AmericanCinematographer201508.pdf

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An International Publication of the ASC

32 Going Rogue Robert Elswit, ASC captures globe-trotting action for

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

44 Macro Heroics Russell Carpenter, ASC brings a miniscule Marvel hero

to the big screen with Ant-Man

54 Time Travelers Kramer Morgenthau, ASC re-creates the past and envisions

the future with Terminator Genisys

64 Personal Battles Mauro Fiore, ASC steps into the ring for the boxing drama

Southpaw

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM

On Our Cover: Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) races to takedown a nefarious syndicate in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, shot by Robert Elswit,ASC. (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.)

10 Editors Note 12 Presidents Desk 14 Short Takes: Myrna the Monster 20 Production Slate: The End of the Tour Tut 74 Post Focus: Disparate Displays 76 Filmmakers Forum: Shoulder the Lion 80 New Products & Services 82 International Marketplace 83 Classified Ads 84 Ad Index 85 In Memoriam: Bradley B. Six, ASC 86 Clubhouse News 88 ASC Close-Up: Steven V. Silver

A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 V O L . 9 6 N O . 8

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An International Publication of the ASC

A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 V O L . 9 6 N O . 8

COMING SOON

Photos by Sa

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www.theasc.com

The Diary of a Teenage GirlQ&A with cinematographer Brandon Trost

2015 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award

for Excellence in Cinematography

A u g u s t 2 0 1 5 V o l . 9 6 , N o . 8

A n I n t e r n a t i o n a l P u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e A S C

Visit us online at www.theasc.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and PUBLISHERStephen Pizzello

EDITORIALMANAGING EDITOR Jon D. Witmer

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andrew Fish

TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSBenjamin B, Douglas Bankston, John Calhoun, Mark Dillon, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray,

David Heuring, Jay Holben, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer, Iain Stasukevich, Patricia Thomson

ART & DESIGNCREATIVE DIRECTOR Marion Kramer

PHOTO EDITOR Kelly Brinker

ONLINEMANAGING DIRECTOR Rachael K. Bosley

PODCASTS Jim Hemphill, Iain Stasukevich, Chase Yeremian

BLOGSBenjamin B

John Bailey, ASCDavid Heuring

WEB DEVELOPER Jon Stout

ADVERTISINGADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Angie Gollmann

323-936-3769 Fax 323-936-9188 e-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce323-952-2114 Fax 323-952-2140 e-mail: [email protected]

CLASSIFIEDS/ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Diella Peru323-952-2124 Fax 323-952-2140 e-mail: [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTIONS, BOOKS & PRODUCTSCIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul MolinaCIRCULATION MANAGER Alex LopezSHIPPING MANAGER Miguel Madrigal

ASC GENERAL MANAGER Brett GraumanASC EVENTS COORDINATOR Patricia ArmacostASC PRESIDENTS ASSISTANT Delphine FiguerasASC ACCOUNTING MANAGER Mila Basely

ASC ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Nelson Sandoval

American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 95th year of publication, is published monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A.,

(800) 448-0145, (323) 969-4333, Fax (323) 876-4973, direct line for subscription inquiries (323) 969-4344.Subscriptions: U.S. $50; Canada/Mexico $70; all other foreign countries $95 a year (remit international Money Order or other exchange payable in U.S. $).

Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood office. Copyright 2015 ASC Holding Corp. (All rights reserved.) Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

POSTMASTER: Send address change to American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230, Hollywood, CA 90078.

6

OFFICERS - 2015/2016

Richard CrudoPresident

Owen RoizmanVice President

Kees van OostrumVice President

Lowell PetersonVice President

Matthew LeonettiTreasurer

Frederic GoodichSecretary

Isidore MankofskySergeant At Arms

MEMBERS OF THEBOARDJohn BaileyBill Bennett

Richard CrudoGeorge Spiro DibieRichard EdlundFred ElmesMichael Goi

Victor J. KemperDaryn OkadaLowell PetersonRobert PrimesOwen RoizmanRodney Taylor

Kees Van OostrumHaskell Wexler

ALTERNATESIsidore Mankofsky

Karl Walter LindenlaubKenneth ZunderFrancis Kenny

John C. Flinn III

MUSEUM CURATORSteve Gainer

American Society of Cine ma tog ra phersThe ASC is not a labor union or a guild, butan educational, cultural and pro fes sion al or ga ni za tion. Membership is by invitation

to those who are actively en gaged as di rec tors of photography and have

dem on strated out stand ing ability. ASC membership has be come one of the highest

honors that can be bestowed upon a pro fes sional cin e ma tog ra pher a mark

of prestige and excellence.

8

After watching footage of Tom Cruise dangling offthe side of a military plane in full flight, 5,000 feetabove the British countryside, I had a hunch wed becovering Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, thefifth film in the Mission franchise. The movies cine-matographer, ASC member Robert Elswit, hadalready conveyed to me that this latest installmentwas worthy of in-depth scrutiny, and Im inclined tolisten to the recommendations of a guy whose cine-matic C.V. includes Boogie Nights, There Will BeBlood, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, TheBourne Legacy and Nightcrawler, among otherimpressive titles. After accepting his second Mission, Elswit setout to create a classic movie look in anamorphicwidescreen that would lend a grand dimension to

the exploits of IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his fellow spies. He discusses this decision and othersin Michael Goldmans Q&A piece (Going Rogue, page 32), which also includes commentsfrom key crewmembers. This is a movie-star movie, Elswit observes. Its the opposite of aBournemovie; were not looking at [the characters] with long lenses, fast cuts and whip pans.We wanted a kind of strong, heroic, romantic style. Ant-Man, shot by ASC member Russell Carpenter, also showcases heroism, albeit on amicroscopic scale. Because the movies hero is capable of shrinking to insect size, Carpenterwas tasked with creating perspectives that would reflect the diminutive characters worldview.Theres a long history of shrinking-character movies, from The Incredible Shrinking Man toHoney, I Shrunk the Kids, director Peyton Reed notes in Noah Kadners coverage of the project(Macro Heroics, page 44). Russell was like-minded that we could make Ant-Man the 2015version of the genre and be as photo-realistic as possible by avoiding the oversized-prop lookof many of those earlier films. Kramer Morgenthau, ASC looked back to the future on Terminator Genisys, the fifthmovie in that indestructible series, which brings Arnold Schwarzenegger back onscreen as areprogrammed T-800. Morgenthau was tapped for the project by director Alan Taylor, withwhom he had previously collaborated on the feature Thor: The Dark World and the TV seriesGame of Thrones, among other projects. In Mark Dillons article about the production (TimeTravelers, page 54), Morgenthau offers a concise assessment of the duos harmonious on-setchemistry: We share a similar aesthetic, and having done this much work together, we knoweach others strengths and weaknesses and complement each other well. Mauro Fiore, ASC sought hard-hitting realism for Southpaw, a boxing drama directedby Antoine Fuqua. To help make the films fight scenes look as authentic as possible, the pairenlisted camera operators who work on HBO boxing broadcasts, and all four of the fights wereshot in the first two weeks of production. Jake and the other fighters had to be prepared togo all the rounds of each fight without stopping, and we were rolling the whole time, Fioretells Debra Kaufman (Personal Battles, page 64). It was exhausting for them, but it endedup being incredible, due to Jakes preparedness and Antoines intensity in getting the action ina continuous run.

Stephen PizzelloEditor-in-Chief and Publisher

Editors Note

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10

Ask any member of the ASC what its like to be part of this great organization and youll likely hear anexpression of humility, a virtue that could easily have been tacked onto our founders mottoof Loyalty, Progress, Artistry. You might also discover a little presumptuousness among some of us,the type that assumes that everyone embraces our intentions and understands our place in the orderof things. I can be as guilty of that as anyone, and Im always astonished when I encounter crewmem-bers or executives who should know about us but dont. In the interest of filling that gap, heres thestraight story. You may have already read the short explanation that runs above the listing of current officersand Board members in each issue of this magazine: The ASC is not a labor union or guild, but an educational, cultural and professional organiza-tion. Membership is by invitation to those who are actively engaged as directors of photography andhave demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC membership has become one of the highest honors thatcan be bestowed upon a professional cinematographer a mark of prestige and excellence. Note that we are an invitation-only organization. You cant just call up and join. You cant be anewcomer to the career, either. Membership is open to directors of photography who have occupiedthat position for no less than five out of the eight years preceding application. As you might expect,the individuals work must have continually demonstrated superb taste and technical mastery. In addi-

tion and little known to the industry at large good character is an important prerequisite. Those who are dishonest, abusive to theircrews or who have any sort of dodgy reputation are inevitably found out and barred from our ranks. Assuming all cylinders are firing, a candidate must then be proposed in writing by three active or retired ASC members. Eventually,this person will be summoned to an interview before our Membership Committee, which executes the Societys due diligence by consideringthe prospective members qualifications and believe me, they take their job seriously. This phase also includes a screening of the candi-dates work in the form of a sample reel. Afterwards, the person is sent home and a vote is taken on their suitability. The Membership Committees recommendation is then presented to the Board of Governors for further consideration and a vote,with two-thirds majority required for approval. Spirited debate often ensues, and occasionally a candidate may be stalled at this point. Onthe other hand, even a unanimously positive vote does not yet clear the way for membership. That goal is reached only after clearance of the 30-day posting period. During this interval, the entire membership is informed ofsomeones pending invitation. Everyone is given the opportunity to review the candidates sample reel and bona fides, and is free to voiceany objections. Sometimes, further investigation is warranted and a candidates advancement is tabled until matters are sorted out. In mostcases, though, they pass this stage with flying colors. In the entire history of motion pictures, fewer than 800 individuals have earned a place on our roster. Currently, we boast more than350 active members and about half as many associates. With regard to those highly respected folks who work in support of cinematogra-phers or in related industries, proposal letters are required from two active members, followed by approval by the Committee and the Board. The ASCs mission can be summed up in simple terms: to protect and promote any and all concerns of the cinematographer. This isaccomplished through the work of nearly 20 committees, each made up of members and associates with a keen interest in the issues athand. Our crown jewel may well be our 13-year-old Technology Committee, chaired by Curtis Clark, ASC. From a standing start, it hasevolved to become the guiding voice in the development and implementation of our digital tools and workflows. Others might hand top billing to our Awards Committee, and I cant really blame them. Everyone knows the ASC throws the bestparties in town! As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why the ASC has remained such an elite organization for more than 96 years. With our100th anniversary just over the horizon in 2019, I assure you that our standards will be maintained. If they were with us today, Im certainour founders would be impressed. And Im sure that one day our descendants will say the same about us.

Richard P. CrudoASC President

Presidents Desk

12 August 2015 American Cinematographer

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Alien Encounter By Phil Rhodes

From the highest of high-end feature filmmaking to the roughand tumble of newsgathering in some of the worlds least salubriouslocations, making on-camera talent look good is a common challengeamong camera crews. This is no less true in the case of BenjaminKitchens work on the puppet-starring short film Myrna the Monster,written and directed by Ian Samuels. The film was produced byNonetheless Productions as part of a program funded by MTVs Otherinitiative, something the company describes as totally original,occasionally random [and] often weird. Kitchens confirms that in nosense did the requisite degree of originality, randomness andweirdness mitigate his responsibility to the titular star an alien fromthe moon living in modern-day Los Angeles. As Kitchens notes withstaggering understatement, Myrna has quite a nose on her. Kitchens course toward Myrna the Monster began at DrexelUniversity in Philadelphia. My girlfriend now wife was goingto school in the film program, he remembers. I was going tocommunity college to be an engineer, and I ended up transferringthere to do music and be a recording engineer. The move tofilmmaking came via music, after Kitchens had scored a couple ofshort films and ended up working on the sets. I really liked it [and]ended up working on commercials in Philadelphia, in the electricaldepartment, while I was in school and after I graduated. Id been gaffing maybe three or four years, and I was workingin Philly, New York, Connecticut, he continues. I reached this pointwhere I wanted to shoot. In pursuit of this ambition, Kitchens appliedto the American Film Institute and was accepted. His thesis project,

Narcocorrido, was one of seven nominees for the 2012 ASC AndrewLaszlo Student Heritage Award. After graduating in 2011, he says,its been music videos, commercials, and a decent number of shortfilms. Myrna director Samuels was, in one sense, an old collaborator,though the two had not worked together for some time. A goodfriend of mine, Callie Andreadis, [Myrnas] production designer,introduced us. [Samuels] was shooting a spec spot for Pez with nomoney, trying to do something. I shot that for him maybe four yearsago, and when Myrna came about, he asked me to do it. Kitchensconfirms that the choice of subject was no surprise. Ians alwaysliked stuff with puppets. Basically, MTV had given him a small amountof money and he wanted to make sure he could make a short filmout of it. The 15-minute short was shot over six days in April 2014, withone additional day of pickups for the credit sequence. The intentionto create an almost documentary-style montage structure demandeda hectic schedule. There must have been 15 or 16 locations, two orthree locations a day, Kitchens says. The script was very muchwritten in vignettes, a sort of wandering process through Myrnasexperiences in Los Angeles. Its very much a montage, jumping intime and going in and out of her backstory. The films puppetry in effect turned most setups into aphysical-effects shot, with the need to avoid giving the game awayby showing puppeteer Victor Yerrid or any of the necessary rigging.Id done visual-effects work, but Id never shot a puppet before,says Kitchens. There was a temptation to shoot unadventurousmaterial that would alleviate the potential complexity, but Kitchensinsists this was not the directors intent. This was a location-based

A heartbrokenalien from themoon tries tomake her wayin Los Angeles

in the shortfilm Myrna the

Monster.

I


Short Takes


movie none of it was on stages, thecinematographer notes, adding thatSamuels sought a loose style. He didntwant it to feel locked off. The reference for him was mostly aSpike Jonze sort of feel, Kitchens continues,like the short with the robots, Im Here[shot by Adam Kimmel, ASC] he reallyliked that. The majority of discussion,though, was about framing and thepersonality of handheld camerawork. Ianwanted to feel like [Myrna] was a person, sowe approached it in a loose style. Myrna the Monster was shot on aRed Epic Mysterium-X in 5K HD mode withZeiss Super Speed Mark 3 lenses. I shot it[with compression ratios of] 12:1 or 10:1,recalls Kitchens. We were mainly on the35mm and a lot of 50mm, especially whenwe were following a character. Withfiltration limited to NDs, the on-set cameraworkflow was kept simple. The filmmakersmonitored on 17" Panasonic displays anddumped [cards] on set, he adds. I had arotating camera department on this job. Ihad four firsts, at least my first AC got sickright before this job, so he wasnt able to doit, and I was scrambling to find people. I did the lighting the old English way very little, Kitchens continues. I likethat. I had a small truck; mainly it wasaugmenting what was naturally there. A lotof the locations we had were pretty nice and

Top: Myrna washesher clothes at the

Laundromat.Middle andbottom:

CinematographerBenjamin Kitchens

(red cap),puppeteer VictorYerrid and crew

capture the scene.


augmented well by [Andreadis]. Id turn stuffoff or do negative fill. Because of the sheernumber of location moves I kept it as simpleas I could. Kitchens lighting package included aK5600 Joker-Bug 800 HMI, Par cans andSource Four ellipsoidals, as well as two 4'four-bank Kino Flos, with tungsten, daylightor cool-white tubes as appropriate. Thepalette is very much city: metal halide,sodium vapor and daylight, thecinematographer explains. Theres very littletungsten. Regarding Myrnas pronounced

proboscis, Kitchens says, One of thechallenges was that her nose is so big that ifyou backlight her, you get a huge headshadow across her nose, which is pretty bad.We were trying to keep her looking good inthat way. But most of my lighting decisionswere based on the story, the idea of thisbeing a natural, realistic character. Theres alot of trash in the movie, and we wanted itto feel like shes always hanging out withtrash. So it wasnt so much about makingher look good as it was making her fit intothe environment and making her feel like areal person in a real world a real alien. With an eye toward realism, thefilmmakers preferred in-camera solutions tothe problems of placing Myrna convincinglyin her world, but not to the completeexclusion of digital effects. We looked forways to do it practically, but sometimes itsnot possible, Kitchens explains. When wehave shots of her walking, its four peoplewalking her, so wed [shoot] a locked-offplate. A lot of [the digital-effects workload]was wire removal. The cinematographer acknowledgesthe work of producer and postproductionsupervisor Ki Jin Kim, who helped preparethe footage for the color grade. Theproduction was finished at Prettybird inCulver City, Calif., under colorist QuinnMartin Alvarez, who worked with DaVinciResolve Lite. Kitchens was only able to attendthe first of the two grading sessions.

Afterwards, Ian really pushed this throughhimself, he notes. He was there for bothsessions. This was a large labor of love forhim, and I think it shows. Kitchens has fond memories ofenjoying a lot of freedom, creatively, fromMTV. But there were some requirements thatwe had to fulfill production-wise. Whenyoure shooting in L.A. and you have to payfor permits, thats most of the budgetgone. One particularly iconic location wasthe Sixth Street Viaduct bridge, where, asKitchens says, everyone shoots carcommercials. We wanted to shoot Myrnawalking for a transitional element, and someproduction assistant was telling us to hidewhen this car would come by with a RussianArm they were not interested in seeingMyrna in this car commercial. He sighs. Ithink shed have made a goodspokesperson.

Top: Myrna is adreamer, oftenthinking of a

lost love.Bottom:Kitchens,

director IanSamuels (greenshirt), Yerrid and

crew prep ascene.


Meeting of Minds By Andrew Fish

Soon after struggling novelist David Lipsky lands a position atRolling Stone, he reluctantly accepts that a new novel by David FosterWallace is the game-changing masterpiece everyone is touting it tobe, and he pitches a profile of the author to his editor. Landing theassignment, he joins Wallace for the last stop on his Infinite Jest booktour. He travels first to Wallaces home on the outskirts of Blooming-ton, Ill., and with an airport closure due to heavy Midwest snowfall,the two end up on a road trip to Chicago OHare, where they catcha plane to Minneapolis, getting far more one-on-one time thaneither had bargained for. The resulting mix of curiosity, envy andintellect yields intriguing conversation, awkward rivalry, and ulti-mately an outpouring of personal truths. Starring Jesse Eisenberg as Lipsky and Jason Segel as Wallace,The End of the Tour is the real-life tale of Lipskys five-day-long 1996interview with the late writer, who is considered to be one of thegreatest of his generation. Director James Ponsoldt (The SpectacularNow) tapped Swedish cinematographer Jakob Ihre, FSF to shoot.Working predominantly handheld with a Panavision Millennium XL2,Ihre framed for 2.35:1, as he and Ponsoldt both felt that the wider

format provided more weight and stature, Ihre explains, to a storythat is essentially an expression of a fond memory. Taking full advantage of his Kodak film stock, Ihre didnt shyaway from occasionally blowing out a sun-soaked background oreven bathing a foreground character in a white glow of overpower-ing backlight. FotoKem developed the negative, and dailies weregraded by EFilms Marc Lulkin. Ihres credits include the Danish production A Family, theNorwegian Nokas, and the upcoming English-language featureLouder Than Bombs. The cinematographer spoke to AC fromSweden.

American Cinematographer : How did you first becomeinvolved with this film? Jakob Ihre: James had seen two films Id shot Reprise andOslo, August 31st. They both deal with themes of existentialism, asdoes The End of the Tour. I felt very honored, as a European, to havethe chance to help reconstruct these days in the life of David FosterWallace. Which lenses did you use? Ihre: We used a Panavision Ultra Speed Z Series lens pack-age. Its a [legacy-prime design] that has been rehoused and

Production Slate

The End

of the Tou

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SF and

Micha

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24 Film

s.Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg, left) spends five days interviewing author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) during the final stop on his book tour in the film The End of the Tour.

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www.theasc.com August 2015 21

redesigned many times. How did you decide on thecamera and lens package? Ihre: Knowing that we wanted toshoot the entire film on Kodak Vision3500T [5219], even for bright, sunny days inthe snow with a shallow depth of field, Irealized that the rear ND slot of the Panav-ision cameras would help me to see clearlythrough the viewfinder as I operatemyself in comparison to having thickNDs in front of the lens. I also like that youare almost getting into character with aPanavision camera when youre shooting inAmerica. Thats a fun aspect of it, but mostof all it was the rear ND slots. How was the decision made toshoot on film? Ihre: I always prefer the way filmlooks, and I think James also comes fromthat background. It just looks more pleas-ant to the eye. The other reason was that[this project] is so much about memory andnostalgia, and the texture you get fromshooting [on film] captures those feelingsfrom the start. In that sense, its much moretrue to the story to use film. We shot on 3-perf Super 35mm. You shot on the same stockthroughout the entire shoot? Ihre: We wanted to maintainconsistent grain structure throughout thefilm. Days, nights and even the differenttime periods as the film is bookendedwith scenes that take place more than 10years after the road trip were treatedwith the same grain and lenses. Wewanted the two time periods to melttogether, and to still feel the presence ofthe absent David Foster Wallace in the laterera. If the audience understands the timejump through the use of title cards oraging through makeup, for example there is not always the need to invent aflashback look, which can be quite tire-some and distracting. Did you maintain a particular T-stop? Ihre: The stop was around 2 or 2.8throughout. First AC Michael Dzialowskidid an amazing job. The whole point wasto express that these memories and experi-ences of Lipskys are enhanced. Theyrealmost romantic in a way, and there is acertain beauty when he thinks back on

those days. Shooting fully open cansupport that idea, illustrating this throughthe diffused/shallow-depth effect signi-fying memories. What did your lighting packageconsist of? Ihre: For a [night-interior] scene in[Wallaces] living room, for example, wewould work with very small units. We oftenhad 1-by-1 Litepanels, and especially anArri LoCaster fitted with a custom Chimeracone with Lee 129 diffusion. That workedfor us in those tiny locations, but what yousaw through the windows the big,

snowy fields of [Grand Rapids, Mich.,which stood in for Illinois] was lit with18Ks mounted on cherry pickers. Abovethe house we built a soft box out of four 6Kspace lights rigged by the excellent key gripMatthew Bulleri. On day interiors we oftenlet the sun bounce off the snow outside,[and sometimes supplemented with] 18KArrimaxes. Did you have an overarchingstrategy when shooting the conversa-tions between Lipsky and Wallace? Ihre: Because they do spend a lot oftime in conversation, we could have slipped

Top: Lipsky struggles to keep his cool as Wallace chats with Lipskys girlfriend. Bottom:Cinematographer Jakob Ihre, FSF (left) and director James Ponsoldt (with viewfinder) line up a shot.


into the tendency of adding movement andaction to cover up the fact that they aretalking so much. Im so glad that Jamespushed me not to push the aesthetics inthat direction. [We were] quiet with thecamera, and tried to be as [nonintrusive] aspossible or as intrusive as Lipsky himselfwas, and not more and not to think thatwe had to entertain the audience with stun-ning visuals to make the conversations inter-esting. Lets just be there with them andlisten. The camera was often on my shoul-der, with a 35mm lens always in the line ofaction, close to their eyelines. You shot quite a few conversa-tions between Wallace and Lipskywhile they were driving. What wasyour technique for shooting the twomen inside the car? Ihre: We wanted to emphasize theclaustrophobia of the situation, but at othertimes the very opposite a more impres-sionistic sense of space. The two-shot of the

actors from the hood of the car in 2.35:1 isby default a very tension-filled composition,framed within the steel frame of the frontwindow with no sense of the surroundings,eliminating the sky and the outside of thecar itself. In contrast, we shot more personaland soul-baring scenes handheld [in thebackseat], where the vehicles steel frameintegrates with the overexposed sky,making the vehicle almost disappear. How did you light the car interi-ors? Ihre: We could actually often rely onavailable light that was bounced into the carfrom the snow-covered landscape along theroads, and on more overcast days we useda 6K HMI through a frame and differentlayers of full diffusion. At night, we used EBlights, which are made out of aluminizedKevlar with FCM bulbs and Full Grid diffu-sion. We also used some LED [LiteRibbon]from LiteGear for brake-light and traffic-signal effects.

Toward the end, there is a scenewith Wallace and Lipsky walkingthrough the snow together in brightdaylight. Its quite different from therest of the film. Ihre: For Lipsky, his days withWallace were so unique and so special, andwe needed to show that. I believe that wasone of the only shots where we steppedaside from Lipsky, seeing him from adistance, and tracking after him with awider-angle lens than we had used in thefilm before a 24mm to give a larger-than-life feel, making it almost epic. In the final scene at Wallaceshouse, Lipsky sneaks into Wallaceswriting room and its nearly pitch black,with just a few slits of light comingthrough the doorway. Ihre: We chose to leave [Wallacesoffice] in darkness; we wanted to keep itenigmatic but still tell the story. It was hardin the tight space to create that sliver oflight and to hit the keyboard on the desk atthe right moment. We had a 1.2K HMIbounced off a poly board, which wascontrolled by a flag that mimicked the dooropening. Its very basic, but the challenge isto pull it off within the short time allowedand coordinate the play between actor,camera and light. My gaffer, Larry Sushinski,was a very skillful collaborator. What kind of challenges did youencounter during the shoot? Ihre: The performances were sointense. Almost every scene was betweenthese two men, and they had many pages

Lipsky forgetswhere he

parked his rental car

and tensions boil over.


of dialogue through long days and nights.Our challenges were nothing compared towhat they had to deliver every day. Apartfrom that, the physical strain on the crewfrom shooting in extreme cold was very

hard to work with passion, outside, on anight where it is 10 degrees below therecord low! What kind of work was done inthe color grade?

Ihre: The grade was done in 2K atModern VideoFilm in Los Angeles, and weused Blackmagic Designs DaVinci Resolve.We had a great colorist, Bryan McMahan.We stayed quite true to the rushes in manyways. Shooting in the Midwest in winter,the whites, browns and grays are every-where. We tried to enhance and push theexisting colors in order to make it morevibrant and tactile. Often we referred toHappy Together, directed by Wong Kar-waiand shot by Chris Doyle [HKSC] inArgentina, which is a far cry from Illinois.But that kind of romance and warmth wassomething we wanted to trigger in thegrade by saturating or on a sunny day,for example, pushing it even warmer andbrighter than how we see it. To maintain anaturalistic look, yet to grade for a world ofnostalgia and memory we kept that asour mantra during the entire process.

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.35:13-Perf Super 35mmPanavision Panaflex Millennium XL2Panavision Ultra Speed Z SeriesKodak Vision3 500T 5219Digital Intermediate

In a scenetoward the endof the film, the

camera stepsaway from

the characters,to a wide

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ike TV.

Re-Creating the Boy Kings Reign By Phil Rhodes

My father was a carpenter, and mymother worked as a stenographer, reflectscinematographer Chris LaVasseur. When Itold them I wanted to go into the film busi-ness, my father said, Youll be a carpenter.Nobody believed it. LaVasseur pauses for amoment, and then adds, My second job,as a second AC, was on Malcolm X. Fromsuch auspicious beginnings, LaVasseur waswell-placed to begin a career that has ledmost recently to Tut, a three-part, six-hourminiseries for the television network Spikethat tells the story of King Tutankhamun(Avan Jogia), the Egyptian pharaoh whoruled circa 1330 B.C. Having chosen to overlook hisparents cautious career advice, LaVasseurstudied film production at Brooklyn College.I worked at Camera Service Center in NewYork for about a year, scrubbing out cases.While I was there, I got into the union. Onleaving CSC, LaVasseurs first job was as aloader on Single White Female under direc-tor of photography Luciano Tovoli, ASC,AIC, after which he quickly moved on toMalcolm X with Ernest Dickerson, ASC, andup the ladder of the camera department. LaVasseur first met Tut director DavidVon Ancken on the series The Following, on

each unit. LaVasseur confirms his keennessto shoot simultaneous coverage of theproductions larger-scale scenes: Anythingwith action or battle sequences, wed go fiveor sometimes six [cameras]. Mark Vargo,ASC served as both director and cinematog-rapher on the second unit, and would attendwith the sixth camera at key times. During a three-week prep period,LaVasseur and Von Ancken spent manydays on location in the desert working withstunt coordinator [Cedric Proust] on thebattle-scene choreography and puttingtogether shot lists, the cinematographernotes. LaVasseur credits the director with anefficient style: Wed do [a shot] once ortwice and hed say, Moving on. David, firstAD Carl Ludwig and I worked very welltogether, which allowed us to keepmoving. Even a brief conversation with VonAncken reveals that the director holds hiscinematographer in similarly high regard. Iliked Chris aggressive style, he says. Hegot involved with operating and handheld he wasnt sitting back at all. That aggressive style was espe-cially on display for Tuts battle scenes.According to LaVasseur, Von Anckenwanted the audience to be right smack inthe middle of the action and feel what itwas like to be on the battlefield 3,000 yearsago. To help achieve such a perspective,both first and second units employed Black-magic Designs Pocket Cinema Cameraswith Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm(f2.8) zoom lenses. The cinematographercontinues, We placed the Pocket CinemaCameras very close to the action to get thebest angles possible. In one particular shot,an Egyptian soldier actually jumped on topof me from a ledge while I was holding thecamera. He adds that Vargo designedvery specific shots with the Pocket CinemaCameras, such as attaching one to a bowand arrow. Committed to making Tut as visualan experience as possible, Von Anckennotes that he cut 65 pages of dialoguefrom the script. The writer, Michael Vicker-man, isnt precious at all. I wanted to tell thestory through pictures as much as possible.The director is quick to associate this ambi-tion with his choice of LaVasseur. Chris hasan affection for classic, larger cinema. Big

which LaVasseur shot pickups on the ninthday of ostensibly eight-day episodes. Wekind of clicked, LaVasseur recalls. Im ahigh-energy guy, and we picked up veryquickly. Then I did the TV show Hostages,and again he came on to direct, and we shota really good episode [Sisters Keeper]. Eventually, LaVasseur discovered Tutvia his agent. I texted David that I knew hewas doing Tut and that Id love to do it.After becoming aware of LaVasseurs inter-est, Von Ancken pushed for me real hard,LaVasseur continues. If it wasnt for David,I wouldnt have been on Tut. When hecalled and told me, I was like, Wow, this isour Lawrence of Arabia. Given such lofty ambitions and thehigh demands of modern television produc-tion, Tuts shooting schedule could gener-ously be described as modest. To empha-size, LaVasseur points to Ridley Scottshistorical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings (ACJan. 15). Photographed by Dariusz Wolski,ASC, Exodus had a 74-day schedule andproduced a two-hour movie. We had 74days to produce a six-hour movie, musesLaVasseur. It was intense, but we wereable to stay on schedule by using multiplecameras. The production enjoyed the constantavailability of two units, with three Arri AlexaPluses one built for Steadicam and twofor studio or handheld work carried by

King Tutankhamun (Avan Jogia, right) struggles to lead Egypt to glory while his closestadvisors, friends and lovers scheme for their own nefarious interests in the miniseries Tut.


I


Scope Westerns that let the picture tell thestory. If I could have shot this in 2.35:1, Iwould have but [the network] wont letyou! Tuts camera and lens package wasrented from Panavision in London and alsoincluded a full set of Primo primes; a Primo11:1 24-275mm (T2.8); and AngenieuxOptimo 15-40mm (T2.6), 28-76mm (T2.6)and 45-120mm (T2.8) zooms. I really likedthe 45-120mm Angenieux, but most of thetime in the palace we stayed on the 11:1,

notes LaVasseur. Outside in the desert, onecamera [typically] had the 15-40mm andone the 28-76mm. This helped in theextreme working conditions, as it was oftenchallenging to make lens changes. The Alexas recorded internally inProRes 4:4:4:4 and the Blackmagic camerarecorded 10-bit ProRes 4:2:2 (HQ) files. Thepace of the production necessitated astraightforward approach to the on-setworkflow. We had a colorist, Trevor White,at the hotel, says LaVasseur, so at night,

after wed finished shooting, Id go to hishotel room, hed put a couple of frames upfor me, and we would color-correct accord-ingly. The shows expansive desert exteriorswere shot around Ouarzazate in Morocco,often some distance from the crews hotel.Some of them were a two-hour drive,remembers LaVasseur. Most of them werean hour plus. These scenes employed asmany as 800 extras (duplicated in postpro-duction to look like 5,000). And the produc-tions expansive sets, which were built on thefamous back lots of Atlas Studios whereLawrence of Arabia and Kingdom of Heavenwere shot, also took a lot of filling, the cine-matographer says. As an example, he notes,The courtyard was 600-by-300 feet. Wetook full advantage of showing [productiondesigner] Michael Hanans work. LaVasseur says his visual referencescame from a variety of sources on ancientEgypt, in particular the painter DavidRoberts, who was there in the 1830s andstarted painting these oils of what ancientEgypt would have looked like. I printed them,and when I walked into Michael Hanansoffice, they were all over his walls. It was niceto see that we had come to share the samepoints of inspiration for the shows vision. David, Spike and [production

Top: The crewfilms a scene withSir Ben Kingsley(left, portrayingAy) and Jogia.

Bottom: Ay servesas the GrandVizier to KingTutankhamun.


company] Muse stressed that they didntwant Tut to look like Game of Thrones,LaVasseur continues. They didnt want adark, desaturated, gloomy look. Theywanted a bright, colorful look, especially inthe costumes [designed] by Carlo Poggioli. Given the remoteness of the locationand the enormity of certain exteriors, thecinematographer explains, when we didthe big wide shots, wed let [the lighting]go, and used available light. [For closershots] it would be difficult to use a flyswat-ter overhead, so when I could, I would senda 20-by-20 [with] a double net and a LightGrid up on large stands the net takes theintensity and the Grid softens the light. Youpick and choose your battles. Obviously, theend goal is to ensure that the actors lookgood! LaVasseur and Von Ancken made anearly decision to use a rougher, less-polishedstyle in the desert, to contrast the chaos ofthe outside world with the more controlled

environment of the palace, which was builtin Dino De Laurentiis CLA Studios. Whenwe shot in the desert, its a bit rough, andmost of the time we went handheld, saysLaVasseur. I tried to make the palace scenesslicker, he continues. Everythings stable. Imostly used real flame when I was [shoot-ing close-ups], and Im a sucker for big lightsources. I like book lights. Typically, Illbounce a 2K Zip light into a 12-by Ultra-bounce, softened with a 12-by Light Grid infront of it, right out of frame. Ill use thatlight as a wrap and let the other side fall offon the dark side. I dont use that much fill.Inside the palace, LaVasseur used CTOgel to match tungsten lighting to practicalflame and, he says, when we timed it, Itook the orange out just a little bit. Foroutside the palace, Lee 117 a greenish-blue gel was applied to moonlightsources in order to contrast with the fire-light.

LaVasseurs lighting package wassplit into provisions for either day or nightshooting. For the night package, we hadsix Maxi-Brutes, six Mini-Brutes, four 10Ks,four 5Ks, and an assortment of 2Ks, 1Ksand Inkies, the cinematographer details.For large-scale day exteriors, though,LaVasseur says he had to fight for twoArrimaxes if I wanted to fill in the actors inorder to compete with the intensity of theMoroccan sun. For one courtyard scene,he blasted them right in [the actors] facesthrough Light Grid. I dont like doing that; Ididnt want to make [the cast] uncomfort-able, but I wanted to see their eyes. At press time, Tuts final grade wasabout to commence with colorist ScottKlein at Technicolor in Los Angeles, wherethe trailer had been finished on QuantelsPablo system. LaVasseur was scheduled tohave a mere four days to supervise eachtwo-hour episode. Ill set up day exteriors,night exteriors very broad strokes, hesays. Then theyll do a match, and Ill takea look at it. Upcoming work for LaVasseurincludes the series Unforgettable, a crimedrama for A&E about a woman with aphotographic memory. [Ive done] showslike Nurse Jackie and Hostages, so when theopportunity to photograph Tut arose, it wasthe perfect chance to shoot somethingdifferent on a much grander scale. It was avery special project for me. If we did this inAmerica, it would have been 30 extras, butit was like a DeMille movie we had athousand extras, it wasnt greenscreen,everything was real. Even on the back lotsat the studios, there were people walkingaround with camels. It was like I was trans-ported back to 1950. The viewing audi-ence, of course, will be transported backrather further than that.

TECHNICAL SPECS

1.78:1Digital CaptureArri Alexa Plus, Blackmagic Design PocketCinema Camera

Panavision Primo, Angenieux Optimo, Panasonic Lumix G X Vario

Top: BlackmagicPocket CinemaCameras were

used to capture shotsamid actionsequences.

Bottom:CinematographerChris LaVasseurcontemplates

a shot.


Robert Elswit, ASC details the production of

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation,his second foray with

the franchise.

By Michael Goldman

|

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his handpicked team ofassociates from the Impossible Mission Force must onceagain face down seemingly insurmountable odds inMission: Impossible Rogue Nation. Behind the scenes,cinematographer Robert Elswit, ASC was likewise tapped fora return to the field after shooting the previous installment inthe long-running franchise, 2011s Mission: Impossible GhostProtocol. Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directedRogue Nation, had worked on the script for Ghost Protocol, so,as Elswit explains, we had worked together indirectly on thelast movie. Between McQuarrie and producer-star Cruise,Elswit adds with a chuckle, I guess they just decided it would

Going Rogue


Unit photography by Keith H

amshere, SMPS

P; D

avid Jam

es, SMPS

P; Christian Black; and Bo Bridges, courtesy of Param

ount Pictures and Skydance Productions.

be nice if I would shoot this movie. The filmmakers challenges onRogue Nation included the need to beginshooting the storys action set pieceseven before the final script had beencompleted, as well as finding ways toviscerally and safely showcase thestunt work that Cruise would performhimself. The production also called forits fair share of globe-trotting, with keysequences being photographed in theU.S., the U.K., Morocco and Austria.Elswit recently spoke with AC about theadventure of making Rogue Nation, andin separate interviews, 1st AC ErikBrown, key grip Chris Centrella andgaffer Lee Walters further detailed someof the particulars the team had to tackle.Following are highlights from thoseconversations.

American Cinematographer:What led to the decision to shootRogue Nation predominantly on film? Robert Elswit, ASC: The entiremovie was shot on film, except for onecomplex underwater sequence, and the

primary reason was because Tom andChris just dont like the way digitalcapture looks all the way through to thefinal product. [In particular,] TomCruise and it was really his choice doesnt like the way [digitally acquiredmaterial] looks in digital projection,even when you put a film curve on it. Allthe systems have a kind of quality,

though subtle, that Tom just doesnt carefor. He wont do it until they run out offilm or nobody can process it anymore.Hes a traditionalist, and he doesnt think[digital capture] is an improvementbeyond workflow; its not an image-quality improvement, from his point ofview. I was happy with the choice. The

Opposite and thispage, top:ImpossibleMission Forceagent Ethan Hunt(Tom Cruise)returns to actionin an effort totake down theshadowyorganizationknown as theSyndicate in thefeature Mission:Impossible Rogue Nation.Bottom:CinematographerRobert Elswit,ASC (right) checks thelighting on actorJeremy Renner.


GoingRogue

only movie Ive shot substantially [digi-tally] was Nightcrawler [AC Nov. 14],and even there I ended up shooting allthe day work on film, because I didntfeel I was experienced enough [withdigital cameras] to handle the extremecontrast range of shooting on a beach.We had wonderful stocks available fromKodak [for Rogue Nation], and what weended up with was quite remarkable andpretty consistent when they scanned thenegative and we went to a DCP or a DIroom [all at Company 3 in London],especially since we were shootinganamorphic. [The negative wasprocessed at i dailies in London.] Erik Brown: The main-unitcamera package consisted of threePanavision Millennium XL2 bodies A, B and Steadicam as well as anArri 235 and 435 for some rig work andany high-speed shots. The bulk of thepicture was shot on two Kodak[Vision3] stocks: [200T] 5213 and[500T] 5219. Robert prefers to shoot indaylight conditions without an 85 filterand correct in the transfer, and we usedminimum filtration in general usually just neutral-density filters duringday exteriors. Which lenses did you pair withthose Millennium XL2s? Brown: Robert chose to go with

The crewcaptures an

action sequencewith Cruise

on an Airbus A400Mmilitary plane.


the older Panavision C Series anamor-phics with a few contemporarytweaks made to them feeling theywould be perfect for the classic movielook that he and Chris McQuarrie wereaiming for. They are relatively small andlightweight, which is great when doinghandheld or Steadicam, or when youneed to make the camera as small aspossible for tight spaces. Our goal was to put together twosets of C Series anamorphic primes, onefor A camera and one for B camera. Wewanted them to be as matched as possi-ble with an inherent look best describedas neutral, not biased toward beingwarm or cool, so that cutting betweenthe different cameras and shots wouldrequire [minimal help in post]. This wasnot an easy task with the C Series lenses,which were hand-assembled and are alluniquely individual, unlike contempo-rary lenses that all meet exacting manu-facturing and optical standards. It wasalso difficult to put two sets together dueto the high demand for Panavisionsanamorphic lenses. We owe a huge debtto [ASC associate] Lori Killam, ourmarketing rep, for sourcing and schedul-ing the lenses for us; to Dan Sasaki[ASC associate and Panavisions vicepresident of optical engineering], forputting our lenses together; and toCharlie Todman and his outstandingcrew at Panavision London, who did allour servicing and camera supportthroughout the production. Dan modified several of themiddle and longer focal lengths to focus6 inches to a foot closer than theirnormal minimum focus. He also madesure that all the front elements of our CSeries lenses had modern lens coatings,as we were often looking into the sky orbright backgrounds and we wanted tominimize the veiling, halation and flar-ing that would often happen in thosesituations with the original C Seriescoatings. Also, due to lens-availabilityissues, Dan ended up hand-buildingseveral of the lenses for us, and the endresult was both technically and visuallyfantastic. Dan also provided othermodifications for us [including the

Top:Crewmembersget a wide shotof the plane onthe runway.Middle: Theplane takes tothe air, withCruise stillhanging onoutside. Bottom:Cruise braces for action.


creation of a 25mm lens that had theoptical qualities of the C Series but wassmaller and had minimal barrel distor-tion, and the modification of a 60mmlens, which Elswit often used forinserts, to allow it to focus to 17 inches]. We also carried a full set of GSeries anamorphics. [One reason forthat] was in case we didnt have enoughglass if we added extra cameras or asplinter unit was assembled on shortnotice. The second reason was safety. Ifwe had a shot where we were concernedthat a lens might be damaged, we woulddo that shot with a G Series lens, sincethose are [more easily] replaceable although I dont think we damaged anylenses on main unit. We also carriedseveral zooms [including AWZ2 40-80mm (T2.8), ATZ 70-200mm (T3.5)and ALZ11 48-550mm (T4.5)], butused them sparingly. How would you define the clas-sic movie look you wanted for thefilms visual aesthetic? Elswit: We tried to do whatanamorphic lenses classically forced youto do a classic style of wide shots,medium close-ups and close-ups, liketraditional filmmaking. But what reallyends up driving it is that this is a movie-star movie. It presents Tom and theother actors in a more traditional way.Its the opposite of a Bourne movie;were not looking at them with longlenses, fast cuts and whip pans. Wewanted a kind of strong, heroic, roman-tic style, [as evidenced with] the ViennaOpera House sequence. There is a styl-ish gloss or sheen to it, kind of a throw-back to the first Mission: Impossible film[directed by Brian de Palma and shot byStephen H. Burum, ASC; AC June 96]. Its an idealized world, but themagic is to try and not call attention tothat fact, to make it not feel self-consciously lit or stylized. Its theapproach Roger Deakins [ASC, BSC]was so good at in the last Bond movie[Skyfall; AC Dec. 12]. It lookscompletely realistic and authentic, andyou believe in the world you are lookingat. That is what I mean by classic, butits a modern approach to that idea.

GoingRogue

Elswit (bottom) and crew work out an extended chase involving motorcycles and a BMW sedan.


You referred earlier to thecomplex underwater stunt sequence.As I understand it, in the story, EthanHunt has to steal a hard drive from asubmerged chamber. Please describethe stunt, and tell us how you shot it. Elswit: The idea is that there isthis secret chamber, sort of shaped like agiant donut that is to say, about 100feet in circumference, and 20 feet talland round. Ethan has to dive into it,and he cant have anything metal onhim or he will be detected, so he has tohold his breath. We built the parts ofthe set that he touches, and the rest of itwas actually all greenscreen [in a tank atLondons Warner Bros. Studios,Leavesden]. But, of course, Tominsisted on doing the stunt, and he actu-ally holds his breath although obvi-ously not really for three minutesstraight. We broke the shots up so thatthere were ellipses and ways to have himgo in and out of things so that it appearshe is actually doing it straight. It was avery complex scene to put together,specifically arranged around an animaticbased on storyboards. We chose to shoot with the newArri Alexa 65 large-format system,since we knew there would be an Imaxpresentation, and with all the visualeffects involved we needed a camerathat could give us a really huge andbeautiful digital file. [Underwater direc-tor of photography] Pete Romano[ASC] came to London for about amonth and a half just to do proof ofconcept, to help us see if the shots in theanimatic could be achieved. Pete helped us figure out how toshoot the sequence, for the most part,with transferred motion the samekind of thing they did with the rocketships on Star Wars [AC July 77]. In thesequence, Ethan swims the entirecircumference of the underwater cham-ber, does flips and spins, almost getsknocked over, gets pulled in certaindirections, and finally appears to inhalesome water before Ilsa [RebeccaFerguson] saves him. The only way wecould make them appear to movethrough space and manipulate them

Top and middle: The production employed a number of rigs to capture the vehicular action. Bottom:Director Christopher McQuarrie (left) discusses the sequence with actors Simon Pegg and Cruise.


with any real control while they wereliterally holding their breath underwa-ter was to do it with transferredmotion: We transferred movementfrom the camera to the stationaryactors so that Tom appears to be flyingthrough the space. Sometimes he actu-ally is, but often he is only moving a fewfeet against the camera, which is actu-ally creating the sense of motion

GoingRogue

against the greenscreen. Chris Centrella: The cameramovements had to be very precise tomatch the previs, and the camera plat-form needed to be stable enough so thatthe visual-effects department couldbuild the CGI environment and Iwould be able to repeat the moves in away that was organic enough to matchToms variables as much as possible.

That meant no free-diving [with thecamera]. In addition, several shotsrequired the camera to move as much as6 feet per second. Working with[special-effects supervisor] DominicTuohy, we developed a rail system thatwe bolted to the floor of the tank, allow-ing us to move the camera at thosespeeds underwater. For the entire underwater shoot, Iused a modified Grip Factory MunichGF-16 crane with a [remote]HydroHead, carrying the Hydro hous-ing with the Alexa 65. Because of thedepth Tom was working at [12 feet] andthe set pieces designed for the tank, werigged the GF-16 with a 15-footcamera drop-down. That allowed thecrew on the surface [to achieve] precise,linear moves that were repeatable forthe numerous rehearsals involved infine-tuning each shot. Some shotsrequired the four-man crew to move thecamera 30 feet and incorporate a 10-foot boom at full speed, mere inchesfrom Toms head, using only laser marksand monitors. [The Alexa 65 shotArriRaw to internal Codex drives.] Gaffer Lee Walters tells us you

Multiple camerasare put into

position as actorRebecca Fergusonprepares for her

motorcycle work.

lit the tank primarily with underwaterLEDs integrated into the set, all ofwhich were cabled to ultra-lowwattage LED drivers connected to acentral GrandMa2 lighting consolethat enabled instantaneous controlfrom above the surface. Elswit: Again, in the story, it issupposedly a huge cylinder that haswater moving through it at high speed.Nobody is supposed to go down there,so, creatively, why would there be light-ing down there? We had to come upwith some sort of ambient light thatappeared to come from the electronicsdown there. Most of the time, Tom wasin a harness manipulated by the bigarm, and they were twisting and drag-ging him, so we lit him from particulardirections to throw shadows all over hisbody. In figuring out how to do that, itjust made sense to put everything downlow [below Cruise], and we also endedup using [prototype underwater LEDtubes, designed and supplied by RickyMiller from Arri], which we sped alongthe axis of movement, along the circular

Ilsa (Ferguson) rescues an imprisoned Hunt.


travel of the camera and the arm thatwas moving Tom and Rebecca back andforth. [HydroFlos were used to light thegreenscreen backings.] Beyond the underwater scene,Walters tells us you frequently builtLEDs into sets and used 500-watt,650-watt and 1K Tiffen Rifa 88s for asoft backlight effect. He also

mentions that, for major nighttimestunt sequences, you relied heavily ontwo 24K tungsten Fresnels to bouncelight into 20-by-12 bleached muslin,and for day scenes you would replacethose lamps with Arrimax 18Ks. Howwould you describe the movies overallstyle of lighting and camera move-ment?

Elswit: We didnt want it to feeloverlit, but at the same time, everythingis lit so that the actors look good, evenin stressful situations. In that sense,although the lighting was scene-depen-dent and location-dependent, it wasalso Tom Cruise-dependent. Wheneverhis character walks into a room, we tryto make the viewer understand thespace he is in. Usually that means thespace is not flatly lit it has just a littlebit of shadow and a little bit of contrast.You want to feel what his character isfeeling. Everything revolves aroundimagining what is going on with hischaracter. Beyond that, there are differentworlds Casablanca, London,Vienna, D.C. and for each location,there are extreme contrasts in the qual-ity of light. It depended on the place,the architecture. We went with whatwas there automatically in that sensewe didnt have to create anything. Therearent really any sunny days in the movieuntil we get to Casablanca; that part ofthe movie feels contrasty and harsh, andwe ended up blowing out highlightsmore and making it feel less controlled,like they really were in an exotic loca-

GoingRogue

Cruise and thecrew tackle anight exterior

in London.

tion. I didnt want it to feel like we hadan arc up, hitting people in the face,balancing the light. Its a little bitrougher than that. We also didnt wantto feel like we were on a back lot, evenwhen we were on a back lot for certainscenes. Vienna was more elegant andstylized, colder and darker, moreromantic that is the location wherewe finally meet [Fergusons character],and where we have another compli-cated action sequence backstage duringa performance at the Vienna OperaHouse. Thats the most theatrical lookin the movie, because we mainly usespill and direct lights from the opera onstage, which was fun to play with. As far as camera movement,Christopher really wanted a lot ofmovement and energy lots ofSteadicam, lots of handheld. Hewanted to emphasize camera move-ment, but have it grow out of whateverthe staging and blocking was, to addanother level of energy. There arentmany moments where people are stand-ing still. Lee Walters: For the ViennaOpera House, we used more than 4024Ks fitted with high-sodium filters ontop of every corner of every surround-

ing building rooftop; they were all wire-lessly controlled by a pad on set. Wehad a lighting designer help in usingLH2 [Studios] in London to re-createthe interior lighting of the opera, withmoving lights, Source Fours and floods. Did all the complexities make itdifficult to pull focus? Brown: It was challenging onseveral fronts. Since it was a film show,there was no instant digital gratificationof knowing a shot was in focus, so I wasquite eager for lab and transfer reportsevery morning. You have to know yourlenses, and know they are calibratedaccurately, because youre actually usingthe lens scales. And then, anamorphiclenses are more difficult with regard tofocus than spherical, because of theinherently shallower depth of field.They look beautiful, but it comes at acost to the focus puller. We were oftenjust off wide open for much of the stagework and all of the night work. Many of the action scenes tookplace in locations that made it impossi-ble to use a tape measure or get anyreference marks backstage at anopera, where most of the action takesplace off the ground, on moving trestlesand in towers; underwater; outside offlying airplanes; car and motorcycle

Elswit frames the action for an interior scene with Ferguson.

chases, etc. And the camera was rarelystatic. Whether on a dolly, slider, carmount or crane, and whether an actionscene or dialogue scene, the camera wasusually in motion. As a result, I reliedheavily on the Preston remote-focusingsystem, as it was often impossible tophysically put my hand on a focus knob. But perhaps the single biggestfocus challenge was due to the fact thatTom Cruise doesnt like to rehearse.More often than not, his first line whenhe got to set would be, You guys ready?Lets shoot! One of the films highlights isthe sequence in which Ethan Huntfinds himself clinging to the outside ofan Airbus A400M military plane as ittakes off. Once again, Tom Cruiseperformed the stunt himself. How wasthat filmed? Centrella: Tom was adamantthat he do the stunt, and so he, Robertand the director agreed that the bestway to achieve this was by filming the

GoingRogue

A Filmotechnic Russian Arm on a Mercedes ML63 rolls into position for the Airbus sequence.

42

sequence in one shot. The sequencebegins with his character sliding downthe fuselage of the plane and clutchingonto the parachute door as it takes off.We used the 50-foot Technocrane witha Libra head for stabilization to filmTom sliding down the actual plane, andthen the next cut began the single shot.It goes without saying that working inthis environment required extremesafety; we needed permission fromAirbus to [meet their safety standards]. To facilitate camera placement, arig was designed to extend through twoport windows so we could place thecamera along the fuselage. I used aGyron Super G [gimbal] for stabiliza-tion, and the [Gyron team] was helpfulin extending the speed-rating envelopefor which the head was rated. Robertreally wanted to use thousand-footmags, and the head performed perfectly. Elswit: The rig was really a giantpiece of steel that essentially poked outthe two windows in the side of the fuse-

lage, and it supported the camera,which was in that great [Gyron SuperG] aerodynamic housing a giant podthat allowed us to pan and tilt. Therewas a truss and superstructure inside theairplane, and then Tom was wearing avest with a number of cables that wentthrough a window and the power door,and that is what locked him to the sideof the plane so that there was no possi-bility of him falling off. Just having Tom do such stuntshimself creates a set of issues. You haveto shoot it in such a way that the audi-ence knows its him. So there was areally close [coordination] with second-unit director Gregg Smrz and stuntcoordinator Wade Eastwood. Editors Note: James Slattery atCompany 3 London worked in BlackmagicDesigns DaVinci Resolve 11 to color all ofRogue Nations dailies, for whichCompany 3 scanned the negative in 2K ona Spirit 4K, then down-rezzed the files toHD as DNx115 Avid media that was sent

to editorial via Aspera. Later, for visual-effects vendors and the final grade thelatter of which, at press time, was about tobegin at Company 3 London with Resolve11 the facility scanned the negative to2K 10-bit DPX files with an Arriscan.

TECHNICAL SPECS

2.39:1

35mm Anamorphic and Digital Capture

Panaflex Millennium XL2; Arri 235, 435, Alexa 65

Panavision C Series, G Series,Anamorphic Zoom

Kodak Vision3 200T 5213,500T 5219

Digital Intermediate

43

Russell Carpenter, ASC and a teamof collaborators stage big action insmall spaces for the superhero movieAnt-Man, directed by Peyton Reed.

By Noah Kadner

|

T he Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly expandingwith the addition of multiple interlocking movies peryear. Its most recent growth spurt marked the entry of thedecidedly diminutive hero of Ant-Man, directed byPeyton Reed and shot by Russell Carpenter, ASC. Based onthe adventures of the size-shifting comic-book hero of thesame name, Ant-Man tells the origin story of Scott Lang (PaulRudd), a low-level San Francisco Bay Area thief who getstaken under the proverbial wings of entomologist-physicistHank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope Van


MacroHeroics


I told my agent it would be really fun toget back into big action movies. At thesame time, Marvel was changing direc-tors on Ant-Manwhile planning to stickwith its original summer 2015 releaseschedule. Peyton came in on short noticeand brought me in a week later with avery compressed preproduction sched-ule. So we both had to put on our Nikesand hit the ground running. The production shot on locationin San Francisco and on stages atPinewood Studios in Atlanta, Ga.; prin-cipal photography lasted from August

of the genre and be as photo-realistic aspossible by avoiding the oversized-proplook of many of those earlier films. Carpenter had previously dealtwith a scaled-down character in thefamily-oriented fantasy The Indian in theCupboard (AC Aug. 95). Having alsoshot Titanic (ACDec. 97) and True Lies(AC Sept. 94), the cinematographer isno stranger to complex action, either,and prior to Ant-Man he was looking toreturn to the genre. I was doing indiefilms and just finishing up a low-budgetfeature in India called Parched, he says.

Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Pym aims topass his miniaturization and insect-control technology to Scott while keep-ing it from the clutches of Darren Cross,a.k.a. Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll). Behind the scenes, Ant-Manencountered a major challenge when itsoriginal director departed over creativedifferences and was replaced by Reedjust three months before shooting began.I had come in a couple of years earlierwith an elaborate pitch on Guardians ofthe Galaxy, which ultimately went to[director] James Gunn, reveals Reed.Ive also known [Marvel producer]Kevin Feige for over a decade. I grew upon Marvel comics, so I knew this char-acter inside and out. And I saw thedevelopment materials and visual-effectstests, which all really blew me away. With Reed onboard, the next stepwas to quickly secure a director ofphotography. Russell is a genius cine-matographer who had great things to sayabout the light play and the visuals thatwould be possible if we were really work-ing down at a macro scale, Reed says.Theres a long history of shrinking-character movies, from The IncredibleShrinking Man to Honey, I Shrunk theKids. Russell was like-minded that wecould make Ant-Man the 2015 versionUnit pho

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Opposite and thispage, top: Low-level thief ScottLang (Paul Rudd)becomes thesuperhero Ant-Man after gettinginvolved withentomologist-physicist HankPym (MichaelDouglas) and hisdaughter, HopeVan Dyne(Evangeline Lilly).Bottom:CinematographerRussell Carpenter,ASC lines up a shot.


through December 2014. Coremembers of Carpenters crew included1st AC Jeffrey Civa, B-camera 1st ACSean Moe, digital-imaging technicianRafel Montoya, DIT/data-managementsupervisor Kyle Spicer and chief lightingtechnician Len Levine. Carpenter shotAnt-Man using Arri Alexa XT camerassupplemented with an Alexa Mcompact body for tight quarters. Hecaptured Open Gate ArriRaw to Codexdigital recorders for an eventual 2K,1.85:1 release. Panavision WoodlandHills and Panavision Atlanta supplied

the Alexa bodies. ASC associate Dan Sasaki,Panavisions VP of optical engineering,helped Moe handpick the productionsset of Panavision Primo V prime lenses.The lens package also includedPanavision Primo 15-40mm T2.6, 19-90mm T2.8 and 24-275mm T2.8zooms, as well as an Angenieux Optimo28-76mm T2.6 zoom and, as Moenotes, a beautiful 12mm Panavision lensmodified to work with the Open Gatecameras. Sasaki also modified a P+STechnik Skater Scope with a PV mount

and supplied some lightweight PanavisionSuper Speeds 14mm to 50mm. TheSkater Scope was instrumental in provid-ing many of the hard-to-reach Ant-Manangles. A-camera operator Peter Rosenfeldmade frequent use of a Talon repeatableremote head from Pacific MotionControl, and a special four-camera Alexacircular array captured certain shots thatrequired an expanded field of view fromAnt-Mans perspective as well as exteriorSan Francisco background plates. To help define Ant-Mans overalllook, Carpenter first reviewed the previ-ous films in the Marvel canon. I waslooking at pretty much everything startingwith the Iron Man movies, he recalls. Ireally liked the look of Captain America:The Winter Soldier [shot by TrentOpaloch], so we got the LUT used onthat production and tested it with theAlexa. I fell in love with the way it tookthe bite out of more strident colors likered, compared to how they looked in reallife in particular, I knew it would helpwith the rendering of the Ant-Mancostume. I made a few minor modifica-tions to how the blacks and shadow detailswere represented, and we had our LUT. To provide consistency for the

Macro Heroics

Top: Pymdiscusses his

miniaturizationand insect-controltechnology with

Lang. Bottom:Lang inspects hisnew wardrobe.


applied LUT across the array of on-setmonitors, Montoya and Spicer deployedFujifilms IS-mini digital color-adjust-ment device for both image preview andmonitor calibration. Michael Bulbenko,Fujifilm North Americas marketing andsales development manager, explains, Inthe cinema workflow, youre sending Logdirectly into the IS-mini, then you tell thesoftware which camera youre using theIS-mini has all the cameras available aspresets. Next, you build up the initialconversion LUT as a 26-sided 3D cube inthe color-correction window. Finally, youapply monitor calibration on the back end a process designed to be painless andsimple, and that has been proven to beextremely accurate. Its as color-managedand consistent a picture as is currentlypossible across different monitors andcameras. You can also export the onsetLUT or a CDL to share with the dailiesand DI grading teams. To capture the unique perspectiveof a half-inch-tall character, cinematogra-pher Rebecca Baehler led a macro unitthat shadowed Carpenters main unitthroughout production. Baehler usedAlexa XT and Vision Research PhantomFlex4K high-speed cameras to capturemacro-environment plates for Ant-Mansminiature action scenes.

Russell and Peyton wanted tophotograph the macro portions withreal sets and live action, so they calledmy agent looking for a macro, motion-control and tabletop-photographyspecialist, says Baehler. We used theAlexa and the Phantom with Milo andBolt motion-control rigs and the FrazierLens System. The Frazier is aperiscope/mirror tube that can get veryclose to surfaces and rotate 360 degrees.We shot with lenses ranging from17mm to 50mm. At 17mm you can get

super-close macro and still keep thebackground in focus; at 50mm you canget shallow focus practically on just thehead of a pin. We also used a 100mmmacro as well as the Primo MacroZoom 14.5-50mm [T2.2], but the bulkof the work was with the Frazier LensSystem. [The production used] custom-built pieces specifically made for macrounit, says visual-effects supervisor JakeMorrison. They were 1-to-1 scale ofthe real sets, but had significantly more

Top: Thisconcept artillustrates theaction for abathroom scene.Bottom: Langprepares to getdown and dirtywith the surfaceof the tub.

detailing. As the level of scrutiny that thestills cameras achieved was so high, thesets and props on the macro sets werebuilt using real items i.e., a set withrusty water pipes had to be created usingsalvaged pipes, not fresh pipes that weredressed to look older. Jann Engel, macroart director, was responsible for puttingtogether these macro sets for us. Many shots featured pyrotech-nics, particles and liquids, so wefrequently went up to 1,000 fps on thePhantom, blasting the set with 20Ks,says Baehler. We had complex shotswhere [in the final composite] you seeAnt-Man running through a tube, and[for the plate] wed flip the Frazier upsidedown and twist in the middle of a take it was very aggressive and dynamic. Wealso handled simpler shots where Ant-Man is supposed to be running across aworkbench, for example, and we lit theworkbench with a little LiteGearLiteRibbon or even LED flashlights.Baehler matched her motion-controlshots to the extensive previs and also shotvariations to provide more flexibility inpost. Several of the films early scenestake place within Hank Pyms mansion,which was constructed onstage atPinewood. Levine lit these interiors witha combination of practicals, Source Fours,Par cans, and Chimera strip banks


Macro Heroics

Top and middle:Van Dyne

encountersDarren Cross(Corey Stoll),

who militarizesPyms

technology foruse as the villain

Yellowjacket.Bottom:

Carpenterexamines thelighting in the

Pym Tech lab set.


warmed up with Rosco CTS gels. Tosimulate ambience coming fromoutdoors, Levine aimed Maxi-Brutes andadditional Par cans through the setswindows. Pyms mansion includes a largecontrol room where Hank reviews vari-ous activities on a phalanx of computerscreens and TV monitors. Michaelscharacters glasses were a reflection chal-lenge, notes Levine. We went with themonitors as a source to provide a naturalreflection and augmented with small,homemade LED light cards made withLiteGear parts. There was an overheadfluorescent box to anchor the room witha bright spot in the middle; it switched onwith a bit of a realistic delay when a char-acter turned on the lights. We filled in therest with Kino Flo VistaBeams, oftenhandheld to follow over-the-shouldershots. Another key location was the PymTech lab, where Cross has militarizedPyms technology into the deadlyYellowjacket costume. Carpenter wantedthe set to emanate a tangible energy. Iloved [production designer] ShepherdFrankels concept that the lighting wasintegrated into the architecture of thelaboratory, notes Carpenter. We usedhigh-intensity, narrow-spectrum bluetubes in Kino Flos to create a super-blue,radiant light, and all of that was built into

the glass walls and surfaces of the lab. In another section of the lab,Levine rigged Chroma-Qs Color ForceRGBA LED battens to pulse behindhoneycomb-shaped fixtures built intothe walls and ceilings. We had 280dimmable 4-foot LiteGear xFlos over-head, explains Levine. On the backwalls, we used ladder lights, which are 4-foot MacTech tubes suspended in air.We did 14 rows of them at 4 feet eachand 20 tubes high. Those were alsodimmable and very punchy. Due in part to the highlycompressed production schedule,Carpenter relied on the Pix digitaldailies system to review each daysfootage on a secure iPad. You know

youre not getting near the same level ofdetail you would [with projection], thecinematographer laments. But, surpris-ingly, it looks great and works very wellfor review. Morrison kept track of shots thatwere split across several vendors, withthe bulk of the work going to IndustrialLight & Magic, Double Negative,Method Studios and Luma Pictures.There are approximately 1,600 visual-effects shots in the movie which isactually modest by modern blockbusterstandards, says Morrison. But eachshot is a lot more complex than thenorm. Its not like [a shot of] Thor, forexample, where he flies into a shot todeliver a line, and for the first 20 frames

Top: Langcommunicateswith an ant.Bottom: Langresurfaces fromthe antssubterraneanabode.

or so hes CG and then the rest of theshot is mostly live action. Nearly everyshot with little Ant-Man is CG. Early on in the process,Morrison continues, we discovered thatno matter how small the lens was, or howclose we got to a surface, the resultingphotography looked like a crane shotwhen we placed Ant-Man in there. AsAnt-Man is only 0.5 inches, a lens withthe entrance pupil 6 inches above thedeck reads like a Supertechno 30. Weactually ended up referring to ourmotion-control passes as macro aerialplates! The magic of Rebeccas photog-raphy was that even if a macro set was re-created within the computer, we wereable to give the visual-effects vendors themotion-picture footage as an absoluteguide so there would be no question of

the photo-reality of the results. Double Negative was chargedwith creating the main 3D model assetsfor Ant-Man and Yellowjacket, as wellas capturing macro environments forlater animation by all vendors. We wereembedded into the macro cinematogra-phy unit with three Canon 5D Mark IIIDSLR cameras and Canon 100mmUSM macro lenses [f2.8] mounted on[Clauss Rodeon Pixpert] robotic pan-and-tilt-heads, reveals Alex Wuttke,visual-effects supervisor for DoubleNegative. We shot a huge amount ofraw stills at a variety of different expo-sure and focus brackets. We also didLidar scans and Mephisto-structuredlight scans for set and prop geometry,and HDRI probe passes to capture theon-set lighting.

We shot many sequences cross-polarized to extract specularity from theunderlying diffuse nature of the surfaces,Wuttke continues. We put polarizing gelsonto the lights and cross-polarizing filterson the lenses, then used the repeatableRodeon head to shoot with and withoutthe polarization. From those vast amountsof data, we used Jigsaw, our proprietaryimage-stitching tool, to generate hugepanoramas of up to 20K resolution for setsthat measured as little as 60 centimetersacross. Wed use the focus bracketing torender them infinitely sharp and then sendthe completed panoramas to the othereffects vendors for use in all of the macrosequences. Luma Pictures handled a number ofdifferent macro sequences, including onetoward the films climax set in a computer-network server room. Ant-Man is flyingaround and scraping very close to manydifferent surfaces, which was an incredibleamount of detail to partition out,describes Vince Cirelli, visual-effectssupervisor for Luma. Take a computerkeyboard and desk, for example. From atypical perspective, its a handful of objectsand their textures. But at the macro levelyou have all the dust and grime and addi-tional pieces of geometry all over eachitem. Those texture data and assets getmultiplied over hundreds of surfaces andthousands of objects in the server room. The [completed] movie has proba-bly some of the highest volume of object-asset work seen in films today, he adds.Cirellis teams modeled in Maya, withArnold for rendering and Nuke forcompositing. Luma delivered completedshots as 2K DPX files onto the produc-tions secure Signiant file-sharing servicevia fiber channel. In stark contrast to the grandiosevistas that background most superhero-film finales, Ant-Mans climactic battlesequence takes place in Scotts daughtersbedroom, where the hero and Yellowjacketshrink in size to tussle atop a speeding toytrain set. Levine lit the compact bedroomset with Chimera Pancake Lanterns,Lowel Rifa eXchanges and a hybridballoon overhead. The train fight is really original,

Macro Heroics


Top:Yellowjacket

takes aim at ashrunken-down

Ant-Man.Bottom: Langdispatches a

coterie ofhenchmen.


and the visual-effects teams enjoyed it alot, observes Morrison. These areusually more global-level destructionmovies, where youre tasked to blow upbuildings and crack the Earth open. Thissequence is really different and revels inthe minutiae. We were able to takesomething as ho-hum as a train set andturn it into this epic macro battle. Throughout postproduction,editor Dan Lebental, ACE worked tostrike the right balance between Ant-Mans comedy and drama. I cut the firstIron Man with [director] Jon Favreau,which kind of built the MCU mold as amixture of comedy and high characterstakes, says Lebental. Theres now atonal gamut running from CaptainAmerica: The Winter Soldier, a sober polit-ical thriller, to the much higher comedyquotient of Guardians of the Galaxy. Thetrick is that a Marvel movie shouldnttake itself too seriously, but it alsoshouldnt laugh at itself. Lebental and co-editor ColbyParker Jr. supervised a large editorialteam in a room full of Avid workstationsnetworked on ISIS shared storage withDNx36 files in proxy resolutions. Ourwork had to be accelerated [due to thedirector change]; we basically lost 10-12weeks of postproduction time, saysLebental. But the footage really lookedamazing, combining Russells great

Top: Ant-Manmakes his waythrough an antcolony. Middle:Director PeytonReed (center)discusses a scenewith Rudd on abluescreen set.Bottom: Ruddprepares for morebluescreen action.

lighting and the excellent dailies timing.Everything we worked from looked likea fully timed and finished movie. As finished visual-effects shotswere delivered into Lebentals evolvingedit, Carpenter collaborated withTechnicolors supervising digital coloristand ASC associate Steven Scott on Ant-MansDI at the Disney lot. I love work-

ing with Steve because our approach isall about telling a story, and it runs asmuch artistic as technical, enthusesCarpenter. Well look at a frametogether and go, This is pretty good, butwhat if we did this to push the viewersattention more and emphasize thischaracter? Heres one example, Carpenter

continues. Early in the movie, theres ashot of Scott handcuffed in the back of apolice car with the Ant-Man helmet onthe seat beside him. We lit up that verysmall area as best we could on the set. Stevelooked at the shot and said, Lets makethat helmet more mysterious. He tookdown the reflections in the helmet andgave it some real mystery and flair. Theres another scene where Scottgoes to his daughters birthday party, thecinematographer adds. Shes runningdown the hall [toward Scott], and its alittle dark in the hallway. As she approachesher dad, we just gradually cranked up herbrightness in a window, as if the closer shegot, the happier she felt. Its very subliminaland a nice little bit of storytelling. Im notsuggesting you should re-light a filmcompletely in the DI, but these littletweaks can help shape the tone as you findthe film during post. The visual-effects shots from eachvendor were graded for consistency andfidelity to Carpenters original intentions.

Macro Heroics

A four-cameraAlexa arraywas used to

capture certainbackground

plates as wellas point-of-v

Documents

AmericanCinematographer201508.pdf