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and topper 20' away augmented the
natural daylight.
Suit & Tie contains a clever conceit
wherein the camera cuts between the stage
and crowd perspectives of Timberlake and
Jay-Zs performance. All the shots from the
performers perspective were shot at the El
Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, and all the shots
looking toward the stage were shot at the
Hollywood Bowl. When there are cuts
between the two locations, the comple-
mentary screen directions create the impres-
sion of a unified space.
At the El Rey, Libatique started by
dimming down the theaters candelabras
and grand chandelier to about 20 percent.
If Id shot 500 ASA, I would have left them
on to create ambience with the smoke, but
at 3,200 ASA, we had them at almost noth-
ing, he says.
Three 1,200-watt Robert Juliat
follow spots were placed on the rear
balcony in positions relative to the left, right
and center of stage. Libatique switched
from one lamp to another to find the opti-
mum light for the camera angle. I used the
same follow spots for the first scene in Black
Swan, he notes. Theyre smaller than
Source Fours, which makes them trickier to
operate because you need to be more deli-
cate.
By contrast, the 2K Xenon Super
Troupers used at the Hollywood Bowl were
bears to move around. Theyre 6 feet long
and 2 feet wide.
The Hollywood Bowl already owned
two 2K Super Troupers, so the production
brought in one to match the setup at the El
Rey, raising it on a scissor lift from one of the
venues middle promenades. You need
[Super Troupers] to cover a distance like
that, but theyre punchy lights, even for 500
ASA, says Libatique. In this case, we
rolled them with at least an ND.3 to get to
T11, and we ended up shooting at a T8 so
we could take in the whole space from front
to back.
The Super Troupers beams were
tight enough to cut Timberlake out of the
background, rendering the band and
backup dancers as silhouettes against the
band shells architectural Color Kinetics LEDs
and 750-watt Strand foot lights.
A matching dance routine is intercut
with the story elements, with the perform-
ers backed by a chorus line of moving lights.
Davids description of the dance space was
moving lights on the mirrored floor at 18-
inch centers. At 18-inch centers, we didnt
want the beams to overlap too much.
For moving lights, Libatique chose
the 190-watt Clay Paky Sharpy. We
needed a light with a tight beam, and [the
Sharpys] have a range of 0 to 3.8 degrees,
he says. Lighting-desk programmer Joshua
Thatcher, who worked with Libatique on
Iron Man (AC May 08) and Iron Man 2 (AC
May 10), choreographed multiple passes
for the filmmakers to consider.
Jay-Z contributes a rap to the second
half of the song, and this is interpreted with
stylized shots of dancers against mono-
chrome backgrounds. Libatique explains,
The trampoline setup was shot with two
cameras, with one pointed at a white cyc
and the other at a black curtain. There were
three 10K Fresnels on each side of the
frame at -back positions, and we created
toplight with four 6K coops. The water
set was lit with a wall of dimmed 5K
Skypans and an overhead row of Par bars.
All of these shots were captured at higher
frame rates, and Libatique achieved expo-
sure compensation by pulling NDs and
widening the T-stop.
By the time the video reached Light
Iron colorist Ian Vertovec, the only work that
remained was an application of blurs, keys
and transfer modes in Pablo to achieve the
kinescope solarization look Fincher
requested. Apart from that, says Libatique,
what you see in the video is pretty much
what we saw on the monitor.
18 May 2013 American Cinematographer
Timberlake
directs musicians
in the recording
studio at Capitol
Records (right)
and sings
onstage with
background
dancers (below).
20 May 2013 American Cinematographer
Rendering Altered States for Trance
By Anthony Dod Mantle, ASC, BSC, DFF
My films with Danny Boyle are always very different. With
each one, he changes planets, and I like that. When he gave me the
script for Trance, he said, as usual, Here you go, Anthony. Its a little
one. He thinks he just does small films, and I suppose he does it
with a clean conscience because our budgets are never very big! But
small Trance was never going to be.
It was initially posed to me as a heist film, and that didnt inter-
est me at all. But when I read John Hodge and Joe Ahearnes script,
I realized it starts as a heist film, but then shifts into a strange jour-
ney that I relate far more to Danny as a director: an exploration of all
these weird aspects of our intelligence, and how we perceive and
deal with reality. Its a brain fuck, one that I knew would be guided
by a very astute mind.
Its also a London film, and that was attractive to us both.
After 28 Days Later (AC July 03), where we covered the city in
toilet paper and intestines, Trance gave us a chance to come back
and find other environments! It also gave us another chance to work
with Mark Tildesley, a phenomenal production designer. So, I never
really hesitated.
Danny and I prefer to be on a real location, and a lot of intu-
itive work goes on as we explore locations with the production
designer. I find this phase of a project really creative and inspiring.
Thats where we really make the film. It took me a while to drill my
way into Trance, and the best way we could do that together was
by standing in the spaces, talking about the characters and looking
at surfaces. As we did that, Id run around with my iPhone, with the
Artemis app set to the correct format and aspect ratio, and take
thousands of stills. Many of these images survived from the first
recce through to being almost perfectly replicated in the final film.
These small experiments during prep sometimes summon
new ideas that, in turn, create artistic themes and rules for the film
at hand. As we walked around, Id find weird, abstract shots that
involved reflections, sometimes two or three layers of them; we felt
this was right for scenes related to the disorientation experienced by
Simon (James McAvoy) after his accident. Eventually, we also
decided to use reflections to ease the audience into trance scenes,
when Simon slips into a hypnotized state.
I am fascinated by these very small cameras that I can play
with in my own way, and Danny loves it if I can slip a second or third
camera in, or capture a little textural detail with something small
while were shooting. We started doing it on 28 Days Later, and
we really explored it with the multiple formats on Slumdog Million-
aire (AC Dec. 08). On Trance I knew wed be working in some very
small locations, and I also knew I would be working with abstract
layers and could get away with a limited rendition of detail; I associ-
ate trance and altered states with something very different from
high resolution and high definition.
Production Slate
T
r
a
n
c
e
f
r
a
m
e
g
r
a
b
s
a
n
d
u
n
i
t
p
h
o
t
o
s
(
b
y
S
u
s
i
e
A
l
l
n
u
t
)
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
d
d
i
t
i
o
n
a
l
p
h
o
t
o
s
b
y
A
n
t
h
o
n
y
D
o
d
M
a
n
t
l
e
.
Top: Simon
(James McAvoy)
collapses in a
Tube station in
a fractured
frame from
Trance. Bottom:
Reference
photos Anthony
Dod Mantle,
ASC, BSC, DFF
shot during
prep using his
iPhone and the
Artemis app.
I
On location in India, Quinn prepares to use the Arri Alexa Studio with his own vintage
Cooke zoom and his homemade bungee rig. Next to him is key grip Sanjay Sami, and at far
left (wearing hat) is gaffer Mulchand Dedhia.
32 May 2013 American Cinematographer
Surviving the
Future
Surviving the
Future
Claudio Miranda, ASC puts
Sonys 4K F65 camera through its
paces on the sci-fi thriller Oblivion.
By Jay Holben
|
34 May 2013 American Cinematographer
www.theasc.com May 2013 35
P
h
o
t
o
s
b
y
D
a
v
i
d
J
a
m
e
s
,
S
M
P
S
P
,
c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y
o
f
U
n
i
v
e
r
s
a
l
P
i
c
t
u
r
e
s
.
Opposite: Jack
Harper (Tom Cruise)
runs for cover in a
scene from
Oblivion, directed
by Joseph Kosinski
and shot by Claudio
Miranda, ASC.
This page, top:
Harper maneuvers
through unknown
territory. Middle:
Julia (Olga
Kurylenko) joins
Harper after she is
found in a downed
spacecraft. Bottom:
Kosinski (left) and
Miranda line up
a shot.
I
n Oblivion, which is set in the year
2073, the Earth lies in ruins from an
alien invasion that happened several
decades earlier. The surviving
humans have long since been evacuated,
and robot drones patrol the planet,
searching for any remaining resources
that can help the human race. Jack
Harper (Tom Cruise) has been tasked
with repairing the drones, and as his
assignment draws to its close, he is
shocked to stumble upon another
human, a woman (Olga Kurylenko), in
a downed spacecraft. Suddenly, he is
attacked by a group of humans, the
Scavs, and taken captive. Upon meeting
the Scavs leader, Malcolm Beech
(Morgan Freeman), Harper discovers
there is an entire city of people inhabit-
ing a secret underworld on the planet.
Written and directed by Joseph
Kosinski, Oblivion is based on the
graphic novel Kosinski co-wrote with
Arvid Nelson. It is the directors second
feature with cinematographer Claudio
Miranda, ASC, a collaborator on Tron:
Legacy (AC Jan. 11).
Production began in March
2012, three months after Sony began
shipping its F65 digital-cinema camera,
and Oblivion became one of the first
features to use it. Every time I do a new
project, I do tests with many cameras to
find the one thats best for that project,
36 May 2013 American Cinematographer
and we tested just about every camera
out there for Oblivion, says Miranda.
Sony cameras definitely have a partic-
ular look, one thats a little cooler than,
say, the Arri Alexa, and Joe really loves
that look. He liked what the [Sony] F35
gave us on Tron, and he was really a fan
of the F65 in our tests for Oblivion.
So, we ended up being some of
the first guinea pigs for the F65 in a
production scenario, he continues. It
gives you a fantastic image, but its a
large camera, and the ergonomics arent
necessarily the most user friendly.
When we wanted to put body mounts
on Tom Cruise or do quick Steadicam
moves, we used Red Epics instead. But
about 98 percent of the movie was shot
with the F65.
Miranda captured in 4K with the
F65 and in 5K (at 3:1 compression)
with the Epic-M and Epic-X, using
Arri Master Primes and Fujinon
Premiere PL zoom lenses. (The picture
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1 and 1.90:1 Imax
Digital Capture
Sony F65; Red Epic-M, Epic-X
Arri Master Prime,
Fujinon Premier
The crew
captures a
sunset vista
in Iceland.
www.red.com
2013 Red.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
The smallest camera makes the biggest images.
This still frame was pulled from 5k RED EPIC motion footage from 42 Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. & Legendary Pictures Productions LLC.
A Trailblazers Tale
Top: Robinson
keeps his eyes
on the ball.
Below: This
series of frame
grabs illustrates
the layers that
cinematographer
Don Burgess,
ASC and colorist
Corinne
Bogdanowicz
applied to the
image during
the final grade
at Light Iron.
www.theasc.com May 2013 51
The majority of the handheld
work is what Burgess describes as quiet
handheld. Moriarty suggests a defini-
tion: There is a human being holding
the camera, with a sense of quiet breath-
ing, perhaps, but subtle enough that the
effect is mostly unconscious. The audi-
ence should get a sense of rawness or
uncertainty without being hit over the
head. The look of the movie is other-
wise so elegant that the handheld
moments were all carefully thought out
so as not to stick out visually. Burgess
adds, There are action sequences that
involve pushing and shoving, and we
coming into the grade cold and starting
from scratch.
Burgess captured 42 in 5K 2:1
mode for a final aspect ratio of 2.40:1,
recording R3D files onto Red SSD
cards. (He used a compression rate of
5:1.) Filmmakers viewed images on set
on OLED monitors, and waveform
monitors were used to judge exposure.
Footage was downloaded at an HD
Mobile Labs GoCart manned by Tudor,
who then applied preset look-up tables
to the imagery. She explains, I
performed a check sum on the media
and then applied the looks using Red
Cine X Pro and an Avid Artist Color
panel. Most of the picture was shot
outside in the South, where cloud cover-
age can vary by the minute, so each take
had to be graded separately to create an
even look.
Tudor then transferred her files to
digital-imaging technician Mark
Gilmer, who worked in a dailies trailer,
and he processed the media and
produced dailies using a specially
configured Light Iron Outpost cart.
Typically, each day at lunch, the film-
makers watched dailies on a 4'x6' screen
in the trailer.
Helgeland and Burgess decided
to maintain a mobile camera using a
mix of handheld, Steadicam and dolly
work in order to achieve multiple goals.
They wanted to bring viewers into
Robinsons world; offer wide, layered
views of the people and activities that
characterize a baseball diamond; and
create what A-camera/Steadicam oper-
ator Matthew Moriarty calls a high
level of visual energy.
There was also a loose goal to
evoke the look of certain late-1960s and
1970s feature films, though not particu-
larly baseball movies. Jackie Robinson
was a man of action and few words, sort
of like a 1970s-movie character, notes
Helgeland. We liked the grit and feel of
those movies. One major reference was
Cool Hand Luke (1967), shot by Conrad
L. Hall, ASC. Helgeland raves about
Halls compositions, which fill up the
frame with bodies. There is an ensemble
around Paul Newman in that movie,
and we tried to have an ensemble
around Jackie Robinson.
We often have big masters that
involve eight or 10 different speaking
actors, so you get a sense of layers
foreground, mid-ground and back-
ground, says Moriarty. I loved that
discipline. We were shooting wide
enough to see the sets, letting actors
perform with their whole bodies, and
trusting the audience to look where we
wanted them to look. We shot minimal
coverage. Brian put tremendous faith in
Dons ability to make a shot work in one
[master].
Top: The crew
utilized circular
track for a shot
of Boseman at
the plate.
Bottom:
Daylight is
reflected off
bounce boards
and the camera
is positioned on
the "golf rocket"
an electric
golf cart for
a shot along
the baseline.
52 May 2013 American Cinematographer
wanted the camera in the middle of
that, so those moments have a more
obviously handheld feel.
Moriarity notes there is also
plenty of Steadicam in the picture.
Don and Brian had the camera with
Jackie Robinson whenever possible. If
he is moving, the camera is moving. If
he is running the bases, the camera is
right in his face, leading him around the
bases.
Burgess says he used a little bit of
everything to achieve camera moves.
A lot of the dramatic scenes, such as
the ones in Rickeys office, called for
slow moves, so that took us to dollies or
cranes, he says. These included a small
Felix crane with a Mo-Sys head, which
we could put on track and use to get
literally every shot in a scene with
complete freedom in every axis, recalls
Moriarity. In Rickeys office, it let us
pass the camera over the desk and wrap
it back around into a close-up of Rickey
without the move ever really being
noticeable. You could call that a quiet
crane!
Burgess calls his approach to 42
a mixture of typical and specialty film-
making. I like to use a remote head on
the camera a lot, to keep it moving, and
there is also great Steadicam work. It
was a matter of studying Brians script to
A Trailblazers Tale
Top left: 2nd-unit
cinematographer
Michael Burgess
captures a home-
plate collision.
Top right:
2nd-unit
operator Bob
Scott readies a
cradle rig.
Middle and
bottom: A Red
Epic was
positioned
beneath Plexiglas
for shots of
Boseman sliding
into base.
figure out which technique was best for
a particular scene.
Though the main unit carried an
Angenieux Optimo 15-40mm T2.6
zoom lens, a prime lens was usually on
the camera. I want the audience to feel
the movie as the character would, so I
tend to use primes, says Burgess. For
42, I used Ultra Primes ranging from
20mm to 40mm, but I tended to shoot
with wider lenses. Some of the baseball
action required longer focal lengths, but
I stayed wider as much as I could.
Naturally, a large chunk of the
movie consists of day exteriors to docu-
ment the baseball aspect. But there also
were important interior sets, particularly
Rickeys office. Brightening that dingy
space with streams of light whenever
Rickey opened the blinds was important
thematically, says Helgeland. Rickeys
office was his whole world, he notes.
The first time we see that space, its
fairly gloomy, and when he meets with
Robinson, he opens the blinds and lets
light flood in. Rickey loves baseball, but
segregated baseball makes him feel there
is something unfair about something he
loves, so signing Robinson and address-
ing the issue is like shining a light of
truth on the matter.
Tynes notes that the lighting
effect in Rickeys office, which was built
onstage in Atlanta, was a tungsten
setup, mostly 20Ks through the
windows and lights, usually Blondes,
above muslin ceilings, along with practi-
cals in the set.
Rickeys office and the locker
rooms had the same kind of feel: hot
light through the windows and lit back-
ings outside, continues the gaffer. The
locker rooms mostly had white backings
or blown-out windows. To backlight
TransLites, I used 5K Skypans spaced 8
feet on center that lit up the backings
nicely. And because it was a tungsten
set, we had everything on dimmers.
The baseball sequences incorpo-
rate extensive footage shot by the second
unit, which was led by director Allan
Graf, cinematographer/camera operator
Michael Burgess (Dons son), and
camera operator Bob Scott. The second
units mission was to stage a lot of
running the basepaths and stealing
home, the pitcher-batter duels, and
other classic baseball moments, accord-
ing to the senior Burgess.
Michael Burgess says the team
used every means at its disposal to keep
up with Boseman on the field. We ran
two cameras at all times, using
Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm T2.8
zooms and the Ultra Primes, depending
on the shots. We used cranes, dollies,
handheld, cradle rigs and electric carts.
The Epic was ideal for all this work
because its small and lightweight. We
could handhold it while hanging off a
golf rocket going 20 mph, all while
maintaining a quality image.
Indeed, the golf rocket, an elec-
tric golf cart that facilitated camera
setups from multiple angles, was a
crucial tool. On occasion, Moriarty
even attached his Steadicam to the
vehicle with a Garfield mount to
film Robinson rounding the bases. The
goal was to illustrate Robinsons
speed and grace without requiring
extensive cutting, and at angles that
emphasized fast-moving, low-to-the-
ground running shots to sell the speed,
says Moriarty.
We wanted to sell the fact that
were really watching Jackie Robinson,
explains Michael Burgess. We couldnt
use a crane or dolly for those kinds of
shots because they wouldnt be fast
enough and would get in the way of the
shot. So, it was a matter of hanging the
camera off the front or back of the golf
rocket, or holding a Kleven cradle rig
[named for veteran stunt director Max
Kleven], which gave us a lightweight
handheld unit we could hang just above
the ground. That gave the shot great
energy and allowed us to safely get the
camera really close to the actors feet.
To give viewers an intimate view
of Robinson beating a tag and sliding
into base, the second unit would posi-
tion an Epic in a 3'x3' hole covered with
Plexiglas, and Boseman would slide
over it.
The production had to re-create
ballparks from the era, including
Brooklyns Ebbetts Field. All the base-
ball action was filmed at three Minor
League stadiums: Rickwood Field in
Birmingham, Ala.; Engel Stadium in
Chattanooga, Tenn. (which stood in as
the foundation of Ebbetts Field); and
Luther Williams Field in Macon, Ga.,
which was mainly used for spring-train-
ing and Minor League scenes.
Of course, many backgrounds,
walls, fences, poles, crowds and signage
had to be created digitally by the visual-
effects team, which was supervised by
Jamie Dixon. At all of the parks, green-
screens of varying sizes were employed
A Trailblazers Tale
Don Burgess
on set.
extensively, including a giant one that
ranged from foul pole to foul pole at
Engel Stadium.
Moriarty emphasizes that Dixon
deserves a special tip of the hat for
keeping up with all our units and our
ever-moving cameras. Because exten-
sive tracking precautions on the field
werent feasible, Dixon mounted GoPro
Hero2 HD cameras on the Red
cameras with Israeli arms to do plate-
capture work. The GoPros recorded at
48 fps in 1980x960 to capture the maxi-
mum field-of-view. In the end, the
GoPro frames were used to track about
a dozen shots out of roughly 550,
according to Dixon.
Because Burgess created so much
of the films palette in-camera, he
considered the final grade the icing on
the cake. He recalls, Corinne and I
worked on the colors of dirt and grass
and the stadiums, as well as Chadwicks
skin tone and his uniforms. Though we
got as much of it in-camera as we could,
we always knew wed be going in to
tweak things by painting over the top of
our painting, so to speak. We fine-
tuned color, saturation levels and
contrast to elaborate on the ideas we
put in place during the shoot.
Bogdanowicz notes that the
thickness of Burgess digital negative
enabled her to build primary and
secondary grades to advance elements
and looks Burgess had emphasized.
There were eight to nine layers applied
on top of each take, which means there
were literally thousands of layers in this
movie, she says. That meant the grade
could be sculpted into a very precise and
deliberate look that gives the image a
more polished, golden feel to better
represent the period. I used unique
qualifiers [with Quantel Pablo] to sepa-
rate the skin tones and individual
elements of the frame.
The overall look has a warmth
and desaturation that suggests a vintage
feel, but we selectively saturated certain
ino Flos new Celeb
Conjuring Hope
a child widow.
The 15-week shoot involved 70
days of principal photography in Sri
Lanka, which provided practical loca-
tions and a warehouse-cum-stage, and
six days of second-unit photography in
India that took place under the direc-
tion of Mehtas brother, Dilip. The
filmmakers shot 3-perf Super 35mm,
and Nuttgens tapped Take 2 in
London for his camera package:
Arricam Studio and Lite cameras, Arri
Master Primes and an Angenieux
Optimo 28-76mm T2.6 zoom.
At first, Mehta and Nuttgens
thought the epic story called for chore-
ographed camera moves and sophisti-
cated dolly work, and the production
brought in dollies and track from
England. But at the last minute, they
decided to go handheld. Mehta feared
that they might get bogged down with
the laying of track and relighting, and
that it would adversely affect the actors
energy. This was an emotional move,
not a technical move, says the director.
Ive never done a shot list in my life.
For me, the actors dictate where the
camera will be.
Thus, the Lite became the A
camera, which was fine with Nuttgens,
who had already shot four handheld
films with it. I think we ran the Studio
just twice, he says. The decision to go
handheld liberated all the actors, and
Deepa has enough faith in me to allow
me the liberty to gauge where the scene
is going.
To move quickly, we basically
did blanket lighting, so once we started
shooting, wed shoot without stopping
until the scene was finished, he
continues. I work with a fairly simple
package that I feel covers any domestic
interior 18K HMIs, 6Ks, 4Ks and
1.2Ks, plus small tungsten units. Most
of my night work was lit with Chinese
lanterns or Kino Flos, and we built a lot
of that ourselves.
The movies visual scheme has
four distinct parts. For the colonial era,
which focuses on Saleems grandfather,
Nuttgens shot Kodak Vision2 100T
5212. If wed had our original budget
Top: Saleem stands
in his classroom.
Middle: Wee Willie
Winkie (Samrat
Chakrabarti) plays
accordion with his
son, Shiva, at his
side. Right: Parvati
(Shinova Soni)
gathers with
other children.
www.theasc.com May 2013 59
of $17 million, I would have asked
Kodak to make up a batch of [Vision
500T] 5279, notes the cinematogra-
pher, who explains that the budget
shrank to less than $10 million shortly
before the shoot. Once independence
comes in and the story jumps to the
mid-1950s, we switch over to Kodak
[Vision3 200T] 5213, which is much
cleaner and less textured. That takes us
through the period set in Pakistan and
up to the Bangladesh war at the begin-
ning of the 1970s. Night scenes were
generally covered with [Vision3 500T]
5219, which allowed us to work with a
limited amount of light but still get
enough depth-of-field to give the first
AC a chance to keep the image sharp,
despite a handheld camera that varied
its placement on every take.
Magical realism comes into play
for the second look, the secret gather-
ings of Midnights Children in Saleems
attic. Children of various ethnicities
materialize out of thin air, and they
seem lit from within a metaphor for
hope, says Mehta. We wondered how
to show that hope, she says, and its all
about lighting. We knew it couldnt
come entirely from CGI, because that
has a different feel. It was important
that it feel organic.
Nuttgens shot extensive tests for
Top: Saleem, now
an adult in the
Magicians
Ghetto, walks
away from his
friend Picture
Singh
(Kulbhushan
Kharbanda).
Middle: Gen.
Aurora (Navtej
Johar, center)
leads a group of
soldiers with
Saleems uncle,
Gen. Zulfikar
(Rahul Bose,
second from
right). Bottom:
Saleem holds his
grandfathers
silver spittoon
after an air raid
robs him of his
memory.
60 May 2013 American Cinematographer
these sequences in Canada, but they
went out the window when the practi-
cal location for Saleems childhood
home was finally found. The mansion
was almost like a museum, untouched
for 60 years, says the cinematographer.
The tower where the children gather
had four windows on each side, making
it a much brighter space than Nuttgens
had in mind. Our original idea of
shooting the children against green-
screen and partially re-creating the set
as a 3-D CG space became impractical
and costly, so these scenes became roto-
scoping jobs shot in the real space, with
the children individually materializing
and vanishing.
Nuttgens aimed for a hot rim
light. I knew it would help simplify the
process if the kids had a reasonably solid
backlight to help separate them out,
and I knew the intention to blow and
diffuse the highlights in post would
help to cover up any buzzing that might
occur around the hairlines during roto-
scoping, he explains.
The third look is Endless Night,
which encompasses the period of polit-
ical oppression from 1975-1977, when
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
suspended civil liberties and authorized
mass arrests and torture. That was a
ghastly period in Indian history, when
they cleared people off the streets and
shoved them into camps on the
outskirts of cities, says Nuttgens.
There was also enforced sterilization.
These sequences are dominated by a
dark, roiling, CGI sky, but it was
important that they didnt feel like
storm clouds that would pass, he notes.
They needed to have a heaviness, a
weight, an oppression the audience
could feel.
Mehta muses, What would
hopelessness look like? Would it be
black-and-white? Desaturated? Deep
gray and white? It sounds simple, but it
wasnt. Giles did a number of tests, and
we decided the look that felt right was
an almost teal gray. Nuttgens explains,
I shot 5219, push-processed it 1 stop at
Technicolor and then flashed blue-
green into the blacks with a Varicon.
Conjuring Hope
Top: The adult
Shiva (Siddharth,
left) joins a
meeting with
Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi
(Sarita
Choudhury).
Middle and
bottom: Shiva
captures and
tortures Saleem to
learn the names
of all the
Midnights
Children.
www.theasc.com May 2013 61
That combination put a certain amount
of exposure into the blacks. That made
the grain stronger, so you start to see the
texture in the lower mid-tones. Instead
of keeping the mid-tones clean, you
muddy them up a bit.
Using the Varicon proved a bit
cumbersome in tight locations, includ-
ing the prison cell where Saleem is
tortured. The Varicon fits into a 6-inch
matte box, and we were already on a
zoom lens, says Nuttgens, who does his
own operating. I had to use 1,000-foot
mags to balance out the flashing unit.
So, my handheld work became limited,
as I kept banging up against the back
wall. Occasionally I would try to jib up
from a kneeling position, and the
weight of the camera would drag me
down again.
Endless Night also contains
Nuttgens biggest lighting setup: the
destruction of the Magicians Ghetto, a
collection of buildings where the circus
performers live, including Parvati,
Saleems first love. Embodying the
possibility of change, the Midnights
Children are a threat to Gandhi, so they
are hunted down, and their homes are
razed and burned. That was a fake
ghetto attached to a real ghetto, says
Nuttgens. We used the real one for as
much exterior day as we could, and then
the one built by the art department for
Parvatis shack and for the destruction
Top and middle:
Saleem is
imprisoned and
interrogated until
he gives up the
Midnights
Children. Bottom:
Mary Pereira
(Seema Biswas),
Saleems nanny,
mourns her dead
boyfriend.
62 May 2013 American Cinematographer
sequence. By building them side by side,
we could link them visually, increasing
the size of our shooting location signifi-
cantly. The production built and
dressed 30 houses on a soccer field. We
had one night to knock it down and set
it on fire. Once the bulldozers moved in,
that was it. There were no retakes.
Story wise, the lighting needed to
be blinding. Its slightly conceptual,
says Nuttgens. The idea is that after
everyone has become accustomed to the
penumbra of the Endless Night, these
lights just blind people. Nuttgens crew
positioned five Dinos on Condors
encircling the ghetto; the lights were
gelled with Green and Blue,
continuing the teal palette of Endless
Night. They were 2-3 stops overex-
posed. It was such a strong backlight
that no matter where we were looking,
there would be no need for another
light, says Nuttgens. Anybody within
that space was lit by the bounce off the
buildings that were being destroyed.
That was enough to fully expose them.
He got as close to the chaos as
possible using either a 21mm or 27mm
Master Prime. The 27mm doesnt
distort when you get close up, but it
gives a real sense of immediacy, he
observes. To capture another angle, a
second camera (unmanned) was posi-
tioned next to one of the buildings that
were destroyed.
The films fourth distinct look is
the Magicians Ghetto when Saleem
first arrives, before the Endless Night.
At that point in the story, he has
endured family rejection, exile and
amnesia from an air-raid injury. He
spots Parvati among the entertainers at
a military victory parade, and he moves
to the ghetto to live with her. His
burgeoning hope translates into bold,
saturated color, which was achieved
with art direction and costume design
Conjuring Hope
Parvati (Shriya
Saran), pregnant
with Shivas child
and shamed by
society, returns to
the Magicians
Ghetto, where
Saleem agrees to
marry her.
PASSES ON SALE NOW
TICKETS ON SALE MAY 21
Presenting Media Sponsor Host Venue
and later enhanced by Nuttgens in
the DI.
Theres a certain lightness and
promise in Saleems journey, and that
needed to come across, says Nuttgens.
Deepa referenced an Indian photogra-
pher who had done a bit of enhance-
ment of saturation and contrast on his
stills. The trick to that was to make sure
there was a good, solid negative within
that space.
Boosting saturation in the DI
also meant augmenting the color differ-
ences in his lighting. Though white
light would have been easier to match,
Nuttgens often made use of Straw,
Yellow and Amber gels, especially in
night interiors. When you use different
colors in the background and fore-
ground and those colors fall on the
actors, the possibility of discontinuity
from setup to setup increases enor-
mously when you start enhancing all of
that coloration, he says. So, in the
ghetto, I seldom changed the lighting
from setup to setup because of the risk
that something might not cut. And
when I did turnarounds, I made sure
that we didnt hit one of the actors with
a different balance from different-
colored sources. Its tricky even within
the scenes, because somebodys skin
tone might end up with a bit more
magenta than somebody elses.
Reflecting on the films various
palettes, he adds, I could not have
achieved any of those looks without
relying on a DI. He spent eight days at
Technicolor Toronto with colorist Jim
Conjuring Hope
1st AD Reid
Dunlap (right)
looks on as Giles
Nuttgens, BSC
gets the shot.
LED Conversion Filter Tungsten Cool White LED
622
624
626
628
LED Con
nversion Filte
O Digital LED CTTO
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64
Fleming, working with a 2K scan of the
negative. I worked with Jim for a
good part of the first week, and then
Deepa would come in for a couple
hours a day, recalls Nuttgens. Mehta
and Fleming completed the final pass
because Nuttgens was already on his
next project.
Although the films varied visuals
were essential to orienting viewers to a
given time and place, nothing was as
important as capturing the actors
performances, says Nuttgens. What
sells the film is the audience making
emotional contact with the characters.
Adds Mehta, For me, the most
important thing a cinematographer can
do is follow the emotional core of the
scene, and Giles has great instincts
about that.
Because I started in documen-
taries, my cinematography has always
been linked to the operating process,
says Nuttgens. Ive always tried to give
the actors as much freedom as I could
and prioritize getting those perfor-
mances without putting too much hard-
ware in the way sometimes to the
detriment of my lighting. One of the
great things on Midnights Children was
having a small camera like the Arricam
Lite, which is easy to manipulate and
feels like an extension of your body.
Once you start shooting, you can really
go for it, and that gives the actors a huge
sense of freedom. They know youre
going to keep up.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Arricam Lite, Studio
Arri Master Prime,
Angenieux Optimo
Kodak Vision2 100T 5212;
Vision3 200T 5213,
500T 5219
Digital Intermediate
65
66 May 2013 American Cinematographer
T
his article offers an introduction to DMX technology,
the foundation of many lighting-control systems used
on soundstages today. It is divided into three parts: the
basics, a few sample setups using low-cost tools, and a
discussion of DMX applications on large film sets. To learn
about DMX, I sought out many knowledgeable practitioners
in London and Paris: Yanne Blitte, Marie-Jos Collet, Steve
Howard, Chris Millard and Ian Sherborn at Panalux; gaffers
John Biggles Higgins and Reuben Garrett; lighting-desk
programmer Stephen Mathie; and director of photography
Philippe Rousselot, ASC, AFC.
DMX Basics
The DMX512 protocol, or DMX for short, was
created in 1986 by lighting professionals who wanted to give
manufacturers and users a simple, universal digital standard
for lighting control. DMX was adopted throughout the
industry, and became formalized in 1990. It became an ANSI
standard in 2004 (officially referred to as DMX512-A).
According to Millard, the rapid adoption of DMX was due in
large part to the rock n roll stadium tours done in the 1980s
by bands such as The Rolling Stones. He notes, The light-
ing crews were working with equipment from different
manufacturers from around the world, and they had to set up
working systems in all these different venues. It was a night-
mare before DMX.
DMX stands for Digital Multiplex. It is a digital signal
protocol; it defines the syntax of a signal that is sent by light-
ing controllers to fixtures and peripherals such as dimmers.
The DMX protocol defines a universe as 512 channels. A
Lighting professionals explain how
DMX technology has transformed
soundstage work.
By Benjamin B
|
single DMX cable transmits only one universe, so sophisti-
cated applications, including big film sets, often require
multiple universes. The DMX signal is simple, consisting of a
header followed by up to 512 channels of data. Each channel
includes 8 bits of data, representing a value between 0 and
255. Each of the 512 channel values is refreshed 44 times a
second. The bandwidth required for DMX is 180 kbits/sec.
Typically, a channel is allocated to an individual light
fixture, and the channel value represents its dimming level.
For example, sending a value of 127 to channel 3 could mean
that fixture 3 is dimmed to 50 percent, while sending a value
of 255 would set fixture 3 at 100 percent. Many LED fixtures
have three channels for individual control of red, green and
blue. As we shall see, some complex units, like automated
lights, actually use multiple channels, with values that can
represent color and position as well as dimming level. Most
DMX units have simple rotary or push buttons that allow
users to set the channel (or the start channel, in the case of
multiple channels) for the unit. The channel number is arbi-
trary, but is usually set according to a mnemonic numbering
scheme.
Howard notes that DMX can be used to control equip-
ment other than lights, including fog machines and video
servers.
DMX requires two conductors for positive and nega-
tive signals, typically about 5 volts, plus ground shielding. The
positive represents a digital 1, and the negative a 0. Although
the norm specifies a 5-pin XLR cable (a.k.a. XLR-5), low-
cost units sometimes use 3-pin XLRs, which are officially
prohibited. (One danger is that an XLR-3 might be plugged
into an audio board with 48 volts of phantom power by
mistake, which could damage DMX circuitry.)
The DMX spec recommends maximum lengths of
about 500 meters, with no more than 32 devices attached;
additional units can be added by using DMX switches or
amplifiers. A simple DMX network is in the form of a daisy
chain: a single cable routes the data signal from unit to unit.
Sophisticated applications send multiple DMX universes
down a single Ethernet cable. Sherwood notes, In the 1980s,
512 channels was all you needed for a Rolling Stones concert,
but today were seeing productions with 30,000 channels!
The ABCs of
DMX
www.theasc.com May 2013 67
P
h
o
t
o
s
a
n
d
d
i
a
g
r
a
m
b
y
B
e
n
j
a
m
i
n
B
.
DMX requires a controller to
define and send the values to each chan-
nel. A controller can be as simple as a
laptop with software and an adapter.
Professional lighting-control consoles,
or desks, allow for complex program-
ming of lighting setups and create
intricate cue lists to define sequences
of lighting effects and transitions.
(Professional desks common in the
industry include GrandMa from
MA Lighting, Hog 4 from High
End Systems, Insight from ETC, and
Vista from Jands.) Dimming units
are the most common DMX boxes.
Professional dimmer racks control the
light intensity of dozens of fixtures by
changing the voltage to each unit. As
illustrated, dimmer racks will have one
channel allocated for each fixture
output.
Automated lights, or moving
heads, offer advanced functions, notably
motorized control of movement, shut-
tering, color and gobos. Automated
lights use HMI bulbs with high-quality
optics to deliver sharp, powerful beams.
Mechanical shutters allow for dimming
without color-temperature change,
while internal filters enable a rich array
of hues. Custom gobos can also be
added. Automated-light manufacturers
Top: This diagram shows the DMX stream and a sample DMX daisy-chain network.
The DMX stream is a series of values for each of the 512 channels and repeats up to
44 times per second. Middle and bottom: A 30K dimmer with a 20K fixture.
68 May 2013 American Cinematographer
Act One
A Scientific and Engineering
Plaque was presented to Simon
Clutterbuck, James Jacobs and
Richard Dorling for the development
of the Tissue Physically-Based
Character Simulation Framework,
which faithfully and robustly simulates
the effects of anatomical structures
underlying a characters skin. The
resulting dynamic and secondary
motions provide a new level of realism
to computer-generated creatures.
A Technical Achievement
Certificate was presented to J.P. Lewis,
Matt Cordner and Nickson Fong for
the invention and publication of the
Pose Space Deformation technique,
which introduced the use of novel sparse
data interpolation techniques to the task
of shape interpolation. The technique
has become a cornerstone of the creation
of CG characters.
A Technical Achievement
Certificate was presented to Theodore
Kim, Nils Thuerey, Markus Gross and
Doug James for the invention, publica-
tion and dissemination of Wavelet
Turbulence software, which allows for
the fast, art-directable creation of highly
detailed gas simulation, making it easier
for the artist to control the appearance of
these effects in the final image.
A Technical Achievement
Certificate was presented to Richard
Mall for the design and development of
the Matthews Max Menace Arm, a
safe, adjustable device that allows rapid,
precise positioning of lighting fixtures,
cameras or accessories. On set or on
location, this compact and portable
structure is often used when access is
limited because of restrictions on attach-
ing equipment to existing surfaces.
Act Two
A Technical Achievement
Certificate was presented to Lawrence
Kesteloot, Drew Olbrich and Daniel
Wexler for the creation of the Light
system for CG lighting at
PDI/DreamWorks. Virtually un-
changed from its original incarnation
over 15 years ago, Light is still in contin-
uous use due to its emphasis on inter-
active responsiveness, final-quality
interactive render preview, scalable
architecture and powerful user-config-
urable spreadsheet interface.
A Technical Achievement
Certificate was presented to Steve
LaVietes, Brian Hall andJeremy Selan
Above:
Academy
President Hawk
Koch opens the
ceremony. Left:
Science and
Technology
Council
Chairman
Richard Edlund,
ASC.
74 May 2013 American Cinematographer
Star Tech
for the creation of the Katana
computer-graphics scene-management
and lighting software at Sony Pictures
Imageworks. Katanas design, featuring
a deferred evaluation procedural node
graph, provides a highly efficient light-
ing and rendering workflow. It allows
artists to non-destructively edit scenes
too complex to fit into computer
memory at scales ranging from a single
object up to an entire city.
A Scientific and Engineering
Plaque was presented to Philip
McLauchlan, Allan Jaenicke, John-
Paul Smith and Ross Shain for the
creation of the Mocha planar-tracking
and rotoscoping software at Imagineer
Systems Ltd. Mocha provides robust
planar tracking even when there are no
clearly defined points in the image. Its
effectiveness, ease of use, and ability to
exchange rotoscoping data with other
image-processing tools have resulted in
widespread adoption of the software in
the visual-effects industry.
A Scientific and Engineering
Plaque was presented to Joe Murtha,
William Frederick and Jim Markland
of Anton/Bauer, Inc., for the design and
creation of the Cine VCLX Portable
Power System, which provides
extended run times and flexibility, allow-
ing users to power cameras and other
supplementary equipment required for
production.
Act Three
The John A. Bonner Medal of
Commendation was presented to
visual-effects supervisor/cinematogra-
pher Bill Taylor, ASC, in appreciation
for outstanding service and dedication
in upholding the standards of AMPAS.
Taylor got his start in entertainment
through a love of stage magic, but it
wasnt until he saw Ray Harryhausens
Jason and the Argonauts as a college
student that he began to pursue a career
in film magic.
Taylor started studying special-
effects films, learned the names in the
credits and then reached out to select
individuals. His list included Linwood
G. Dunn, ASC, whom he cold-called
one day. The call sparked a friendship.
Following Dunns advice, Taylor got
any job he could and landed a position
with the Ray Mercer Co., a Hollywood
staple in the optical-printing and title
field. That was a great film school,
Taylor attests. I worked there for 10 or
11 years. I started out doing optical line-
up work and part-time delivery. I got
into the Film Technicians Union and,
eventually, as I moved into shooting
opticals, into the camera local. Later, I
got my first freelance visual-effects gig
on a film shot in Brazil. I left Mercer
with regrets.
During my years of freelancing,
I got to work with so many wonderful
people like Lin Dunn, great guys with
ASC after their names, he continues.
The first optical-composite work I did
for Lin was the famous pea-soup
vomiting scene in The Exorcist. We
superimposed a stream of pea soup
being shot out of a large syringe and
tracked that over Linda Blairs mouth.
Early in his career, Taylor had
also cold-called ASC associate member
Albert Whitlock after spotting his
name in the credits of That Funny
Feeling. We had a great conversation
and became social friends, he recalls.
When Whitlocks cameraman, Ross
Hoffman, ASC, retired in 1974,
Whitlock invited Taylor to fill the
vacancy. His first project with Whitlock
was The Hindenburg, which won the
Oscar for visual effects.
Taylor and Syd Dutton co-
founded Illusion Arts, a visual-effects
company whose credits include Blood
Diamond, Milk and Bruce Almighty. In
1981, Taylor was recognized with an
AMPAS Technical Achievement
Award for the concept and specifica-
tions behind a two-format rotating-
head aerial-image optical printer.
Taylor joined AMPAS in 1972
and has served five terms on its Board of
Governors, representing the Visual-
Effects Branch. He was a founding co-
chair of the Academys Science and
Technology Council. This year, he
received a Visual Effects Society
Fellowship.
Act Four
The final award of the evening,
the Academy Award of Merit statuette,
Bill Taylor, ASC holds his John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation.
was presented to Cooke Optics Ltd.,
for its continuing innovation in the
design, development and manufacture
of advanced camera lenses that have
helped define the look of motion
pictures over the last century. Cooke
first introduced a series of motion-
picture lenses in 1921, and since then, it
has turned out optical innovations year
after year. In 1930, the company intro-
duced the first inverted telephoto lens,
enabling wide-angle photography in
full color. In the 1940s, Cooke intro-
duced the 18mm Speed Panchro; in
1956, the Series 3; and in the 1960s, the
100mm F2.8 Panchro. In 1999, Cooke
was honored with a Technical
Achievement Certificate for its S4
lenses.
The award was accepted by ASC
associate Les Zellan, chairman of
Cooke, who noted, I am indeed fortu-
nate to be here at Cooke at a time when
the Academy is recognizing the contri-
butions we have made over the years.
Our company has literally grown up
with the motion-picture business. This
award truly means a lot. He went on to
acknowledge a few of the great heroes
at Cooke Optics, including brothers
William and Thomas Taylor, who
founded the company in 1886; Dennis
Taylor (no relation), who invented the
Cooke Triplet in 1893; H.W. Lee, who
designed the Speed Panchros; Gordon
Cook, who was the companys chief
optical designer from the 1950s to the
1980s; and Mark Gershwin, chief opti-
cal designer from 1998 to 2010, who
was the principal designer of the S4, S4-
Mini and S5i optics.
www.theasc.com March 2013 75
Clockwise from
top: Cooke Optics
Ltd. was honored
with the Academy
Award of Merit
statuette; ASC
associate Les
Zellan, chairman
of Cooke, accepts
the Oscar; Pine
and Saldana
congratulate the
evenings
honorees.
www.theasc.com May 2013 77
Photography by Evan Cox; Christian Herrara;
Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; Kim McBride; Danny Moloshok;
and Matt Turve.
The best cinematography of 2012 was honored at the
26th annual ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in
Cinematography, held on Feb. 10 at the Hollywood &
Highland Grand Ballroom in Los Angeles. The ASC
Clubhouse was the site of a lively afterparty that lasted until
the wee hours. Earlier in the weekend, the ASC also hosted
an Open House, the Nominees Dinner and a sponsors break-
fast. Photos from all of these events are featured in the follow-
ing pages.
Special ASC Awards handed out during the ceremony
included the Presidents Award, presented to Curtis Clark,
ASC; the Bud Stone Award of Distinction, presented to ASC
associate member Milton R. Shefter; the Career Achievement
in Television Award, presented to Rodney Charters, ASC,
CSC; and the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to
Dean Semler, ASC, ACS.
Here are the nominees in all of the competitive cate-
gories, presented in alphabetical order, with winners high-
lighted in boldfaced type:
One-hour Episodic Television Series: Balazs Bolygo, HSC,
Hunted, Mort; Chris Manley, ASC, Mad Men, The
Phantom; Kramer Morgenthau, ASC, Game of Thrones,
The North Remembers; David Moxness, CSC, Fringe,
Letters of Transit; Mike Spragg, Strike Back, Episode 11;
David Stockton, ASC, Alcatraz, Pilot.
Television Movie/Miniseries: Michael Goi, ASC, American
Horror Story: Asylum, I am Anne Frank: Part 2; Florian
Hoffmeister, Great Expectations; Arthur Reinhart, Hatfields &
McCoys; Rogier Stoffers, ASC, Hemingway & Gellhorn.
Half-Hour Television Episode Series/Pilot: Ken Glassing,
Ben and Kate, Guitar Face; Michael Goi, ASC, The New
Normal, Pilot; Peter Levy, ASC, House of Lies, Gods of
Dangerous Financial Instruments; Bradford Lipson, Wilfred,
Truth; Michael Price, Happy Endings, Four Weddings and
a Funeral (Minus Three Weddings and One Funeral).
Theatrical Release: Danny Cohen, BSC, Les Misrables;
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, Skyfall; Janusz Kaminski,
Lincoln; Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC, Anna Karenina;
Claudio Miranda, ASC, Life of Pi.
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