
0
1
S
1
0
2
S
1
0
3
-See Plate 2 for True Location.
Scaf B-1st Level
S
1
0
4
S
1
0
5
-See Plate 2 for True Location.
S
1
0
6
S
1
0
7
- S
e
e
P
l a
t e
3
f o
r
T
r
u
e
L
o
c
a
t i o
n
.
S
1
0
8
S
1
0
9
S
1
1
0
S
1
1
1
S
c
a
f
A
-
2
n
d
L
e
v
e
l
S
3
S
2
S
1
S
4
S
5
W
1
5
3
W
1
5
4
W
1
5
5
W
1
5
6
W
1
5
2
W
1
5
1
S
1
6
S
1
7
W
1
6
5
W 1
6
6
S
6
3
S
6
4
S
6
5
S
6
2
S
6
1
W
2
1
3
W
2
1
4
W
2
1
5
W
2
1
2
W 2
1
1
W
2
1
0
S
6
9
S
7
0
W
2
2
0
W
2
2
1
S
6
8
S
6
7
S
6
6
W
2
1
9
W
2
1
8
W 2
1
7
W
2
1
6 S
2
7
W
1
7
6
S
4
2 S 4
1
S
4
8
S
4
7
S
4
6
W
1
9
2
W
1
9
1
W
1
9
3
S 4
3
S
4
9
S
5
0
W
1
9
4
S
5
8
S
5
9
S
8
2
S
8
1
S
8
4
S
8
5
S
8
3
S S S S S
S
7
8
S
7
7
S
7
6
S
7
9
S
8
0
S
1
4
S
1
3
S
1
2
S
1
5
W
1
6
3
W
1
6
4
W
1
6
2
W
1
6
1
S
2
4
S
2
3
S
2
2
S
2
1
S
2
5
S
2
6
W
1
7
3
W
1
7
4
W
1
7
5
W
1
7
2
W
1
7
1
W
1
8
7
W
1
8
8
S
3
9
S
4
0
S
3
8
S
3
7
S 3 5 S
8
9
S
8
8
S
9
0
S
3
5
4
S
3
5
3
S
3
5
2
S
3
5
1
S
3
5
5
S
3
5
8
S
3
5
7
S
3
5
6
S
3
5
9
S
3
6
0
S
7
3
S
7
4
S
7
5
S
7
2
S
7
1
S
3
3
S
3
2
S
3
1
S
3
4
S
3
5
S W
2
3
0
S W
2
2
9
S 35S
1
4
2
S 35S
1
4
3
S 35S
1
4
1
S 35S
1
4
4
S 35S
1
4
5
S 35S
1
4
6
S 35S
1
4
8
S 35S
1
4
9
S 35S
1
4
7
S
1
1
S
5
7
S
5
6
S
1
2
8
S
1
2
6
S
1
2
5
S
1
2
2
S
1
2
1
S
1
2
9
S
1
2
8
S
1
2
7
S
1
2
4
S
1
2
3
S
1
3
0
S
1
3
5
S
1
3
2
S
1
3
1
S
1
3
6
S
1
3
9
S
1
3
7
S
1
3
4
S
1
3
3
S
1
3
8
S
1
4
0
W
1
5
8
W
1
5
7
S 3 5 W
3
6
3
S 3 5 W
3
6
4
S 3 5 W
3
6
2
S 3 5 W
3
6
1
S 3 5 W
3
6
9
S 3 5 W
3
7
0
S 3 5 W
3
6
8
S 3 5 W
3
6
7
S 35W
1
8
3
S 35W
1
8
4
S 35W
1
8
5
S 35W
1
8
6
S 35W
1
8
2
S 35W
1
8
1
20k
S 3 5 W
2
0
4
S 3 5 W
2
0
3
S 3 5 W
2
0
2
S 3 5 W
2
0
1
S 3 5 W
2
0
5
S 3 5 W
2
0
6
S 3 5 W
2
2
5
S 3 5 W
2
2
6
S 3 5 W
2
2
7
S 3 5 W
2
2
4
S 3 5 W
2
2
3
S 3 5 W
2
2
2
Typical
Twofer
N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P N S P
P
a
r
T
r
u
s
s
C
e
n
t
e
r
N S P
4
6
6
N S P
4
6
5
N S P
4
6
4
N S P
4
6
3
N S P
4
6
2
N S P
4
6
1
N S P
4
7
2
N S P
4
7
1
N S P
4
7
0
N S P
4
6
9
N S P
4
6
8
N S P
4
6
7
N S P
4
6
0
N S P
4
5
9
N S P
4
5
8
N S P
4
5
7
N S P
4
5
6
N S P
4
5
5
N S P
4
5
4
N S P
4
5
3
N S P
4
5
2
N S P
4
5
1
N S P
4
5
0
N S P
4
4
9
P
a
r
T
r
u
s
s
S
L
Typical
Twofer
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
N S P
4
9
0
N S P
4
8
9
N S P
4
8
8
N S P
4
8
7
N S P
4
8
6
N S P
4
8
5
N S P
4
8
4
N S P
4
8
3
N S P
4
8
2
N S P
4
8
1
N S P
4
8
0
N S P
4
7
9
N S P
4
7
8
N S P
4
7
7
N S P
4
7
6
N S P
4
7
5
N S P
4
7
4
N S P
4
7
3
P
a
r
T
r
u
s
s
S
R
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
T y p i c a l
T w o f e r
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
NSP
4
4
8
NSP
4
4
7
NSP
4
4
6
NSP
4
4
5
NSP
4
4
4
NSP
4
4
3
NSP
4
4
2
NSP
4
4
1
NSP
4
4
0
NSP
4
3
9
NSP
4
3
8
NSP
4
3
7
NSP
4
3
6
NSP
4
3
5
NSP
4
3
4
NSP
4
3
3
NSP
4
3
2
NSP
4
3
1
T
ru
s
s
b
re
a
k
s
h
e
re
fo
r O
v
e
rtu
re
T
r u
s
s
b
r e
a
k
s
h
e
r e
f o
r O
v
e
r t u
r e
T
r u
s
s
b
r e
a
k
s
h
e
r e
f o
r O
v
e
r t u
r e
T
ru
s
s
b
re
a
k
s
h
e
re
fo
r O
v
e
rtu
re
O
V
E
R
T
U
R
E
F
O
L
L
O
W
S
P
O
T
S
2
L
o
n
g
T
h
r
o
w
S
p
o
ts
2
M
e
d
iu
m
T
h
r
o
w
S
p
o
t
s
S
H
O
O
T
O
R
D
E
R
#
1
M
U
S
IC
A
L
#
1
S
S
h
o
o
t
O
r
d
e
r
1
1
3
S
C
A
L
E
:
1
/
4
"
=
1
'
-
0
"
P
A
P
E
R
S
IZ
E
: IS
O
A
0
O
V
E
R
T
U
R
E
M
U
S
I
C
A
L
N
U
M
B
E
R
:
S 35S
1
4
5
S
3
0
1
S
3
1
0
S
3
1
1
S
3
1
2
S
3
0
7
S
3
0
9
S 3
0
8
S
3
0
4
S
3
0
3
S
3
0
2
S
3
0
5
S
3
0
6
S
1
4
S
1
3
S
7
3
S
7
4
S
7
5
S
7
8
S
7
7
S
7
9
S
3
3
S
3
2
S
3
4
S
3
7
S
5
7
S
5
6
S
5
3
S
5
2
S
5
1
S
5
4
S
5
5
S
3
S
2
S
4
S
2
4
S
2
3
S
3
9
S
4
0
S
3
8
S
3
5
W
1
7
3
W
1
7
4
W
1
7
2
W
1
8
7
W
1
8
8
S W
2
3
0
S W
2
2
9
S 35S
2
4
1
S 35S
2
4
2
S 35S
2
4
3
S 35S
2
4
4
S 35S
2
4
5
S 35S
2
4
6
S
2
3
1
S
2
3
2
S
2
3
3
S
6
3
S
6
4
S
6
9
S
7
0
S
6
8
S
8
2
S
8
1
S
8
4
S
8
5
S
8
3
S
5
8
S
5
9
S 3 5 S
8
9
S
2
2
S
2
1
S
1
2
6
S
1
2
2
S
1
2
8
S
1
2
4
F
o
r O
V
E
R
T
U
R
E
, P
la
c
e
S
R
F
o
r O
V
E
R
T
U
R
E
, P
la
c
e
S
L
S 3 5 W 2
7
4
-
J
u
m
p
o
v
e
r
w
a
ll
fo
r
O
v
e
r
t
u
r
e
S
1
S
1
S
3
3
2
S
3
3
1
S
3
2
1
S 3
2
2
S
3
3
0
S 3
2
3
S
3
2
7
S
3
2
8
S
3
2
6
S
3
2
5
S
3
2
9 S
3
2
4
11
9 13
G
u
a
r
d
a
L
a
L
u
n
a
M
U
S
IC
A
L
N
U
M
B
E
R
S
:
S
H
O
O
T
O
R
D
E
R
T
IT
L
E
#
1
#
2
6
#
3
2
#
4
3
#
5
#
6
8
M
U
S
IC
A
L
#
O
v
e
r
t
u
r
e
B
e
It
a
lia
n
G
u
id
o
's
S
o
n
g
A
C
a
ll F
r
o
m
t
h
e
V
a
t
ic
a
n
C
in
e
m
a
It
a
lia
n
o
5
F
o
lie
s
B
e
r
g
r
e
s
#
7
7
#
8
4
O
n
ly
W
it
h
Y
o
u
-
B
s
t
a
g
e
#
9
T
a
k
e
It
A
ll
#
10
F
in
a
le
#
11
1
M
y
H
u
s
b
a
n
d
M
a
k
e
s
M
o
v
ie
s
#
12
12
I C
a
n
't
M
a
k
e
T
h
is
M
o
v
ie
10
#
13
U
n
u
s
u
a
l W
a
y
-
B
s
t
a
g
e
G
R
O
U
P
1 2 3
N
O
T
E
S
1
.
T
h
is
d
r
a
w
in
g
r
e
p
r
e
s
e
n
t
s
p
o
t
e
n
t
ia
l
p
o
s
it
io
n
s
f
o
r
V
a
r
i*L
it
e
s
.
E
x
a
c
t
q
u
a
n
t
it
ie
s
a
r
e
f
a
r
le
s
s
t
h
a
n
a
r
e
s
h
o
w
n
o
n
t
h
is
d
r
a
w
in
g
.
2
.
R
ig
a
n
d
C
a
b
le
a
ll
T
r
u
s
s
e
s
t
o
o
p
e
r
a
t
e
in
d
e
p
e
n
d
e
n
t
ly
.
3
.
P
r
o
v
id
e
e
x
t
r
a
C
ir
c
u
it
s
a
n
d
C
o
n
t
r
o
l
a
t
a
ll
p
o
s
it
io
n
s
.
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
19
4
0
6
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
2 6
4
1
4
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
19
4
1
8 S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
2 6
4
1
5
St ev e Sh e lley 2 0 03
2 6
4
2
3
St ev e Sh e lle y 2 0 03
1 9
4
2
6
St ev e Sh e l l e y 2 0 03
1 9
4
2
7
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
1 9
4
1
8
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
26
4
1
1
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
2 6
4
1
2
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
26
4
0
3
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
19
4
0
5
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
26
4
0
2
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
26
4
0
1
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
19
4
0
7
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
19
4
1
7
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
19
4
1
6
St ev e Sh e lle y 2 0 03
1 9 4
1
9
St ev e Sh e lle y 2 0 03
1 9 4
2
0
St ev e Sh e lle y 2 0 03
2 6
4
2
2
St ev e Sh e lle y 2 0 0 3
1 9
4
2
5
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
26
4
0
4
St ev e Sh e lle y 2 0 03
2 6
4
2
1
St e v e Sh e l l e y 2 0 03
2 6
4
2
4
S t e v e S h e l l e y 2 0 0 3
2 6
4
1
3
American Cinematographer 41
42 December 2009
because we didnt have time to re-
hang everything after each number.
The first accommodated five or six
numbers, the second another five or
six numbers, and finally, we did
specific hangs for the last few
numbers.
The films opening number,
Overture, proved to be one of the
most complex to plan out because it
required most of the cast to be
onstage at the same time. It was a
daunting task to begin with, and
what added to the challenge was
Remixing Fellini
The theatrical-
lighting system
allowed for a
diverse range
of looks. The
top and bottom
photos show
lighting
changes for
Be Italian.
keeping the volume of the space
without anything feeling repetitious,
says Beebe. The song introduces the
style of the movie. We start with the
dark and atmospheric outline of an
incomplete set, which magically
comes to life through Guidos imagi-
nation as he sits alone on a camera
crane. One large Vari-Lite floor unit
projects a silhouette of Claudia
Jensen [Kidman], Guidos muse. She
is completely backlit as she steps into
a toplight, and then we gradually
introduce the frontal spotlight.
Claudia steps down and kisses Guido,
and that sparks a musical cue that
causes the set to come alive. We
slowly push into Guidos face as
multiple lighting cues reveal the
stage. But before were able to escape
into his fantasy, he is interrupted, and
we abruptly return to reality.
Higgins team built custom
strip lights fitted with MR16 bulbs
dubbed Biggles Strips and incor-
porated them into the set with the
help of the production-design team.
We built about 100 strip units in
various sizes, he recalls. They
became an integral part of the set and
really paid off in terms of the speed
and efficiency.
Overture and many of the
subsequent numbers featured up to
30 5K, 10K and 20K MoleBeams
along with Vari-Lite moving lights,
which Beebe used extensively on
Chicago. The entire moving-light rig
was made up of Vari-Lites, and we
used pretty much all of the fixtures in
the Vari-Lite family, says Baldassari.
Rob and Dion knew exactly what
they could do.
In order to match the increas-
ingly complex lighting cues with the
on-set action, Baldassari synchro-
nized the GrandMa lighting consoles
to the time code of the pre-recorded
songs. With a cast like this, I never
wanted lighting to blow a take! he
says. I went to Rob early on and
asked for time code on every music
track so we could tag the light cues
directly to the music. Then, if Rob
F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Javier Aguirresarobe
Please visit
www.twcawards.com
for more information
Cinematographer
Javier Aguirresarobe creates
a frighteningly barren world.
Deborah Young, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
43
took cuts from different takes in the
edit, the lighting for each take would
match perfectly, even if he cut
between two takes with the lighting
in the middle of a fade. Rob, Dion
and I worked on every single cue
together, and we ended up with cue
placements that were adjusted by
eighths of a second. I went to bed
every night saying thank you to the
inventor of time code!
Only With You combines
footage shot in a square in Italy with
a matching set built onstage in
London. In the scene, Claudia is
walking through a village square
toward a fountain, says Beebe. John
Myhre built a replica of the fountain
at Shepperton, matching every chip,
stain and divot in the real thing. We
then lit the square in Italy to match
the lighting wed done in London. We
44 December 2009
fade out on the real square and fade
up on the stage in Guidos fantasy. It
was a complex set of parameters to
replicate, but it was great to watch it
all happen. Higgins adds, We were
looking for a way to get lights into the
fountain, and the solution was ACLs
[Aircraft Landing Lights], which
operate on low voltage. We shot the
stage first and then took all the lights
to Italy and attached them to the real
fountain in the plaza. They matched
up perfectly.
Journalist Stephanie Necro-
phuros (Kate Hudson) enjoys her big
moment during Cinema Italiano,
which sees the stage transformed into
a 1960s fashion runway complete
with paparazzi blazing away with
flashbulbs. The scene was captured
partially in black-and-white and
featured a 12'-deep x 70'-long
runway lit from below. That song
was written especially for the movie
to help energize the relationship
between Guido and Stephanie, says
Beebe. We set up a series of egg
strobes and larger strobe units cued
through the GrandMa board at the
end of the runway to shoot over the
heads of the paparazzi. We mixed in
the black-and-white stock to give the
scene a feel of the 1960s go-go
period.
Our biggest concern in that
number was heat, notes Higgins.
We needed to secure fluorescent
lights that would photograph well
and also find a translucent material
that the dancers could walk on for
the surface of the runway. The art
department procured clear Perspex,
which we covered with Lee 216 diffu-
sion. We obtained off-the-shelf
industrial fluorescents with correc-
tion gels and digital ballasts and
patched them into the DMX boxes.
As soon as Rob called Cut, we could
lower the light levels immediately
and cool everything off.
Folies Bergeres is a number
that features Liliane La Fleur (Dench)
performing as the soundstage trans-
forms into a burlesque theater. It
became a massive transition, chang-
Remixing Fellini
Kate Hudson is
spotlighted in
the exuberant
Cinema
Italiano, for
which the stage
was transformed
into a 1960s
fashion runway,
complete with
paparazzi.
ing the abandoned set into a fantasy
movie theater, recalls Beebe. It was
a big changeover and a big number
to light. Higgins built wagon
wheel battens, 2' and 4' metal strips
fitted with 15 to 20 150-watt diffus-
able bulbs. That number also had
hundreds of bulbs built into a
proscenium that helped to define the
stage, he notes. We then
programmed a number of cues into
them that build through the song.
We also used follow-spots on this
and many other musical numbers.
Our [follow-spot] operators were all
from the West End theater district,
and they were brilliant; they had to
command very subtle fades and
crossovers and lots of complex cues,
as well as adapt to working on a
movie set.
Guido reaches his most
emotional point in I Cant Make
This Movie, a number set in a
screening room; this was shot on
location at the Phoenix Cinema in
London. Its the big crisis point for
Guido his wife finally leaves him,
and hes at an impasse making his
movie, explains Beebe. We transi-
tion from the screening room
through the actual projected image
back onto the soundstage. To make
the projector part of the number
work, we came up with a rear projec-
tion onto sheets of plastic visqueen,
which created a soft, tarnished image.
We threw bells and whistles at a lot of
the numbers, but this one is just
Remixing Fellini
46
The crew films
My Husband
Makes Movies,
which features
a vocal
performance
by actress
Marion Cotillard.
Daniel playing against a projector,
and it just takes your breath away.
During production, select
takes were printed on 35mm by
Technicolor London for the film-
makers to review. Now that the DI is
fairly standard, I create my own list
of selects as we go through the
shooting day, Beebe explains. That
gives me an opportunity to look at
film on the big screen and get a sense
of the numbers and the set. The
production also digitally transferred
all dailies onto Apple TV hard drives
that I would plug into my monitor
and watch at home.
The catch with digital dailies
is that theyre struck straight off the
negative, so youre going to get a little
more openness in the image than the
final print will have, he continues.
Once you make a film print, the
really deep shadows get shut down
and elements at the edge of your lati-
tude go away. I recommend
randomly printing and projecting
dailies on film to see how its trans-
lating on prints to the screen; it
informs and changes how you do
things on the set.
The DI was completed at
Ascent Media London, where Beebe
and colorist Adam Glasman worked
on a DaVinci Resolve. Our
approach was to give many of the
fantasy sequences a dusty-gold tone,
says Beebe. Each musical number
was designed and lit to have its own
color palette, mood and tone. We
were careful not to oversaturate the
picture or crush any of the blacks in
the DI; we preferred detail, dust and
atmosphere in the shadows. We
wanted the world to have texture and
reflect Guidos somewhat troubled
state of mind.
Nine was a very exciting
project that was both a challenge and
a pleasure, he concludes. Early in
my career, I never imagined myself
making movie musicals, and I have
discovered its such a disciplined and
imaginative format. Rob has such a
great eye and great talent that he
elevates the work I do. I look forward
to the next one.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Panavised Arricam Studio, Lite;
PanArri 235
Panavision Primo lenses
Kodak Vision3 200T 5217,
500T 5219;
Eastman Double-X 250D 5222
Digital Intermediate
Printed on Fuji
Eterna-CP 3513DI
47
48 December 2009
C
ombining noir, naturalism,
melodrama and comedy,
Pedro Almodvars Broken
Embraces is the work of a true
cinephile. This is Pedros ode
to filmmaking and cinema, says
director of photography Rodrigo
Prieto, ASC, AMC. The production
itself was a cinematic Chinese box,
incorporating a present-day story-
line, flashbacks, a film-within-the-
film and video footage captured by
an amateur spy. Prieto ultimately
combined three formats
anamorphic 35mm, standard
35mm and Super 16mm to render
the complex narrative.
The story opens by introduc-
ing Harry Caine (Llus Homar), for-
merly known as Mateo Blanco, a film
director who was blinded 14 years
earlier in a car crash that killed his
lover and leading lady, Lena
(Penlope Cruz). The two began their
affair on the set of Caines comedy
Girls and Suitcases while Lena was liv-
ing with wealthy industrialist Ernesto
Martel (Jos Luis Gmez). In an
effort to stay close to Lena, the jealous
Martel offers to produce Caines film.
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC
combines 3 formats for
Pedro Almodvars Broken
Embraces, which recounts
a filmmakers doomed
love affair with his star.
by Patricia Thomson
Unit photography by Emilio Pereda and
Paola Ardizzoni
A Tapestry of
Textures
color is very cultural, notes the
director. I dont have to explain
[Spains colors] to him because he
already carries it inside. If Spain is
baroque in its colors, Mexico is even
more so. Even though this film is
quite somber in some ways, I still
asked for colors that are much
brighter than those I see in film in
general. Having seen Frida, I knew
he would understand. In addition,
Almodvar was impressed with
Prietos handling of darkness in 8
Mile, especially the establishing
night scenes in Detroit, which were
very original. And Alejandro
[Gonzles] Irritu told me
Rodrigo is very collaborative, with
no ego at all.
Almodvar and Prieto began
their six weeks of prep by going
through the script scene-by-scene in
the directors apartment. I had
ideas about using lighting and film
stocks to establish certain visual
styles for each character, his or her
environment and the different time
Moreover, he orders his son, Ernesto
Jr. (Rubn Ochandiano), to shoot a
making-of video so he can spy on
Lena and the director. After produc-
tion wraps, Lena and the director
flee to a seaside bungalow, and
Martel attempts to flush them out
by releasing a disastrous cut of Girls
and Suitcases. The lovers interlude
ends with the fatal car crash, cap-
tured on tape by Ernesto Jr.
Caine recounts this story to
his young assistant, Diego (Tamar
Novas), who is also the son of
Caines production manager, Judit
(Blanca Portillo), and the director
eventually discovers there is more to
the story than he knows.
Almodvar says he invited
Prieto to shoot Broken Embraces
because when he watched the cine-
matographers films, which include
Amores Perros (AC April 01), Frida
(AC Oct. 02), Alexander (AC Nov.
04) and Babel (AC Nov. 06), he
noticed Prietos fearlessness with
color. Rodrigos understanding of
American Cinematographer 49
periods, Prieto recalls. There are so
many layers in this movie, and I
found that interesting to play with. I
presented Pedro with various ideas,
mainly as a starting point of discus-
sion so I could hear his vision.
It wasnt until Prieto shot
tests that he could truly assess
Almodvars reaction, however.
Pedro is not technically oriented
he responds viscerally to visual
impulses so our early conversa-
tions were always just conceptual. I
found the best way to discuss my
ideas was to actually film them for
him.
One thing Almodvar knew
at the outset was that he wanted the
films central narrative to be shot in
anamorphic 35mm, a constant for-
mat in his oeuvre since 1997s Live
Flesh. Im very much interested in
dcor, and [anamorphic] allows you
to see the whole set in all its magni-
tude, explains the director. The
format also permits having a two-
shot and shooting it fairly close. My
Opposite: In
video footage
captured by an
amateur
filmmaker, Lena
(Penlope Cruz)
addresses the
camera to tell
Ernesto Martel
(Jos Luis
Gmez,
foreground) that
their relationship
is over. This
page: After
leaving Martel,
Lena and her
lover, Mateo
Blanco (Lluis
Homar), escape
to a seaside
town.
P
h
o
t
o
s
a
n
d
f
r
a
m
e
g
r
a
b
s
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
E
l
D
e
s
e
o
a
n
d
S
o
n
y
P
i
c
t
u
r
e
s
C
l
a
s
s
i
c
s
.
50 December 2009
ATapestry of Textures
films are quite theatrical, and scenes
often take place between two or
three characters.
For the anamorphic work,
Prieto obtained a Panaflex Millen-
nium from Equipos Profesionales
Cinematogrficos in Madrid and
brought a set of Panavisions G-Series
primes directly from his prior shoot,
State of Play (AC May 09). As always,
Almodvar eschewed zoom lenses, as
well as a B camera. Pedro rarely uses
a second camera, Prieto says. Hes
very much into composition and
carefully designs each shot. Many
scenes were blocked to fit specific
frames or camera moves.
During the 72-day shoot,
Almodvar would typically arrive
on set with a small diagram or two.
From this starting point, the team
would rehearse and figure out cover-
age. Pedro likes to take the
viewfinder and position things in
frame; hes very particular about the
placement of characters, props and
colors, says Prieto. Sometimes the
directors plan was carried out exact-
ly, as in the films first sex scene: the
camera tracks behind Caines pur-
ple-velvet couch and reveals a
womans wriggling foot propped up
on the back of the sofa. Thats very
Pedro he wanted to focus on the
fabric of the couch! says Prieto.
On other occasions, Almo-
dvar would change course with
response to inspiration on set, as in
the scene that shows Lena and
Martel having sex under the sheets.
The directors starting point was a
Magritte painting of a couple kissing
through a sheet, but when he
noticed one of the actors hands
hanging outside the sheet, he imag-
ined a body under a shroud. That
inspired him to rewrite the dialogue
on the spot and introduce the idea
of Martel faking his death to test
Lenas response. Almodvar then
coached Cruz through her reaction
shot as Lena sits on the bed, con-
templating her options. It was
hilarious to hear, recalls Prieto. He
Above: After
Lena is cast in
Blancos new
film, the
suspicious
Martel (right)
signs on as a
producer and
hires a lip-
reader (Lola
Dueas) to
translate MOS
footage of the
pair captured on
the set. Below:
At the hospital,
Lena consults
with her mother
(ngela Molina)
about her
fathers
condition.
was talking to her while we were
shooting as if he were her thoughts:
Hmm, do you think hes dead?
Maybe not , and her acting
matched what he was saying.
Once the actors arrive on set
and Pedro starts to shoot, he is very
intent on directing them in a precise
manner, he adds. He talks to them
a lot and is very exact about the
intonation of the words.
Almodvar would sometimes
talk Prieto through his visual beats
as well. In two dialogue scenes
between Caine and Diego, who
prove to have a more complicated
relationship than either is aware of,
Almodvar didnt want a standard
two-shot, but rather to have the
camera to move back and forth
between them. He wanted the cam-
era to dolly in very specific
moments that did not necessarily
coincide with the dialogue, and hed
cue me when he wanted the camera
to move, says Prieto, who does his
own operating. This pendulum-like
action kept the characters connect-
ed but separate. Theyre connect-
ing, but their bond is still tentative,
observes the cinematographer.
I have very specific taste as to
what goes in my frame, and often it
doesnt coincide with the conven-
tions a camera operator might
have, says Almodvar. Rodrigo
stayed close to me, so he understood
perfectly what frame I wanted. He
notes that Broken Embraces was his
first experience with a director of
photography who also operates the
camera. Its two jobs, but Rodrigo
has very good taste for framing, and
there were some scenes he resolved
because he was on the camera.
A case in point is the passion-
ate encounter between Lena and
Caine in her dressing room.
Rodrigo saved it, says Almodvar.
The director wasnt sure how to
approach the scene, so I proposed
hanging the camera on bungee
cords and just floating it above the
actors, twisting it around to see bits
of their bodies, says Prieto. We shot
a take like that, and Pedro loved it.
Theres virtuosity in this kind
of thing, Almodvar attests. We
were going to do the scene in only
one take, and there are things you
dont want to show when actors are
having sex which Rodrigo had to
maneuver around. Yet he managed
to do it in such a way that by the time
the editor cut it, it looked like a much
longer sequence than a single take.
Hes one of the best cameramen I
know. In some ways, I wish Id had
more traveling shots so we could
have used more of his expertise!
Before any filming could
occur, Almodvar would always
fine-tune the set. Hed spend a fair
amount of time in the morning
rearranging the props removing
things, asking for different curtains
and so on, says Prieto. He couldnt
do anything else until he was com-
fortable with that. I found that inter-
esting because we were playing with
diametrically opposed characters in
different environments and social
strata, yet every set and every cos-
tume reflects Pedros seal, his per-
sonality. So in a way, every character
is Pedro.
When Prieto proposed shoot-
ing scenes set in Martels world on
Fuji Eterna 400T for a more muted
palette with lower contrast,
Almodvar nixed the idea. Prieto
recalls, When I showed him the
tests, he immediately said, I just
dont like it. I tried to point out it
wasnt a matter of liking it; its whats
appropriate for that character, but he
has to like it. It has to be something
he feels comfortable in, even if its
the house of the antagonist! Ive
found that movies are the most
interesting when the director or
writer is really talking about himself
in every character.
Naturalism was the governing
style for Caines world, and Prieto
shot these scenes mainly on Kodak
Vision3 500T 5219. I much prefer it
to [Vision2 500T] 5218 because it
has more guts, more contrast and
bolder colors, notes Prieto.
In Caines apartment, a set
built at Estudios Barajas in Madrid,
the trick was to create an ambience
appropriate for a blind man. Harry
doesnt need to turn on the lights or
have the curtains open, so my chal-
lenge was how to create sourceless
lighting. Prieto devised a number of
strategies, including using Caines
computer as a light source. He
Director Pedro
Almodvar
checks a shot of
Cruz and Gmez
in Martels
office.
American Cinematographer 51
52 December 2009
placed several Rosco LitePads gelled
with various colors directly on the
face of the monitor, and these could
be turned on and off separately to
suggest changing Web pages.
It was Prietos use of sun-
light that Almodvar most appre-
ciated, however. Harrys apart-
ment doesnt look like a set
because the sunlight was handled
so well, says the director. Prieto
created ambient daylight with 2K
Blondes through 12'x12' frames of
Full Grid Cloth plus eggcrates to
prevent spill. But when the scene
called for some tension, as when
Ernesto Jr. visits Caine, Prieto used
a 20K to send a sliver of sunlight
through a crack in the curtains
and light one of Harrys eyes. It
enhances the uncomfortable feel-
ing of the scene and creates a bit of
contrast.
A much different look was
needed for the sequences from Girls
and Suitcases, which was closely
modeled on Almodvars Women
on the Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown (1988). It had to feel
very high-key and Doris Day-style,
says Prieto. He employed several
tactics to achieve this aesthetic.
First, he switched to standard
1.85:1, using spherical Primo lenses
on a Panaflex Platinum. Second, he
used Fuji Eterna Vivid 160 to
achieve more color saturation with
the sets red, yellow and white
palette. Of course, that meant we
had to use much more light, he
notes, adding that the studio had
no air-conditioning. Almodvar,
who was occasionally driven out
onto the sidewalk with a chair and
monitor because of the heat, recalls
that Prieto burned us to a crisp!
Normally, we use one generator;
this time, we needed 10!
Above: Lena and
Chon (Carmen
Machi) enact a
scene in Girls
and Suitcases,
the film Martel
butchers after
Lena leaves him
for the director.
Below: Years
later, the
director, now
blind and using
the alias Harry
Caine, realizes
he might be able
to save the
movie.
ATapestry of Textures
AMC_1209_p033:Layout 1 10/29/09 11:45 AM Page 1
54 December 2009
ATapestry of Textures
Nevertheless, the director liked the
introduction of sunlight into his
dcor. It was quite expensive, but
Rodrigo did it very well, says
Almodvar.
Because Prieto hadnt filmed
comedies before, Girls and Suitcases
was a novel experience. The whole
point of those scenes was high-key
lighting keep it bright, with an
enveloping soft light and sunny
highlights, he says. The crew hung
60 space lights on the sets terrace to
create ambient daylight and placed a
moveable truss outside the faade
with a 24K that projected direct
sunlight into the apartment. We
covered the top of the set with Full
Grid and had several 5Ks above it
for soft toplight. On the floor, Id
bring in a [Kino Flo] Blanket-Lite
and throw an 8-by-8 diffusion over
it for close-ups. We usually flagged
the 24K to keep the sunlight out of
the womens faces; it just crossed
their upper bodies.
By contrast, a noir look pre-
vails in Martels mansion, a set built
in the Los Angeles de San Rafael stu-
dio in Segovia. This mood is most
conspicuous in the sequence when
Martel pushes Lena down the stairs
as she tries to leave him. Initially,
Prieto hung six space lights over the
foyer and staircase and skirted the
units with black Duvatyn. I wanted
to create a soft but directional top-
light, but when we saw the effect,
Pedro and I agreed it wasnt expres-
sive enough. So instead, I used a 10K
Fresnel with the lens removed and
shone it through the banister on top
of the stairs. That projected a sharp
shadow of the banister onto the
stairs and floor. When switching
from wide Technocrane shots to
close-ups, the crew removed a piece
of the banister and placed it closer to
the action in front of a 5K to retain
the shadow patterns.
The high contrast of the noir
sequences became a bit tricky when
lighting Cruz. It was a high priority
for Pedro that Penlope always look
beautiful, says Prieto. For most of
the film, the cinematographer fol-
lowed the makeup artists advice and
lit the actress frontally; depending
on space, Cruzs beauty lights were
4' 4-bank Kino Flos or 2' Double
Kino Flos above and below camera,
with sidelight provided by either a
6'x6' Blanket-Lite through Full Grid
diffusion or a 10K through an 8-by
or 12-by frame of Full Grid. But
Right:
Almodvar and
director of
photography
Rodrigo Prieto,
ASC, AMC fine-
tune their
approach to a
shot for Girls
and Suitcases,
the film-within-
the-film. Below:
Ensconced in
their hideaway,
Lena and
Blanco discuss
their next move.
AMC_1209_p033:Layout 1 10/29/09 12:06 PM Page 1
56 December 2009
that just didnt match the look of
film noir, says Prieto. I tried mov-
ing the light to one side, and it
looked bad, bad, bad, but suddenly, I
hit a position more to the side that
worked very well. So I went with
that. Almodvar got the effect he
wanted: Penlope looks beautiful
but older hardened.
Prieto also veered away from
flattering light in the bathroom
where Lena is physically sickened by
sex with Martel. To mimic a skylight,
Prieto spotted 2K Fresnels onto the
sink and toilet, and the light hit the
top of Cruzs head and bounced off
the sink. The toplight was around 4
stops overexposed, and the bounce
on her face from the sink was the
proper exposure. It was not flatter-
ing at all, but it was good for that
moment.
When Lena and the director
flee to Lanzarote, off the coast of
Africa, Prieto aimed for high-key
naturalism. He used Fuji Vivid 160
to take advantage of the locations
colors black volcanic rock, white
architecture, emerald palms, pale-
blue bungalow interiors and to
enhance the natural contrast.
Though tragedy is pending, these
scenes are meant to be more
upbeat, he says. Theyre escaping
the dark world of Martel and are
really trying to be happy. We want-
ed to give it some sparkle. Interior
night scenes also tended to be
warmer, such as when Harry is
examining a photo of two lovers
on a beach. That was lit with an
amber sunset light coming
through the windows, says Prieto.
We used 18Ks gelled with Full
CTO, so it has a warm, bright feel-
ing. Even at night, when theyre
watching television, the scene is lit
brightly. I had two sources, practi-
cal lamps and a TV effect, so its a
combination of the cool TV
images flickering on them and the
warm lamp light. For the TV effect,
I placed a bunch of 2-foot Kino
Flos gelled with different shades of
CTB on a 4-by-4 white card and
switched them on and off inde-
pendently and randomly. The
practical lamps light was enhanced
with a 4-by-4 Kino Flo with
2900K bulbs placed close to the
wall and controlled with flags to
only light the actors.
Broken Embraces third for-
Right: At his
fathers request,
amateur
videographer
Ernesto Martel
Jr. (Rubn
Ochandiano)
keeps close
tabs on Lena
during filming of
Blancos movie.
Below:
Almodvar
checks a shot of
Cruz at the
mirror.
ATapestry of Textures
www.clairmont.com
Hollywood
818-761-4440
Vancouver
604-984-4563
Toronto
416-467-1700
Albuquerque
505-227-2525
Montreal
514-525-6556
From the first moment I walked through
Clairmont Cameras doors nearly 25 years ago, I
was struck by the friendliness and respect the staff
extended to me and especially from Terry and Denny.
The whole crew goes above and beyond the call
of duty. On my first anamorphic show, we had
extensively tested our lens package. But when
the dailies came back they looked odd; something
was wrong. The lab assured us that everything was
right on their end. Denny immediately flew up and
proceeded to go through the entire chain from film
stock, to the camera, lenses, to processing where
he discovered that a lens in the optical printer was
slightly out of alignment. We switched printers
and everything looked crisp. I think that without
Clairmonts assistance I would not have been able
to break through the stonewall thrown up by the
lab. Thanks for saving my job Denny!
Another thing I really like about Clairmont
Camera is their ability to take a DPs crazy idea
and turn it into reality. For me, it was being able to
create an identical image to two strands of different
negative one B&W and one colorand dissolving
back and forth between the two. I made a drawing of
the rig and showed it to Denny, and then Clairmont
built it for me!
Over the years Ive used a huge variety of
Clairmonts equipment. One of my favorites is their
Blurtar lens set; when you shoot wide open they
make the best soft focus, blurry effects.
Naturally, Ill vouch for their gear always being
topnotch. Its always properly serviced, updated, and
works as well if not better than the day it was
manufactured. Ill gladly recommend Clairmont
always and forever.
Thomas Burstyn, CSC
Always and Forever
AMC_1209_p033:Layout 1 10/29/09 12:07 PM Page 1
mat, Super 16mm, comes into play
for Ernesto Jr.s making-of video.
Because he is filming in the early
1990s, the prop was an old Canon
camcorder. However, Almodvar
refused to shoot video. He simply
doesnt like the way video looks,
says Prieto. Instead, the cinematog-
rapher shot on Super 16mm (fram-
ing at 16x9), using an Arri 416 with
Zeiss Ultra 16 primes and Kodak
Vision3 500T 7219, which he
pushed 1 stop. The idea was to get
a really high-contrast and grainy
image, then enhance it further in the
digital intermediate by adding more
contrast and more color saturation,
he says. It looks more like Super 8
than video, but Pedro doesnt go for
realism on things like that. Its just
what he likes.
Looking for signs of Lenas
betrayal, Martel watches his sons
video footage in his private screen-
ing room, employing a lip-reader to
decipher the lovers dialogue when
sound is unavailable. In the
telecine, we enhanced the contrast
and the color saturation so that
when the footage was projected on
set, it would have a really intense
look, says Prieto. He also added a
pixellated texture in the DI to fur-
ther enhance the video look. To
maintain contrast and prevent a
milky look, Prieto worked hard to
keep spill off the screen, lighting
ATapestry of Textures
58
Prieto and
Almodvar at
work on
location.
props very specifically and putting
negative fill on the floor and walls.
One of the main challenges in
the DI proved to be harmonizing the
actors varying skin tones. They
were so different we had to isolate
some of the faces and tweak things a
little bit, recalls Prieto. For
instance, Llus Homars skin tone is
extremely magenta when compared
to Blanca Portillo or Tamar Novas,
who both tend to be olive. When
they were together in a scene, it real-
ly looked strange, so we had to even
that out. Prieto worked with col-
orist Miguel Perez, who handled
both the film dailies and the DI at
FotoFilm, a division of Deluxe
Laboratories in Madrid. Working
on both dailies and the DI with
Miguel was very helpful, because he
knew the movie perfectly, says
Prieto. FotoFilm handled the entire
post workflow, including the 4K
scan and 2K filmout.
At the end of Broken
Embraces, Harry and Diego watch
the footage of Lena and Harrys car
accident, and this leads to one of
Prietos favorite moments in the
film: just before the crash, Harry and
Lena share a tender kiss in the car,
and, as he plays the scene back,
Harry reaches out to the TV screen
and runs his hands over Lenas face.
The shot of the kiss in the car was
filmed in Super 16, and we zoomed
further into the kiss on a telecine, so
the grain is huge, says Prieto. It
looks very pointillistic, like a Seurat
painting. Pedro really liked that, and
I think its beautiful.
I was very moved when we
shot it, he continues. Its the perfect
connection of image and emotion,
an expression of how we can trans-
mit such a deep longing without
words. Its beautiful, its tactile and
its a riff about created images. The
person doing the touching cannot
see the image, even though his life
was directing images. For me, thats
the most emotional moment in the
film. I feel most fulfilled with my line
of work when the visuals are on par
with the emotions. I
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
35mm and 16mm
Panaflex Millennium, Platinum;
Arri 416
Panavision G-Series, Primo;
Zeiss Ultra 16 lenses
Kodak Vision3 500T 5219/7219,
Vision2 250D 5205;
Fuji Eterna Vivid 160
Digital Intermediate
Printed on
Kodak Vision Premier 2393
59
60 December 2009
Healing a
Family
Healing a
Family
Fred Elmes, ASC partners with Jim Sheridan on
the wartime drama Brothers.
by Dave Heuring
Unit photography by Lorey Sebastian
ative solution; he has so fully inter-
nalized the lives of the characters, he
is able to do that.
Sheridans deference to the
actors sometimes meant that the
blocking would be altered at the last
minute, requiring Elmes and his
crew to adapt quickly. For interiors,
Elmes began to light more with an
eye toward adaptability; on exteri-
ors, he sometimes had to persuade
his colleagues to consider the practi-
cal aspects of shooting. We made
rough plans during the scout, but
Jim doesnt like to lock into a plan
that cant be changed, says Elmes.
He doesnt rehearse extensively
I
n the contemporary drama
Brothers, an adaptation of the
successful Danish film released
in 2004 (AC May 05), a young
family attempts to heal after
being torn apart by war. When U.S.
officer Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire)
is reportedly killed after being sent
to the front in Afghanistan, his less
responsible brother, Tommy (Jake
Gyllenhaal), tries to fill the void by
getting closer to Sams widow, Grace
(Natalie Portman), and two young
daughters. When Sam is eventually
discovered to be alive, he returns
home and has difficulty readjusting
to domestic life, and tensions and
jealousies soon boil over.
To bring Brothers to the
screen, director Jim Sheridan turned
to cinematographer Fred Elmes,
ASC, whose recent credits include
Synecdoche, New York; The
Namesake; Broken Flowers; and
Kinsey (AC Jan. 05). The cine-
matographer found working with
Sheridan to be a joy. Making this
film was a completely engaging, fas-
cinating process, says Elmes. Jims
focus is on the evolution of the char-
acters, and all of our discussions and
decisions grew out of that. He works
very instinctually. Whenever an
issue comes up on set, whether it
concerns story or design or charac-
ter, he spontaneously finds the cre-
American Cinematographer 61
with the actors on the set. His
method is to talk about the scene
with the actors and let them find the
right way. Hell steer them but also
encourage them to feel what is right.
Much of what we did was driven by
the actors choices. Sometimes it
worked out perfectly, and some-
times they went in different direc-
tions.
The filmmakers found loca-
tions for both Afghanistan and U.S.
scenes near Santa Fe, N.M., which
offered the production a tax advan-
tage. Filming took place over about
40 days from November 2008 to
January 2009. The exterior of the
P
h
o
t
o
s
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
L
i
o
n
s
g
a
t
e
.
Opposite: Elsie
Cahill (Mare
Winningham)
comforts her son
Tommy (Jake
Gyllenhaal). This
page, top:
Tommys brother,
Sam (Tobey
Maguire), spends
some quality time
with wife, Grace
(Natalie
Portman), and
daughters (Taylor
Geare and Bailee
Madison) before
reporting for
combat duty in
Afghanistan.
Bottom left:
Cinematographer
Fred Elmes, ASC
surveys the
craggy landscape
in Santa Fe, N.M.
Bottom right:
After his
helicopter is shot
down, Sam finds
himself in a
seemingly
hopeless
situation.
62 December 2009
Healing a Family
Cahills home was shot on location
in Los Alamos, while the homes
interiors were built onstage at the
College of Santa Fe. The hovels
where Sam is held prisoner were all
existing structures. Other practical
locations included a bar and mili-
tary headquarters.
Elmes lobbied Sheridan to
shoot the film widescreen. While
deciding the issue, they watched and
discussed Blue Velvet (AC Nov. 86)
and Wild at Heart, which Elmes shot
for David Lynch; The Lives of Others
(AC March 07), shot by Hagen
Bogdanski, BVK; and a few other
films. The basic plan was to lend
Brothers domestic material a lush
color scheme. We wanted richness
there to contrast with the war
scenes, which are harsh-looking and
mostly devoid of color, says Elmes.
We kept warmer colors and much
of the green out of the Afghanistan
scenes mostly through the produc-
tion design. If something popped,
wed throw dirt on it.
The Afghanistan scenes were
shot in 12 days. Most of these scenes
depict Sam in captivity; there are no
elaborate battle sequences. Elmes
challenge was to keep those situa-
tions visually interesting with limit-
ed lighting and staging options.
The war is a backdrop for the
drama, notes the cinematographer.
Jims vision was of a family trying
to fix itself, not of the war in
Afghanistan. His research focused
on the problems these soldiers have
when they return home.
At high altitude in the moun-
tains, the terrain made for rough
going, but the sunlight and the real
snow on the ground worked in the
filmmakers favor. The atmosphere
is different at 6,000 feet, says Elmes.
The air is clearer, so the light is
brighter and harsher. The shadows
are harder, and there is a blueness to
the sky that fills everything and
leaves coolness in the shadows. That
The helicopter
shots were made
with a full-size
mockup positioned
on a gimbal to
create movement.
Elmes explains,
The camera was
either handheld or
attached to a crane
arm to keep it free-
floating. The scene
takes place at
dusk, and I backlit
it with soft light
through the
windows. To give
the light some
dimension, I used
both a warm and a
cool gel on two
different 20K
tungsten lights. As
you can see, the
lights were next to
each other, so the
top of the rag had
the cool light and
the bottom had
warm light. Both
colors mixed as
they came through
the narrow
window, causing
highlights to be
warm and
shadows to be
cool imitating
that end-of-the-
day feeling. An
explosion later in
the scene triggered
flashes from a
Lightning Strikes
strobe and some
pyrotechnics.
and Kodak Vision2 Expression 500T
5229 without an 85 filter. The cam-
era, an Arricam Lite or Arri 235, was
usually handheld. Those scenes
have a rougher feeling overall, he
says. In the structure of the editing,
it works pretty well because there is
a serenity to the scenes in the subur-
ban house and an overall nervous-
ness to the scenes in Afghanistan.
Elmes says he likes the Speed
made the Afghanistan scenes feel
truly foreign. To maintain the visual
severity, Elmes crew rarely used fill
of any kind. That hard sunlight was
difficult to control, but it gave us the
look we wanted, he says. Around
the camps, we had cooking fires
going, and the smoke backlit by the
sun lent those scenes atmosphere.
The small, dark interiors fea-
tured in the Afghanistan scenes
proved problematic at first. There
are many scenes that depict Sam and
another soldier in one sort of hold-
ing pen or another, and those situa-
tions scared the hell out of me,
Elmes acknowledges. Its two guys
in a dark room, four hard walls and
a small doorway, and maybe a hole
in the roof to light through. There
was one window that they could
look out of once in awhile. It was a
challenge to find interesting ways to
create the sense of time passing. In
the end, it proved to be satisfying.
Large HMIs couldnt be
brought to the remote location, so
Elmes and his crew got creative with
smaller fixtures. In one case, Elmes
smashed a 6K Par into a slit window
and let it go 4-5 stops over.Once the
light started to bounce around in
the small space, it did some nice
things. Film emulsion is very good
at seeing that, and it turned out
great.
Elmes used film stock, lenses
and camerawork to further differen-
tiate the movies foreign and domes-
tic looks. In the war zone, he crafted
a grainier, desaturated look by using
older Cooke Speed Panchro lenses
Above: Enemy
forces capture
Sam and fellow
soldier Joe
Willis (Patrick
Flueger). The
hard sunlight [in
New Mexico]
was difficult to
control, but it
gave us the look
we wanted,
says Elmes. Left:
The soldiers
endure harsh
conditions
during their
captivity. Those
situations scared
the hell out of
me, Elmes
admits. Its two
guys in a dark
room, four hard
walls and a
small doorway,
and maybe a
hole in the roof
to light through.
There was one
window that
they could look
out of once in
awhile. It was a
challenge to find
interesting ways
to create the
sense of time
passing.
American Cinematographer 63
64 December 2009
Panchros sweet quality. Theyre
not as well-corrected as modern,
computer-designed lenses, he
observes. Theyre all handmade, so
each one is a little different; it takes a
bit more work in the timing to unify
the looks, and theyre a bit more
prone to flaring. The wider ones
have slightly more distortion than
modern lenses; theyre sharp, but
not as sharp as the newer lenses. I
really like the feeling they create
onscreen.
When shooting the domestic
scenes, Elmes used Cooke S4 and
Zeiss Variable Prime lenses on an
Arricam Studio. We lit the house
set with big, broad, soft sources, so
the only hard light coming in there
is an occasional bit of hard sunlight,
he says. We tried to make that set-
ting feel homey. The soft sources
were 20Ks aimed through or
bounced off of large muslin rags.
Photo backings were sometimes
softened and diffused with nets
hung outside the houses windows.
Our backings were too close, and I
tried to take away some sharpness,
but you dont really want to light
through it, notes the cinematogra-
pher. Lighting the net defeats part
of the good function it serves, so you
Healing a Family
Top: When Sam
is unexpectedly
discovered to be
alive, his family
meets him at the
airport for an
emotional
reunion. Middle:
After returning
from combat,
Sam tries to
readjust to his
home life.
Bottom: Tommy
tries his luck
with an
attractive
woman (Lara
Wulsin) in a
local bar.
66 December 2009
have to drift it around and find a
place where it works. We didnt have
a lot of room on the soundstage.
Brothers was shot mostly with
a single camera, but two cameras
were employed for scenes involving
the children and several dialogue-
heavy scenes staged around the din-
ner table. In the latter situations,
both cameras were placed on dollies
moving around a single, circular
track.
Elmes shot the domestic inte-
riors on two Kodak Vision2 stocks,
200T 5217 and 500T 5218. Those
stocks, along with 5229, are my
favorites, he says. I tended to use
5218 for the night interiors because I
knew they would cut with a night
exterior shot on 18. I shot most of
the day scenes with 5217 to get a
nice, grainless feeling.
For a key scene in which Sam
reunites with his family at the air-
port, Elmes found a clever way to
compose a shot that would bring the
whole clan together. Taking advan-
tage of a glass door, he managed to
combine the expectant familys faces
with a reflection that shows Sam
striding toward them from the jet,
which sits in the background. Its a
dramatic, poignant moment, a real
Healing a Family
Top: Grace
struggles to
help Sam heal
his emotional
wounds. The
war is a
backdrop for the
drama, notes
Elmes. Jims
vision was of a
family trying to
fix itself, not of
the war in
Afghanistan.
Middle: As
tensions boil to
a head, Sam
smashes up
the kitchen,
which Tommy
remodeled in
his absence.
Bottom: Director
Jim Sheridan
works through
the scene with
Gyllenhaal and
Maguire.
AMC_1109_p017:Layout 1 10/5/09 1:01 PM Page 1
turning point in the film, says
Elmes. The glass door was one of
the reasons we chose the location. I
fought hard to make the reflection
work and shoot when the sun was in
the right place. The scene ends on
Tommy, who is left alone as the fam-
ily walks down the hall.
I look for shots like that on
the scout, he notes. I remember a
similar shot I got in The Ice Storm
(AC Oct. 97). Kevin Klines charac-
ter is standing in his neighbors
house in his underwear, swinging a
golf club. Its one of those Philip
Johnson-type houses, with large
panes of glass that reflected the win-
try trees blowing in the wind. The
reflection symbolizes both the literal
and figurative storm thats moving
in. A shot like that resonates with the
heart of story. Im proud to have
found those shots, and Im always
glad when I can convince a director
that they make the most of the loca-
tions and bring an added dimension
to the film.
Throughout the shoot, Elmes
took reference stills with a point-
and-shoot digital camera, a Leica D-
Lux 3, and then manipulated them
with Apples Aperture 2 software to
give his collaborators an idea of how
the final images would look. He suc-
cessfully lobbied for select print
dailies, which were generated by
Deluxe Laboratories in Hollywood.
For the digital intermediate at
EFilm, the film was scanned at 2K,
and colorist Yvan Lucas collaborated
with Elmes on the color correction.
I was traveling a lot during the DI
process, so the digital stills helped
68
Healing a Family
Elmes frames a
shot with 1st AC
Keith Davis by
his side.
Yvan and I talk about the films
look, says Elmes.
Release prints were made at
Technicolor, and Elmes observes
that the shift from the digital world
to the photochemical realm made
for some bumps in the road. These
facilities are top notch its just a
matter of different chemistry and
slightly different processes, he
notes. Doing a DI is very different
from photochemical timing. With
photochemical timing, you light
and expose the film a certain way,
and if youve done that consistently,
it just falls into place. There is an
elasticity to the film system in the
print stock and so on that makes
the contrast match up if youve done
your job right. In the DI world, it
doesnt always match up so easily.
The system is very sensitive to the
slightest change in the inherent con-
trast of shots, and I often find myself
fighting a little more than I think I
should to get those shots to match.
The most important thing in
the DI is to find a basic correction
for the film, he continues. We skip
through all the rolls, pick out vari-
ous shots and scenes, and try to find
a basic correction. That determines
how all the primaries are going to fit:
what kind of contrast or gamma is
inherent in the negative, and how its
going to translate to the screen. I
want to quickly see if that same basic
correction gets us very close to what
the look should be. Its like finding
your one-light for the whole film.
Most of my films dont print all over
the place; they print in one specific
range because Ive designed it that
way. The same is true in the DI, but
that range can be a little harder to
find. That doesnt mean Im not
going to touch every scene, because I
am. But on Brothers, once we found
the basic look, Yvan took off on his
own, did several days worth of work
without me and stayed very much
on course because he had the key, so
to speak, to the whole reel. Then I
went in and fine-tuned things.
69
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Arricam System; Arri 235
Cooke Speed Panchro, S4;
Zeiss Variable Prime lenses
Kodak Vision2
Expression 500T 5229;
Vision2 200T 5217, 500T 5218
Digital Intermediate
Printed on Fuji
Eterna-CP 3513DI
AnExceptionally
SlyFox
F
ilmmaker Wes Anderson
dipped his toe into stop-motion
animation with some brief
sequences in The Life Aquatic
With Steve Zissou (AC Jan. 05),
for which legendary animator
Henry Selick created an assortment
of colorful marine-animal puppets,
and Anderson was sufficiently
enthralled by the process to return
to it for a feature-length effort, a
stop-motion adaptation of Roald
Dahls Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Dahls tale of a debonair fox
whose poaching raids incur the
wrath of three pernicious farmers
essentially forms the middle section
of the movie. Bolstering Dahls plot
are story elements that transpose it
firmly into the heavily stylized,
instantly recognizable world of Wes
Anderson. Mr. Fox (voiced by
George Clooney) serves as the
flawed but lovable patriarch com-
mon to the directors films, and
among Mr. Foxs family and friends
are numerous other character types
that will strike a chord with
Anderson devotees.
Selick came aboard the proj-
ect as animation director but soon
had to leave in order to make his
Tristan Oliver
takes the hands-on
approach to
Wes Andersons
mischievous
comedy Fantastic
Mr. Fox.
by Mark Hope-Jones
70 December 2009
film, says Oliver. The problem in
the digital-stills domain is that its a
case of constant obsolescence. At the
back of the stage, we had the Canon
cameras that Corpse Bride [AC Oct.
05] had been shot with, but they
were worn out. By comparison,
some of the Mitchells we shot Curse
of the Were-rabbit with had serial
numbers dating back to 1926!
Just when Oliver was search-
ing for a new digital camera, both
Canon and Nikon had released
high-end professional DSLR models
with full-frame sensors. After testing
them all the way through to a fil-
mout, Oliver chose Nikons D3. Its
a superb camera and produces a
very high-quality image, the depth
of which is not as good as negative
but is certainly heading in that direc-
tion, he says. So I had enough lati-
tude, and the cameras gave us no
problems at all. We didnt get a sin-
gle dead pixel for the entire shoot.
What went onto the front of the
camera was a whole different ball-
game, however; thats really where
the system isnt quite ready for fea-
ture films.
Oliver had some Cooke
own picture, Coraline (AC Feb. 09).
Mark Gustafson took his place, and
Tristan Oliver was hired as director
of photography. Having co-shot the
internationally successful Chicken
Run (AC Aug. 00) and Wallace &
Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit
(AC Oct. 05) for Aardman
Animations, Oliver is one of only a
handful of individuals operating at
the very highest level in this special-
ized branch of cinematography. I
was brought onto the project rather
late I had 12 weeks to get up to
speed so my prep was pretty fast
and furious, says Oliver. My imme-
diate concern was figuring out how
we were going to shoot the movie
and what we would shoot it with.
Production was scheduled to
last 14 months, which meant that
almost all of the equipment had to
be bought rather than rented.
Though the stop-motion industry
has seen a general shift to digital
acquisition in recent times, it was
primarily the need to actually pur-
chase cameras that made digital
SLRs the most realistic option for
Mr. Fox. There simply wasnt the
money to invest in shooting on
20-100mm T3.1 zooms modified by
John Buckley at Movietech to cover
the D3s 35mm-stills-sized frame,
but he needed to use prime lenses
for most of the shoot, so he had
little choice but to go with Nikon
stills lenses. The problem is that a
cine lens is designed to cover a
much smaller image area than an 8-
perf sensor, he explains. Only
VistaVision encompasses that larger
image area with a cine-lens design,
but VistaVision lenses are as rare as
hens teeth, so we had to use Nikon
lenses. Unfortunately, theyre not
designed to work dynamically, so
when you pull focus on them, they
lose their center, and they get very
muddy at any stop over T8.5. But
there was no decent alternative.
Nikon has actually stopped making
manual lenses, and, of course, the
entire stop-frame industry is trying
to get the damn things at the
moment, so you have to go to Japan
and look around all the second-
hand camera shops to find them!
Mr. Fox was based at 3 Mills
Studios in London, where it took up
an entire row of converted ware-
houses. We had four large stages;
Opposite: The
titular character
in Fantastic Mr.
Fox enlists a
friend to
reconnoiter a
nearby farm. This
page: Fox visits
Badger, his
attorney, to
discuss a fateful
real-estate
purchase. In
keeping with
director Wes
Andersons
preference,
characters were
often dead center
in the frame.
American Cinematographer 71
P
h
o
t
o
s
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
F
o
x
S
e
a
r
c
h
l
i
g
h
t
a
n
d
t
h
e
f
i
l
m
m
a
k
e
r
s
.
L
i
g
h
t
i
n
g
d
i
a
g
r
a
m
b
y
T
r
i
s
t
a
n
O
l
i
v
e
r
.
one was the art department, and we
shot in the other three, says Oliver.
Everything was on-site, from con-
struction to editorial and visual
effects. I had to get software devel-
opers Matthew Kitcat and Rupert
Fishwick in to build pipelines for the
digital images, which was a whole
new learning curve for me. Ive shot
commercials and music videos digi-
tally, but my feature experience has
been with 35mm. When youve got
multiple digital cameras and we
were typically working up to 35
units at a time you have to deal
with multiple strips of information
at full resolution. We also had to
build a ground-up animation sys-
tem for the animators to use with
the D3.
Anderson was based in Paris
for a significant portion of the
shoot, so the system had to be
remotely accessible. All of the cam-
eras were connected directly into a
network, enabling a streamlined
workflow. Every time a frame was
taken, it went into our server and
was instantly available to editorial
and visual effects, explains Oliver.
It was a completely wrangle-free
system; nobody was running
around with memory cards
because it all went straight down
into the render farm and out.
When a new unit was being built,
the set would be brought in and
dressed, and then a rough lighting
scheme would be rigged in accor-
dance with the storyboard. At this
stage, says Oliver, we would start to
send frames to Wes. He needed to
be involved very early in the process
because he always had a very specif-
ic idea of what he wanted.
A feature of the D3 called Live
View played a vital role in the system
by allowing a constant video feed to
come off the cameras without the
need for an additional tap. This gave
the animators a reference image on
their monitors and also meant that
An Exceptionally Sly Fox
Top: Buggles and
Bunce look on as
Bean inspects a
memento unearthed
by the farmers in
their attempt to root
out the pesky Fox
family. Medium
Bastard Amber gels
were used for almost
all exterior setups.
Bottom: A triumphant
Fox shows off his
latest discovery:
Beans cider cellar.
72 December 2009
Anderson could call up a live feed of
any individual camera from Paris.
The directors preference for sym-
metrical compositions meant that
his suggestions often had more to do
with framing than lighting. We had
a special viewing grid made up for
the monitors that we called the Wes-
o-Meter, recalls Oliver. It divided
the frame evenly into thirds or quar-
ters, depending on how many char-
acters were in the shot, because Wes
would always ask whether some-
thing was centered. The constant
use of Live View caused the cameras
to overheat and periodically shut
down to prevent the sensor from
overheating, a problem that was
overcome by rigging small fans on
arms surrounding each D3.
Oliver supervised four other
cinematographers on the project,
Toby Howell, James Lewis, Jeremy
Hogg and Graham Pettit, as well as
lead camera assistant Gunnar
Heidar. Everybody has to bend to
the house style on a project like this
or you end up with something that
looks like several films bolted
together, notes Oliver. Im a great
believer in being the crews man. I
think the crew needs to be able to
come to the director of photography
if theyve got a problem, and he
should sort it out for them.
Sometimes on stop-motion films,
there is a highly divisive crewing
structure with discrete micro-crews
working independently of each
other. We didnt have that on this
project. Everyone worked with
American Cinematographer 73
Left: The cider
cellar set at 3
Mills Studios.
Below: Director
of photography
Tristan Olivers
lighting diagram
for the cellar set,
one of the
films most
atmospheric.
74 December 2009
everyone else, and we were all talk-
ing to each other. That approach
was a great success, and the whole
team was just fantastic.
In working out a visual
approach with Anderson, Oliver
had to find a way to transfer the
directors distinctive style to the
world of animation. Wes is recog-
nized for the very flat look his films
have, the wide lens and big depth-
of-field, he says. My contention,
which I think he largely agreed with,
was that animation doesnt tend to
look very good under flat lighting.
Thats always been the cheap and
cheerful way of lighting animation.
Ive spent 20 years trying to work in
a more realistic style because I think
animation works best when you for-
get youre watching animation and
believe what youre seeing, so I was
reluctant to go with that very flat
look. It does show up on some of the
exteriors, and that was our compro-
mise. I was able to work a lot more
mood into the interiors than I think
was there in the initial idea.
Andersons preference for
wide-angle shots meant that a limit-
ed range of lenses was used for most
of the shoot. Our default lens was a
35mm, the equivalent of about an
18mm in standard cinematography,
and Wes very rarely let us go longer
than that, recalls Oliver. Most of
the time, we were on a 35mm, a
28mm or a 24mm, which is excep-
tionally wide. We were also working
very close to the puppets, and, obvi-
ously, that causes a degree of distor-
tion. When youre shooting a pup-
pet with a long nose and you put a
wide-angle lens very close to it, its
nose collapses back into its face, and
the end of the nose, which is out of
focus, looks like a strange blob float-
ing in space. Depth-of-field was the
absolute priority, so most of the
time we were at T22, and that does
have an impact on the image quali-
ty. With those Nikon lenses, the
highlights start to halo and starburst
and you start to lose overall sharp-
ness beyond about T11.
Oliver set the ASA rating on
the cameras to 200 and exposure-
compensated with slow shutter
speeds. In some situations, each
frame was exposed for up to eight
seconds, which necessitated caution
with regard to spill light but pre-
vented the noise associated with
higher ASA ratings. This lack of
noise came in handy when a solu-
tion was found to the problem of
maximizing depth-of-field and
angle of view without distorting
foreground elements. Oliver
explains, The 1.85:1 crop I was
using on the chip was still greater
than 4K, so we had this idea that we
could pull the camera back and then
push in digitally and still keep the
resolution of the image over 2K. Wes
loved this concept because it meant
he got more depth-of-field but kept
the same frame on the same lens.
When you do it, however, the rela-
tive size of everything else in the
frame changes. Through testing, I
determined we could have a 23-per-
cent blowup, maximum; above that,
you start to lose resolution. We were
probably doing this on half the sets
for every day of the shoot.
Early European animated
An Exceptionally Sly Fox
Oliver at work
in a satellite set
for the cider
cellar. The
rack of bottles
behind me is
just there as a
gobo to light
through, notes
Oliver. Fox is
concealed
behind the
bottles at right.
Because of the
dynamic of this
shot, we used
liter bottles of
cheap whiskey
because we
needed a long,
straight side of
glass.
76 December 2009
films were an inspiration for
Anderson, and one particular influ-
ence was The Tale of the Fox (1930),
a stop-motion feature by Wladyslaw
Starewicz. In that film, action cuts
fairly abruptly between puppets of
radically different scales, a technique
that Anderson borrowed. We were
pretty shameless about hopping
back and forth between scales, says
Oliver. It was something Wes want-
ed, so other than match-lighting as
well as we could, we were happy to
let the puppets change in appear-
ance without worrying too much
about how to conceal it. In one
sequence, Mr. and Mrs. Fox run
through a pipe, the camera goes
behind a bush, and when they pop
out the other end, theyre farther
away but infinitely smaller. I think
its suitably shameless enough to be
a good gag. I quite like it.
Gaffer Toby Farrar was
charged with sourcing light fixtures
that were affordable and compact
enough to fit into the miniature sets
built for small-scale puppets. There
are 12-volt capsule filament bulbs
we call grains of wheat, which are
quite common, and smaller ones we
call grains of rice, says Farrar. I
searched online for something even
smaller and eventually found some
3-volt/18-milliwatt bulbs we called
grains of sand. They were incredi-
bly tiny; you almost cant believe its
a filament bulb. I also bought some
little cold-cathode fluorescent tubes,
mainly because Kino Flo has
stopped making Micro-Flos, and
none of the rental houses were pre-
pared to sell me any. The tubes I
An Exceptionally Sly Fox
Top: In a
sequence
designed to
mimic the look
of classic cop
movies, Fox and
his friends
make their way
through a
fluorescent-lit
sewer as they
prepare to
confront the
farmers. Middle
and bottom:
Puppets, lights
and camera
were tethered
together to
accomplish the
shot. Far right:
Oliver sets
Foxs keylight
for another,
more stylized
scene in the
sewer. Note the
mirror in the
floor to uplight
Foxs face.
AMC_1209_p033:Layout 1 10/29/09 12:07 PM Page 1
78 December 2009
found are used to backlight LCD
screens in computers; theyre excep-
tionally bright, and you can get them
in any length down to 2 inches.
Those became really useful as practi-
cals, but we lit with them as well
because they were easy to hide in our
tiny sets and gave us a really good
stop. Oliver adds, They needed a
lot of correction, as they ran at about
6700K to 7200K.
Oliver and Farrar tried to set
the units up so that the animators
could work with as little disturbance
as possible. Its better for them to
make any lighting changes in a scene
themselves, because they prefer to be
left alone, says Farrar. It knocks
them out of their stride when they
have to stop and call us in there.
Sometimes we would automate the
lighting so that if they needed a fix-
ture to gradually brighten over 20 or
30 frames, they could set it to
increase by 4 percent every time a
frame was taken. The other way is to
use an old-school Variac dimmer,
mark out the positions and let the
animator get on with it. Each of the
three stages had a centralized dim-
mer rack, which was networked over
an Ethernet to a simple DMX con-
trol board at every unit. It was a very
clever system built to our specifica-
tions by ETC [Electronic Theatre
Controls].
Anderson wanted a hand-
crafted look for the film and favored
tactility over realism. Wes didnt
want any live-action elements in the
film at all, says Oliver. For example,
instead of shooting a live-action
smoke element against black and
then dropping it in, we made cot-
ton-wool smoke by hand. It became
quite an interesting challenge,
because traditionally, you cant do
fire, water and smoke in animation,
but we actually found solutions for
doing them in-camera. We were
Right: The
camera is set
for an extreme
close-up of Mrs.
Fox in the mica
cave. Below:
Young Ash Fox
and his cousin,
Kristofferson,
mount a rescue
mission of their
own and land in
Mrs. Beans
kitchen.
An Exceptionally Sly Fox
79
using Peppers Ghost, for instance,
which is an old theatrical trick that
uses a half-silvered mirror in front of
the camera. Its a bit old-fashioned,
but it works, and it enabled us to do
quite fiddly things by breaking apart
the elements we could put a tiny
flame on top of a burning pine cone,
which would have been very difficult
to animate in situ.
Another occasion on which a
simple, tangible solution won
Andersons approval came about
when cinematographer Toby Howell
was shooting scenes that involved
walking point-of-view shots. Its
quite difficult to program a slightly
erratic, advancing camera move
with motion-control because it
can look a bit mechanical, says
Howell. On Shaun the Sheep [2007],
Id seen [cinematographer] Charles
Copping use a skate made of a
block of wood to run the camera
over environments very quickly.
Obviously, its reliant on not having
to repeat the move, but it was very
flexible because we could decide
exactly how much motion we want-
ed. I got a little video camera and
filmed myself showing Wes what I
wanted to do, and he loved it, so I
made a skate about 4 inches wide,
mounted the camera to it and
pushed it forward by hand in tiny
increments for each frame. At one
point, we had these skates across
about six units at the same time.
That helped a lot because we were
short of motion-control gear, and it
was also very quick to shoot.
Fantastic Mr. Fox has a warm
overall look, and Medium Bastard
Amber gels were used with relatively
even lighting for almost all exterior
setups. It was the scenes set in
underground tunnels and sewers,
where Mr. Fox and his family are
forced to flee when the farmers start
digging up their home, that gave
Oliver his most interesting lighting
opportunities. Often, Andersons
illustrative compositions were
abstract enough that they eliminated
any need to worry about justifying
sources, but one exception was a
scene in a cavern of glittering miner-
al deposits. We covered the walls of
the set in flakes of mica and silver
party glitter, says Oliver. Then we
made three wooden discs that were
motorized to revolve, and each had
about eight 20-watt quartz halogen
capsule bulbs around the edge. The
whole scene was lit with these
revolving discs of light, which
moved very slowly. I put a four-
point starburst filter on the camera,
and because the light was moving,
the highlights were constantly
changing on the glitter and mica. As
each highlight came into its angle of
incidence to the camera, the filter
would find it and throw up a star.
The idea was that whenever
Mr. and Mrs. Fox were in conflict,
they would be in some fairly sexy
lighting, he notes. The other scene
where that happens is when theyre
standing in front of an underground
waterfall, having an argument. That
was all done with revolving ripple
gags and water gags, so theyve con-
stantly got that water effect moving
across them. I had a wonderful rip-
ple gag made; its two contra-rotat-
ing discs of a particular old Flemish
glass that Ive always rather liked.
Trapped underground with
his family and a host of other dis-
placed animals, Mr. Fox decides to
tunnel beneath the farmers to raid
their barns and feed the hungry
masses. Farmer Bean is a cider-
maker, and when the band of
marauders tunnels up into his cellar,
they are met with a glorious sight:
hundreds of glowing bottles on
shelves that line every wall of the
cavernous room. Oliver notes that
the difficulty in lighting this scene
was that the cider had to be essen-
tially self-illuminating, because
theres a moment later where Mrs.
Bean puts the lights on, so it had to
appear as though the light was radi-
ating from the liquid.
His solution was to place
lights behind the bottles and hide
them with carefully positioned tim-
ber baffles. We actually used real
cider because that was the cheapest
way to do it, says Oliver. There was
a lot of green in the glass, and that
made the cider quite a dirty yellow,
so we put warm filtration between
the lights and the liquid just to get it
looking rich and golden. The prob-
lem with lighting from behind is
that every bottle is effectively a
prism, so for each shot, we had to
light to camera. With just the slight-
est shift, the bottles lost their glow.
Wed move the lights and bottles by
tiny amounts until the light was
being refracted through to the angle
of the camera, which was quite fun!
We spent many happy hours lining
all those bottles up to get it right.
The films digital intermediate
was carried out at Technicolors
London facility, where colorist Max
Horton, who also graded Curse of the
Were-rabbit, worked with Oliver to
shape and balance the rich color
palette of the film. (The digital files
were recorded out to Fuji Eterna-
RDI 8511.) In the digital grade, as on
the set, adjusting to Andersons
unique sensibilities took some get-
ting used to. Wes likes to work in a
way where every frame is a painting
and every setup is a single piece of
art, and it doesnt necessarily matter
whether the following setup relates
to the previous one in terms of visu-
al continuity, observes Oliver. Its
like being in a gallery rather than
looking at a flick book, and after a
while, you do kind of get it. This is
undeniably a Wes Anderson film.