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AMC_0209_pCV1:09_05CVR.qxd 1/7/09 11:58 AM Page 1
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26 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
Pete Kozachik, ASC details his strategies for the
3-D stop-motion movie Coraline
40 Dead Reckoning
Bill Pope, ASC blends old and new tricks to honor
the origins of The Spirit
52 Embracing Anamorphic
John Bailey, ASC exploits the widescreen format on the
ensemble comedy Hes Just Not That Into You
60 Citizen of the World
Donald McAlpine, ASC, ACS receives the
ASC International Award
Departments
Features
Vi s i t us o nl i ne a t www. t he a s c . c o m
On Our Cover: Coraline crawls through a portal to the Other World in the 3-D stop-motion feature
Coraline, shot by Pete Kozachik, ASC. (Frame grab courtesy of Laika, Inc., and Focus Features.)
8 Editors Note
10 Short Takes: Circus
14 Production Slate: The International
Reverie
68 Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta
72 New Products & Services
82 International Marketplace
83 Classified Ads
84 Ad Index
86 Clubhouse News
88 ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky
52
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 V O L . 9 0 N O . 2
The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques
40
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F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 9 V o l . 9 0 , N o . 2
The International Journal of Film & Digital Production Techniques Since 1920
Visit us online at
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PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter

EDITORIAL
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T
he recent trend toward 3-D production continues
with Coraline, a digital stop-motion fantasy about a
girl who discovers a menacing parallel world behind
the walls of her familys new home. The projects ambi-
tious cinematography was supervised by Pete
Kozachik, ASC, who brought considerable experience
to the table(top) after serving as director of photogra-
phy on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse
Bride.
Adding a third dimension to stop-motion cine-
matography took Kozachik, director Henry Selick and
their collaborators down some fascinating avenues. In
a detailed, firsthand account (2 Worlds in 3 Dimen-
sions, page 26), Kozachik outlines some of the trickiest aspects of 3-D production, as
well as the filmmakers solutions. My advice to anyone starting out fresh with 3-D is to
seek counsel from a veteran of 3-D production and experiment when you have enough
experience to be conversant, he cautions.
Bill Pope, ASC brought a similar willingness to push creative boundaries to The
Spirit, based on Will Eisners comic-book character and directed by graphic-novel titan
Frank Miller. Digging further into an approach previously used on Sin City and 300, two
big-screen adaptations of Millers own work, Pope shot the picture largely against green-
screen, including eye-popping dry-for-wet sequences shot with a Phantom high-speed
camera at frame rates of 200 to 400 fps. You can do the dumbest stuff in the world, and
when youre filming at 400 fps, suddenly youre a poet, Pope quips in his chat with asso-
ciate editor Jon D. Witmer (Dead Reckoning, page 40).
Long a champion of the anamorphic format, John Bailey, ASC explains
precisely why in a Q&A about his work on the romantic comedy Hes Just Not That Into
You (Embracing Anamorphic, page 52). This movie is an ensemble piece with inter-
cut, parallel stories of five women and the men in their lives, Bailey tells New York
scribe Pat Thomson. I felt the wider aspect ratio would allow us to be intimate with
them yet keep them together in the same shot in a way that was more accommodating
than 1.85:1.
This issue also showcases a hearty salute to Society stalwart Donald
McAlpine, the recipient of this years ASC International Award. As contributing writer
Jon Silberg observes in an enlightening profile (Citizen of the World, page 60), the
Australian cameraman has made a truly global mark with his work on acclaimed exports
from his homeland (My Brilliant Career, Breaker Morant), bold collaborations with coun-
tryman Baz Luhrmann (Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge), and an impressive string of Holly-
wood blockbusters (among them Patriot Games, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Chronicles of
Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). He was also the man behind the camera
on one of my personal favorites, the biting Bruce Beresford comedy Dons Party, which
Ive watched and enjoyed with a few equally obsessive friends more times than Im will-
ing to admit. Good onya, Don.
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
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Editors Note
8

I
n Britney Spears music video
Circus, the singer performs in the
titular setting among burlesque
dancers, elephants and pyrotechnics,
creating a kaleidoscope of visual and
aural sensations. Its a typically dynamic
milieu for director Francis Lawrence and
cinematographer Thomas Kloss, whose
ongoing partnership has yielded bold
results on an array of music videos,
including Avril Lavignes Sk8er Boi,
Aerosmiths Jaded (for which Kloss
was nominated for an MTV award for
Best Cinematography), and The Back-
street Boys The Call (AC July 01).
Ive worked with Francis since early in
his career, and the relationship hasnt
changed very much, says Kloss. From
the beginning, he never overburdened
me with information or requests, but he
always had good visual references that
were essential to the project.
While prepping Circus, Kloss
and Lawrence looked at old circus
photographs but didnt really find what
they were looking for. We didnt want
the video to look like a period piece,
explains Kloss. We wanted to give it a
contemporary look but also play with
well-known images that people under-
stand. Although Kloss didnt use other
films as references, he found inspira-
tion by chance at the local cinema. I
went to see the restored Lola Monts
[1955], and it had exactly the kind of
soft, organic look Francis and I wanted
for the video.
To create that look for Circus,
Kloss tapped Otto Nemenz for some
Arri Swing & Tilt lenses but we
used them without the swing-and-tilt
actually in place, he notes and
Cooke Panchros. (He shot Super 35mm
with two Arri 435s.) All modern lenses
are so well-designed and sharp that
even with flares, theres very little
distortion or refraction, Kloss
observes. Francis and I didnt want to
make the video pristine-looking; we
wanted a softer, silkier look. The
productions package also included a
few Cooke S4 primes, which were used
on the B camera.
When we used filters, we
applied grease or Vaseline in a very
specific way, and we put a little more of
it on the filter when we were using an
S4, of course, continues the cine-
matographer. We would look through
the lens, see the highlights, and then
paint onto the filter with our fingers to
create certain abstractions and refrac-
tions, or to stretch lines in the frame.
He used a
1
4 Tiffen Black Pro-Mist for
diffusion. I wanted to stay away from
a completely crisp image, and because
post is digital, you can go a little
stronger on that diffusion because you
can always bring it back in the transfer;
you add a little bit of black, and the
image becomes sharper again.
Kloss carried out the transfer
with colorist David Hussey at Company
3. Our goal on the shoot was to
[create most of the look] in-camera,
creating flares and shafts and beams of
light that looked good coming through
the lens, says Kloss. In the last 10
years, weve seen so much electronic
post work in films and music videos
that I think its good if the pendulum
can swing back a little bit. Its nice to
shoot something with classic beauty
lighting and compositions and let the
story play.
This sensibility extended to
every aspect of the production. Fran-
cis built a lot of practicals into the art
direction, notes Kloss. There were
hanging lights next to the circus
banners with Britney and the dancers
walking through, and lights on the
burlesque stage, along with other old
theater lights. For wide shots, we used
Nine-light Maxi-Brutes, but everything
else was done with old-fashioned
tungsten lamps as practicals. We
started with those and then just accen-
tuated them.
I feel that Francis has always
called on me for things that have a
Britney Spears as Ringleader
by Jim Hemphill
Short Takes
F
r
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m
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g
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a
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.
Top: Spears
shimmers in
the spotlight.
Middle: The
big-top setting
lends a surreal
ambience.
Bottom: A
shower of
sparks
silhouettes
the singer.
10 February 2009
tried to light in a way that we could
constantly keep moving without stop-
ping between each setup to relight, so
we decided on a general 45-degree
backlight with soft fill light; that way,
we had most of the situations pre-lit
with dimmers. We adjusted up or down
a bit while Britney was getting ready or
changing wardrobe. Then, as soon as
she showed up on set, we were ready
to get maximum coverage. On a music
video, its important to get enough
angles to avoid repeating shots,
because people always want to see
new angles and images.
Circus was shot on Kodak
Vision3 500T 5219, which Kloss rated at
ISO 320. It was perfect for what we
wanted, he says. Theres so much
latitude and contrast control with that
negative if you really expose it well. A
project like this lets you really use that
latitude and maximize the palette from
the absolute jet black on the edges of
the frame all the way to the blown-out
whites of the highlights.
Circus was not without chal-
lenges including working with
elephants and a wall of fire that could
only stay lit for 15-20 seconds at a time
but Kloss says his longtime partner-
ship with Lawrence kept things on
schedule. We shot two 12-hour days
and got everything we needed. Thats
one of the advantages of working with
a director who has the experience to
know what coverage he needs.
Although Kloss has shot
features, including Fear and Showtime,
he notes that short-form projects have
distinct advantages. On a movie, you
usually establish a look and just
continue it for months. Videos and
commercials keep you fresh. I
12 February 2009
darker, more intense look, and I tend to
paint out of the black, not the white,
he adds. I like to start with all the
lights off and start lighting a step at a
time, and this project lent itself to that
approach. We started with a dark stage
and no light, then slowly illuminated
what we wanted to see.
We wanted the lighting to have
two distinct looks, one natural and one
theatrical. For the natural look, we used
very simple paper China balls around
the camera to give Britney the minimum
amount of fill and put a bit of glow in
her face. The other look was for the
reverse, which we lit to look like theres
a strong light coming from a follow
spot, from the audience area or from
the other side of the stage. When Brit-
neys dancing on the burlesque stage,
one strong follow spot creates a pure
silhouette. Lighting the reverse shots
with strong spotlights had an added
benefit: On a big stage or in a big
space, it helps you create a fake 3-D
feel with a little bit of smoke and back-
light. It instantly creates the sensation
of a theatrical performance.
For most of the shoot, both Arri
435s were handheld. That helped
make everything feel a little more
organic, says Kloss. Our idea was to
give it a strong basic look with strong
contrast and then shoot for coverage. I
Top: Spears and
her background
dancers stay in
step. Middle: The
ringleader cracks
her whip. Bottom:
The star primps
for her
performance in
the mirror of
a makeup
table. Right:
Cinematographer
Thomas Kloss
(holding monitor)
shows Spears
some footage on
set. China balls
were used to cast
a soft glow on the
singers face for
close-ups in the
makeup-table
sequence.

14 February 2009
Banks as Bad Guys
by Mark Hope-Jones
Director Tom Tykwer read Eric
Singers screenplay for The International
seven or eight years ago, but it wasnt
until late 2007 that he was sufficiently
happy with it to start filming. The long
gestation period allowed careful fine-
tuning of the story, which follows Inter-
pol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) as
he attempts to uncover the corrupt prac-
tices of an international bank. It also
meant, quite by chance, that production
coincided with the current global finan-
cial crisis, which makes the films
premise of banks as omnipotent villains
even more resonant. We were thinking
of making a film reminiscent of the para-
noia thrillers that Alan Pakula and
Sydney Pollack made in the 1970s, says
Tykwer. But instead of the Secret
Service or CIA being the system within
the system, we wanted to suggest its
the institutions of world finance that
seem to be the new governments that
secretly rule our lives.
Tykwer collaborated on the film
with cinematographer Frank Griebe, who
has shot all of his pictures, most recently
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (AC
Feb 07). The International almost
seemed like a period film to us because
when you see a film in the cinema now,
the characters simply dont talk the same
way they do in movies like All the Presi-
dents Men [1976], says Griebe. Other
differences involve pacing and camera-
work. I always felt that if you want to
make a film feel fast, you should make
the story move fast rather than the
camera, says Tykwer. A movie that is
fast-paced because it contains one
event happening after another is differ-
ent from a movie that [feels] fast
because of the intensity of the camera-
work.
The style of The International
had to be very clear and precise
because there are so many scenes and
so much important dialogue, says
Griebe. You have to hear what the
characters are saying to follow the story,
which is why we didnt use too many
visual gadgets. We only did handheld or
Steadicam shots for action scenes; a lot
of the time, we had the camera on a
dolly or a tripod.
Tykwer was fascinated by the
idea that images in the film should form
part of the system Salinger is trying to
fight. Rather than have the camera run
with the character, he wanted Salinger
Financial Intrigue and a Flashy SLR Video
Production Slate
T
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.
Globe-trotting
Interpol agent
Louis Salinger
(Clive Owen)
draws a bead
on his quarry.
to run through compositions that were
not dictated by his movements; the char-
acter is often dwarfed by architecture,
suggesting a tiny individual trapped
within an immovable system. Tom was
concerned that these wide architectural
images wouldnt look sharp enough in
35mm, so I suggested shooting some
scenes in 65mm with the Arri 765, says
Griebe. Tykwer agreed and also decided
to shoot a few key close-ups of Salinger
on 65mm to intensify the anxiety in his
expression. It provided a contrast and
made a statement that his face is as
important for us to look at as the pristine
architecture shots that represent the
perfectly shaped system, says the
director.
Most of The International was
shot on 3-perf Super 35mm, and the
production used an Arricam Studio and
Lite, an Arri 235 and Arri 435s supplied
by Arri in Munich, which also provided
the 765, grip gear, lighting equipment
and lab work. Griebe had the second
unit shoot some material 4-perf to give
Tykwer more flexibility in post. The
Studio was our A camera, and we used
the Lite for Steadicam and handheld
work, says the cinematographer. The
235 can fit into tight spaces, and if Tom
didnt need sound for a scene, wed
shoot with the 235 or 435 to give us that
extra flexibility. We shot every setup
with two cameras, and there was so
much dialogue we usually used the Arri-
cams.
Repeating his choice of lenses
from Perfume, Griebe combined Arri
Master Primes with the 16.5-110mm
Master Zoom and 24-290mm Ange-
nieux Optimo zoom. We didnt use a lot
of longer lenses, he says. Its more of
a classical style; we typically shot with
a 27mm on the A and a 50mm on the B.
Tom likes to use zooms because we can
work quickly, and both zooms were T2.8,
so I was shooting almost everything at
that stop. I only shot wide open on the
Master Primes once or twice. The
Master Primes cut very well with the
Master Zoom, but the Optimo is a bit
softer, so I used it mainly if we needed
a close-up with a very long lens. For
some setups, Id tell the B-camera oper-
ator to look for faces or little details, and
the Optimo is perfect for that.
As Salinger delves deeper into
the banks misdeeds, he comes to real-
Left: Along the
way, Salinger
teams with
district attorney
Eleanor Whitman
(Naomi Watts).
Below:
Cinematographer
Frank Griebe
(right) lines up
the camera for
director Tom
Tykwer.
American Cinematographer 15
16 February 2009
ize the illegal activities within the
system stretch into his own organiza-
tion, and before long, he becomes a
target. Teaming up with a district attor-
ney, Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts),
Salinger travels to New York, Berlin,
Istanbul and Milan on a life-and-death
chase to topple the bank. A dramatic
showdown at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York sees Salinger
and Whitman run into heavily armed
assassins. We felt that if we had a
slow buildup of tension through the
movie, it would grow toward this
sequence, where it explodes and hits
the audience full-on, says Tykwer.
Many action movies open with a spec-
tacular sequence that sets a standard
the filmmakers have to keep running
after, but we chose not to set a hysteri-
cal pace. When the action happens, its
all the more overwhelming.
Because the Guggenheim
sequence involves considerable
destruction, it was never going to be
filmed entirely on location. The produc-
tions soundstage work was based at
Studio Babelsberg in Germany, but none
of the available stages was large
enough to accommodate even a partial
reconstruction of the Guggenheim inte-
rior. Finally, the filmmakers located an
old locomotive warehouse nearby and
had it refurbished by a structural engi-
neer to suit their needs. Even then, only
three levels of the Guggenheims
famous spiral rotunda would fit beneath
the buildings ceiling, so they were
dressed first as the upper levels, then
redressed for shots of the lower levels
and the lobby.
Tykwer relished the opportunity
to effectively become curator of the
Guggenheim for the sequence, and he
chose to display the works of Julian
Rosefeldt, a German video artist. Our
film is about a guy who has to hunt
down an organization that represents a
seemingly invisible system, and I
thought video art was quite a logical
thing to feature because its not physical
like sculpture or paintings, says Tykwer.
We built a 3- or 4-meter model of the
Guggenheim that we could stand inside
and figured out exactly where we were
going to put the video screens and what
we were going to do.
I think we had 50 or 60 separate
projections, says Griebe. The movie
was produced by Sony, so we asked
them for projectors, and there were
endless technical discussions about
lens and projector sizes. The biggest
problem was the light power because
we wanted the video images to have a
lot of contrast, but I had to add some
other lights to shoot the scenes. We did
a lot of tests, including one where I
didnt add any lights at all; it looked
really spooky with the screens as the
only source, but it was too dark, so we
gradually added lights until we found
the right level. What made it difficult is
that the Guggenheim [interior] is more or
less white, so there are reflections and
bounce light coming from every corner.
Eventually, we used the projectors as
they came because if you want more
power, you have to use something like a
Barco, which was too big. All the video
projections were on hard disk, and we
could control them with time code to
make sure the right content was
onscreen at the right time. It was very
complicated, but I doubt anyone in the
audience will realize how much work it
involved!
The fact that the video projec-
tions partially dictated how much addi-
tional light Griebe could use for the
scenes was actually something of a
blessing, because there was very little
room to rig lights either at the museum
or onstage. There was no possibility of
putting up a lighting rig on the stage
because the roof would not have taken
the weight, says gaffer Helmut Prein.
A tower rig was also impossible
because of the shape of the set in corre-
lation to the stage building. It was fortu-
nate that the projectors necessitated
low light levels because that prompted
us to investigate helium balloons. We
considered getting a custom-made ellip-
tical 24K balloon, but there wasnt
enough time. Instead, we created a
single soft source comprising three 4.8K
helium tubes positioned side by side at
the top of the set, above a layer of Cali-
fornia Sunbounce medium diffusion.
The production shot some scenes inside the Guggenheim
Museum in New York, but other parts of that sequence were
filmed on a replica set built in an old locomotive warehouse
in Germany (above and below).

The large source above the
center of the set was motivated by the
domed skylight at the top of the
Guggenheims rotunda. White silk skirt-
ing was hung on a circular alloy pipe
surrounding the helium tubes, and an
additional outer circle of black skirting
provided complete control of the light.
In the end, it looked like a space light
with a diameter of 13 meters, says
Prein. The falloff from that source was
extremely natural; between the top floor
on the stage and the bottom, there was
a loss of only 1
1
2 stops.
At that point, the filmmakers
didnt know how much light would be
available on location at the real Guggen-
heim, so they decided to set the
sequence at dusk and keep the light as
soft as possible. About 70 4'x4' Kino Flos
were hidden in the elevator areas on
each floor, and 6' tubes were positioned
behind screens in the rotunda; all lights
were DMX-controlled. Additional light-
ing came from three Kino Flo Flatheads
punching through an 8'x8' grid cloth on a
rotating base on a scissor lift.
When it came to the location
shoot in New York, Griebes lighting
options were fairly limited. The
Guggenheim is a complicated building
to light, he notes. The people there
were very friendly, but we couldnt
mount anything to the structure inside,
so we had to light from outside. We
needed quite a bit of light, so we had six
18K ArriMax units controlled by
Maxmovers on a rig suspended from a
crane directly above the skylight. The
dome of the skylight was covered with a
45'x45' grid cloth, and a few 12K
ArriSuns were positioned on the roof to
even out the falloff of the down lights.
Inside, we supplemented with about
10 Kino Flos on each floor of the rotunda
and three helium balloons, adds
Griebe. But most of the light was
coming through the skylight.
Prein installed daylight bulbs in
about 80 triangular house lights inside
the museum and gelled them to re-
create the look of the studio footage. It
was a really exciting moment to arrive
at the Guggenheim after a night shoot to
see whether our ideas about how to
match the real museum to our stage
work had worked out, he recalls. I got
there with our New York gaffer, Russ
Engels, and Gregor Wilson, the unit
production manager, and we all had to
smile when we looked at the lighting
setup. It matched the look we had devel-
oped in Babelsberg perfectly.
Griebe shot The International on
Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, 200T 5217
and 100T 5212. Sadly, the new Vision3
wasnt available at that time, he says.
Throughout the shoot, he viewed
HDCam dailies. I took a lot of stills and
sent them to [Arri] with notes, and the
rushes were graded accordingly, he says.
We didnt print any shots, but the HD
rushes were so good that Tom said all the
way through editing that he wanted the
movie to look exactly like the rushes.
The digital intermediate, carried
out at Arri Schwarzfilm in Berlin, was
Griebes second experience with the
process. On Perfume, it was primarily the
intense color scheme that necessitated a
DI, and Griebe used very few filters on set.
For The International, he again tended to
avoid filtration, but the main reason for
the DI this time was all the visual-effects
shots, he explains. Probably half the
shots in the movie are effects shots, but
its the kind of film where you dont want
the audience to notice them. We did some
architectural enhancements and lots of
effects for the Guggenheim action scenes,
and we had a great relationship with
[visual-effects house] UPP and [visual-
effects supervisor] Viktor Muller, who was
always on set with us.
In post, the 65mm footage was
scanned at 4K and the 35mm footage at
2K on an Arriscan. We didnt do anything
too major in the grade, says Griebe. We
were mainly just balancing things out.
Tom and I didnt want to get carried away
by imposing different looks on certain
scenes; we wanted to keep the look as
natural as possible, and making even little
adjustments to effects elements in the
grade can take a lot of time.
It was a very special experience to
make a film with a big studio, especially
as we got to work in Berlin and didnt have
to go to Hollywood, he concludes.
Maybe next well do a short movie 10
days around the world with just the
camera and a few lenses! Sometimes its
good to go back to the basics.
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Super 35mm (3-perf and 4-perf),
65mm
Arricam Studio, Lite; Arri 235, 435, 765
Arri and Angenieux lenses
Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, 200T 5217,
100T 5212
Digital Intermediate
Printed on Kodak Vision Premier 2393
18 February 2009

Salingers
investigation
into shady
financial
dealings takes
him to a variety
of exotic
locales,
including
Istanbul.
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manufacturers warranty.
Creating Reverie
by Steve Hullfish
Canons recent release of the
EOS-5D Mark II, a high-end amateur
digital SLR camera, is providing a
glimpse into the possible direction for
digital cinematography. The camera has
a full-size (36mmx24mm) 21-megapixel
CMOS sensor capable of shooting 50-
25,600 ISO.
One of the first American
photographers to shoot with a prototype
version of the camera was Vincent
Laforet, a photojournalist and commer-
cial still photographer. His interest in the
Mark II was piqued when he noticed it
was capable of shooting high-definition
video (1920x1080p), and on short notice,
he produced a 1-minute 55-second test
film, Reverie, that attracted a lot of
attention on the Web. The films images
show what can be done with a camera
that is capable of shooting 30 fps at
3,200 ISO and above.
Prior to Reverie, Laforet had not
shot a motion picture of any kind. When
Canon agreed to loan him the prototype
for a single weekend, I was sweating
because I knew I had to produce some-
thing, he recalls. Immediately, I
decided to get a helicopter because one
of my specialties is aerial photography.
In the meantime, my assistant was
trying to figure out the camera and set it
up; we had no user manual, and time
was of the essence.
In less than 12 hours, Laforet
assembled a cast and crew, outlined a
story and chose locations. If anyone
had asked me to shoot a film or video a
month earlier, my top concern would
have been lighting, which is incredibly
time-consuming, he says. But this
camera is so sensitive to low light that
you can really rely on natural light, and I
think thats where my skill as a photo-
journalist really came to bear I knew
I could walk into a room and add maybe
one light source to make it look beauti-
ful.
Laforet shot with just two light-
ing instruments: a ProFoto 7B strobe
pack, a strobe unit that has a modeling
lamp, and a Litepanels Mini, a small
LED. His grip gear included three
Avenger suction mounts with some
Magic Arms by Bogen, regular still-
Right: A Canon
EOS-5D Mark II
SLR mounted to
the hood of a
car produces a
dynamic
nighttime drive.
The driver was
illuminated by
an LED light
positioned near
the cars
speedometer,
but the rest of
the sequence
was lit
naturally by
architectural
lights,
headlights and
other existing
fixtures. Below:
The New York
skyline is
reflected in a
male models
sunglasses
during a
helicopter shot
captured with a
15-35mm lens
and an LED
light attached
to a monopod.
20 February 2009
R
e
v
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22 February 2009
camera grip gear and some safety
cables. He rigged a Ken-Lab KS-8 gyro
on a monopod for the running shot and
helicopter scenes. Laforet used his own
Canon prime and zoom still lenses. In
terms of whats in the final film, its a
15mm fisheye f2.8, a 16-35mm f2.8
zoom lens, a 50mm f1.2, an 85mm f1.2,
a 200mm f2, a 24mm f3.5 and a 45mm
f3.5, he says. The latter two lenses
were used for shots of a man and
woman in Brooklyn with Manhattan and
the Brooklyn Bridge behind them.
In my opinion, there are three
revolutionary things about this camera,
says Laforet. One, you can use the
prime lenses you already own. Two, the
camera is very small and very light; one
of the aerial shots was done with me
holding a monopod beneath the skids of
the helicopter, shooting straight down
over the Empire State Building. Three,
the cameras ability to capture detail in
low light is incredible; we were shooting
at 1/30th of a second at f2 at 1,600 ASA.
Its that stuff you can just see with your
naked eye but usually cant capture on
video or stills. With this camera, you can
pretty much go anywhere and shoot
what you see, adding a very minimal
amount of lighting.
Laforets two assistants worked
on the shoot along with an assistant
director, a makeup artist and the two
models. The tiny footprint of the crew
and gear also allowed them to shoot
with no lighting pre-scout, no film
permits and no FAA oversight of the
aerial shoot.
Laforet says the cameras low-
light capability was especially important
for the driving shots that travel through
Times Square. The shot of the rearview
mirror and the wide shots of the car
were done with the LED light sitting
where the speedometer is, lighting the
drivers face everything else is
natural [light].
The cameras light sensitivity
enabled Laforet to rely on some unusual
sources, as in a beautiful shot of a
female model on a cobblestone street.
Theres only one light, the modeling
light on a stand that was very high. It
was a bare bulb with the reflector, no
Top: Laforet used
his own Canon
24mm and 45mm
lenses to
capture shots of
a couples
embrace with
the Brooklyn
Bridge serving
as a romantic
background.
Middle: This
shot of a female
model on a
cobblestone
street was
illuminated by
just two
sources: frontal
light from a bare
bulb and
reflector
positioned high
on a stand, and
backlight from
the headlights of
Laforets Jeep.
Architectural
accent lights
provided
additional
ambience.
Bottom: The
models kiss
against a
dreamlike
background of
defocused
lights.
M E M B E R P O R T R A I T
RON GARCIA, ASC
W W W . T H E A S C . C O M
TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE:
Call (800) 448-0145 (U.S. only)
(323) 969-4333 or visit the ASC Web site
n the mid-1960s, while I
was working in the
aerospace industry and
studying fine art at Art Center
College of Design, a racing-boat
manufacturer asked me to make
a film about his boat in the six-
hour Lake Havasu inboard boat
race. During that first
experience behind the lens, I fell
in love with the camera and
never looked back.
While struggling to
learn cinematography by trial
and error, I discovered the
American Cinematographer
Manual, which led me to
American Cinematographer
magazine. After 42 years of
shooting, AC is still my go-to
reference in my never-ending
quest for film excellence.
Ron Garcia, ASC
I

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24 February 2009
diffusion. Theres a bit of backlight from
the headlights of my Jeep. On the tight
headshot of her, we used a flashlight
and the brake lights from my car.
Laforet even used Adobe Photo-
shop to light a scene. For the scene
with the models face lit by the TV, we
plugged the DVI cable from the laptop
into the HDMI port of my TV, loaded a
gray slide into Photoshop CS3, and
messed with the lightness parameter
slider to create the flickering blue light,
he explains.
The full-frame sensor size of the
5D allows for beautiful depth of field,
and Laforet took full advantage of that
in many shots. In one example, a silhou-
etted scene, the lights in the back-
ground go deeply out of focus to create
a nice bokeh effect. Thats a 400mm
lens focused in as close as you can with
just two normal tungsten lightbulbs in
the background, he says. The tung-
sten lights were probably 20 yards
behind her, and I was maybe 6 feet from
her.
The scenes from the helicopter
are among the most impressive in
Reverie. The shot I wanted from the
moment we started on this was the
sunglasses reflecting the Empire State
Building, says Laforet. It took quite a
few years of flying to know the exact
time to take off to get that perfect
balance. We took off about 15 minutes
before sunset. For the shot of the model,
I had a 15-35mm lens, and my assistant
was holding the LED light on a monopod
behind me. Everything and everyone
was securely safety harnessed and
wired.
The post process on Reverie was
easy because the Mark II records in
H.264 compressed QuickTime format.
You stick the CF card into your
computer, drag the files onto your desk-
top, drag them into Final Cut Pro and
then edit, says Laforet. Theres no
rendering.
Three ASC members recently
weighed in on Laforets observation that
the Mark II is a game changer for
cinematography. Faster sensitivity is
not always a cure-all in low light, notes
M. David Mullen, ASC. Dynamic range
is also a factor because you dont want
bright areas to overexpose too quickly
and unnaturally.
Curtis Clark, ASC says he would
welcome the ability to shoot at a very
high ASA as long as there arent detri-
mental trade-offs in the images. Obvi-
ously, using small lights is a lot cheaper
than using large ones. In artistic terms,
being able to increase the depth of field
affects not just photographic style but
also the ability to render details within
the scene, and that, of course, would
impact set design and art direction.
Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC
finds the idea appealing but notes that
film technology is advancing to meet
the challenge posed by digital formats.
Shooting Vision3 [500T] at 400 ASA
and T2 gives you superb results at night
in the streets, he says. It would be
great to be able to shoot at T2.8 or at
T4, but Im not super-excited about it
because ASA is just part of the equa-
tion.
Thats not to say Goldblatt cant
find a use for the technology, however.
I use Canon digital cameras to take
reference shots of every set when Im
doing a movie, he says. Ending up
with an MPEG file that you could adjust
quickly on your computer at the end of
the day would be fantastic. Generally
speaking, stills do the trick, but some-
times they dont. This is like another
arrow in the quiver.
I think Reverie looks so beauti-
ful because its a full-frame sensor with
a very, very shallow depth of field, and
Laforet was using lovely Canon lenses
wide open, adds Goldblatt. And lets
not forget theres a very good eye
behind the camera. Not everybody can
go out with that camera and get those
results.
TECHNICAL SPECS
3x2
High-Definition Video
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon lenses
I
Above: Laforet
took creative
advantage of the
depth-of-field
characteristics
inherent to the
5Ds full-frame
sensor. In this
shot, a 400mm
lens turns
tungsten lights
into a pleasing
background
effect. Below:
Reverie
filmmaker
Laforet.

26 February 2009
E
xciting events tend to happen as
soon as conditions are right, and
Henry Selicks stop-motion
feature Coraline, based on Neil
Gaimans supernatural novella,
rides in on a host of new innova-
tions, including advanced machine-
vision cameras and the emergence of
practical 3-D. Most instrumental was
the birth of Laika Entertainment,
Phil Knights startup animation
company in Oregon, fresh and eager
to try something new.
Pete Kozachik, ASC details his
approach to the 3-D digital
stop-motion feature Coraline, whose
heroine discovers a sinister world
behind the walls of her new home.
by Pete Kozachik, ASC
Unit photography by Galvin Collins
Additional photos by Pete Kozachik
2 Worlds
in
3 Dimensions
American Cinematographer 27
I made it a priority to line up
talented and experienced camera-
men early. Leading their three-man
units were cinematographers John
Ashlee, Paul Gentry, Mark Stewart,
Peter Sorg, Chris Peterson, Brian
Vant Hul, Peter Williams and Frank
Passingham. Most of the camera
assistants and electricians had shoot-
ing experience of their own, making
the camera department pretty well
bulletproof. With more than 55
setups working at the same time, we
needed guys who were quick, orga-
nized and versatile.
From the beginning, we knew
the two worlds Coraline inhabits
the drab Real World and the
fantastic Other World would be
distorted mirror images of each
other, as different in tone as Kansas
and Oz. Camera and art depart-
ments would create the differences,
keeping the emphasis on Coralines
feelings. Among the closest film
references for the supernatural
Other World were the exaggerated
color schemes in Amlie, which we
used when the Other Mother is
enticing Coraline to stay with her.
The Shining and The Orphanage
provided good reference for interiors
when things go awry.
Image banks such as
flickr.com were a good source for
reference pics, and including those
shots in my lighting and camera
notes helped jump-start crews on
new sequences. Artist Tadahiro
Uesugi supplied a valuable influence
for the show; his work has a graphic
simplicity, like fashion art from the
Fifties, with minimal modeling but
an awareness of light. It helped in
spirit to guide us away from excess
gingerbread, which is typical in both
art and lighting for stop-motion.
Before hiring on, I sought
a way to improve on limitations
of digital SLRs we encountered
on Corpse Bride (AC Oct. 05). On
that show, fuzzy video-tap images
were animators most common
complaint. Most promising was the
Opposite:
Coralines
Other parents
usher her into
her new home.
This page, top:
Cinematographer
Peter Williams
(right) and
animator Jan
Maas prepare
the scene.
Middle and
bottom: The
Real and
Other kitchen,
with the former
utilizing forced
perspective.
P
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s
.
Above: In a real-
world scene,
Coralines father
plugs away in his
study. Right: This
shot of the scenes
lighting setup
shows the floor-
supported
modular grid
system that
gaffer/cameraman
Bryan Garver
designed for
individual
stop-motion
setups. He and
cinematographer
John Ashlee lit
the scene.
28 February 2009
MegaPlus EC11000, a machine-
vision camera based on a 4K Kodak
CCD sensor. It sported these
features:
Able to double as its own tap,
outputting sharp 1K or 2K mono
at fast frame rates
Thermoelectric sensor cooling
for low noise in long exposures
Physically large 36x24mm sensor
Among the cameras tested, its
response curves were most
similar to film
Rugged, machinable aluminum
body
Nikkor F mount
Sensor housed in a dust-free,
inert-gas-filled chamber
Software-development
documentation for custom
user applications
Unlike dSLRs, each camera
had to be tethered to a smokin fast
PC (running our custom applica-
tion) that grabbed production
frames and served as a higher-res
animator guide and color display to
check lighting. The company R&D
team worked hard on the ambi-
tiously specd software, delivering a
workable beta version before moving
on to other projects. It is an exciting
step forward with a lot of features,
including 3-D diagnostics and two-
way serial communication with
Kuper motion-control. Our only
seriously missed target was capture
speed, which I hope to revisit with
new data-transfer technology.
While we were in prep, RealD
founder Lenny Lipton told Henry
about his new 3-D system. Henry saw
its creative storytelling potential and
believed it would help immerse the
audience in our handcrafted worlds.
One short visit to RealD fired my
enthusiasm; Lennys process had
overcome every technical snag that
made 3-D infamous, taking inge-
nious advantage of D-Cinema to
make it smooth and dependable. His
vision of 3-D as a new tool for the
cinematographer was infectious.
We sought the advice of several
other 3-D advisers who provided
basic theory, knowledge from first-
hand experience and strongly held
opinions that were not always in
agreement. Lenny wisely noted that
we had to choose which advice to
follow and find our own way.
To follow this story, one must
understand two 3-D parameters:
interocular distance and convergence.
Interocular distance (IO) is the
distance between left and right eyes; it
affords us the separate views we inter-
pret as 3-D roundness. By adjusting
IO, we can expand or contract the
3-D volume of a shot. Convergence is
the amount our eyes toe-in to align
both images of an object; it gives us a
sense of our distance from an object.
On Coraline, we worked backwards,
adjusting alignment of image pairs to
control audience eye convergence.
That way, we could pull objects out of
the screen or push them back.
Because puppets hold still for
multiple exposures, we could shift a
single camera left and right to
capture both 3-D views. That was the
beginning of our 3-D sliders. My
first instinct had a two-axis rig sliding
2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
Left: Animator
Travis Knight
works on a
scene in Dads
Real study.
Below:
Coralines
Other father
puts an
entertaining
spin on things in
the Other
version of the
same space.
horizontally to achieve the desired
IO and back-panning to converge on
objects. Lenny advised leaving out
the convergence axis and aligning in
post by sliding one image over the
other. We needed extra picture width
for that maneuver, which a 3K crop
of our 4K sensors allowed.
Armed with a couple of
prototype 3-D sliders, John Ashlee
began experimenting with using
forced-perspective sets without
tipping our hand. We learned that a
1
2-scale background looked natural
in normal stereo, and a -scale
background would work in weaker
stereo. We made a composite of
several elements built at different
scales, scaling a camera move to
match, to see if a composite in 3-D
would hold together. It sounded
promising, and it works just fine as
long as you carefully set up each
element, scaling everything, espe-
cially distance to camera and the IO
distance.
Paul Gentry set out to empiri-
cally determine benchmarks for IO
distance. He shot puppets in a
matrix of close-up, medium and
full-body shots at different focal
lengths and IOs. We projected each
frame in 3-D and rated puppet heads
for normal, extreme and reduced
roundness. Not surprisingly, we
found that the closer you get to the
subject, the smaller the IO you need.
And we quickly found out how
painful excessive IO can be
painful enough to pull an audience
right out of the narrative, if not the
theater.
The big surprise was how little
it takes to create a normal sense of
roundness. We reasoned that
puppets would look natural by
setting IO as measured between
Coralines puppet eyes vs. the
distance between a pair of human
eyes 19mm puppet vs. 64mm
human. But to our surprise, normal-
feeling roundness in puppet close-
ups ranged from 1-3mm IO, and in
wide shots from 3-10mm IO.
We had simplified by limiting
the test to a single subject, a good
starting point in setting up shots and
helpful for newcomers to the show.
But things quickly got more complex
in deep sets that featured objects
both close to and far from camera. At
that point, we needed more than an
IO cheat sheet; we had to rack up
enough experience to make
informed judgment calls. As with any
other aspect of cinematography, with
experience, we gained confidence
and a more instinctive approach.
We all agreed 3-D had to be
used to enhance story and mood, like
any other photo technique. Along
with the story arc, lighting arc and
color script, we decided to impose a
complementary stereo arcon the
show. Henry wanted 3-D depth to
differentiate the Real World from the
Other World specifically in sync with
what Coraline is feeling. To do that,
we kept the Real World at a reduced
stereo depth, suggesting Coralines
flat outlook, and used full 3-D in the
Other World. At first, full 3-D opens
up a better world for Coraline, but
when things go bad, we carefully
exaggerate stereo depth to match her
distress.
3-D adviser Brian Gardner
pointed out the emotional effects of
placing a subject behind or in front
of the screen. Similar to shooting up
American Cinematographer 29
30 February 2009
or down on a character, we could
assign power in a confrontation
scene by thrusting a character out
into the theater, with the weaker
position being behind the screen.
The technique also helped to
emphasize moods as different as inti-
macy and menace. We found that a
setting receding deeply behind
screen creates a sense of space and
freedom and is more effective at
evoking pleasant feelings than bring-
ing everything out into the theater.
You might notice this in Coralines
establishing shots, interior as well as
exterior. Sometimes we did the
opposite, crowding images into
theater space to invoke claustropho-
bia or discomfort.
A particularly involved use of
3-D included a big effort from the art
department. Henry wanted to create
a sense of confinement to suggest
Coralines feelings of loneliness and
boredom in her new home. His idea
had interiors built with a strong
forced perspective and shot in 3-D to
give conflicting cues on how deep
the rooms really were. Later, we see
establishing shots of the more
appealing Other World rooms shot
from the same position but built
with normal perspective. The
compositions match in 2-D, but the
3-D depth cues evoke a different feel
for each room. These master twin
shots depended on building the
forced-perspective sets to an exact
camera position. New angles usually
required a new build.
Because IO was run on a
motion-control channel, we could
change it during a shot. We had the
same freedom to animate alignment
in post. The combination became a
powerful tool for creative work as
well as solving technical issues. The
most common use was on camera
trucks that went from wide views to
extreme close-ups. In one case, we
animated the IO from 0.5mm to
18mm, starting on a frame-filling
face and ending on a wide shot of
house and yard. This allowed a deep
Ashlees
photography of
Coralines Real
(top) and Other
(middle) bedrooms
was complicated
by a moving-
camera match-
dissolve in 3-D;
there was a
significant
difference
between the sets
physical depth.
Bottom: Camera
assistant/motion-
control operator
Dean Holmes
programs a move
that will mimic
the feel of a
handheld camera.
2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
3-D effect at the wide end while
making it easy for the audience to
fuse left and right in the close-up.
We also tried animating IO
settings on locked-off close-ups,
hoping to get an effect as startling as
Hitchcocks simultaneous zoom-
and-dolly trick. For better or worse,
it is barely noticeable viewers
unconsciously adjust to compensate.
Our production cameras
comprised 38 MegaPlus EC11000s
and eight Nikon D80s, and our
primary lenses were Tamron and
Sigma zooms and Nikkor primes
ranging from 14mm to 105mm.
With very few exceptions, we did not
compromise lighting and camera-
work for 3-D constraints. Contrast
and depth of field remained useful
creative tools, requiring just a little
extra care, as did camera movement.
We used composition, color, focal
length and filtration in a wide, unre-
stricted range, concentrating on
storytelling.
One of our larger scenes
American Cinematographer 31
Left: Coraline
encounters
three ghost
children on one
of her forays
into the Other
World. Below
left: Chris Tootle
animates the
ghosts, who
were shot in a
separate pass.
The models are
attached to a
motion-control
rig that also
carries lights
that create
interactive
illumination for
Coraline. Below
right: Chris
Petersons crew
sets up a down
angle of
Coraline for the
scene.
depicts an apple orchard that occu-
pied several sets up to 30' long and
20' deep. Mark Stewart shot two
sequences there using 5K and 2K
sources larger lights than usual
for stop-motion, but the reduced
exposure time helped animators
keep their rhythm. He used blue and
pale-green gels, tight contrast ratios,
large bounced sources and a soft key
as the recipe for impending rain.
Motion-controlled gobos provided
subtle, moving cloud shadows.
He switched to cooler gels and
higher contrast for a scary moon-
light battle pitting Coraline and her
friend, Wybie, against a disembodied
hand. We played key continuity
looser in this rapid-cutting
sequence, concentrating on making
powerful images. I doubt most view-
ers will notice that, but they will feel
the scene change to awkward pre-
teen romance, played a little brighter
and with lower contrast for a
happier mood.
Our first master twin shot is
in the Real Kitchen, wide on
Coraline and her mother against the
window. Paul Gentry used direc-
tional soft boxes to throw backlight
in through the window, with just
enough front fill to keep it all look-
ing rainy and bleak. Later, we see the
same composition but on a much
more appealing Other World
kitchen. Paul used rose and yellow
gels on focal spots to create pools
and wall scrapes, making the set
bright and warm. By gradually dark-
ening walls farther from center, he
made the kitchen a stronger lure.
John Ashlees Real World
version of Dads Study has a rainy-
day window key similar to that in the
kitchen but accomplished with
cheater lights, as the window was too
small and distant to carry the load.
In one shot, we see Coraline and her
father reflected in his ancient
computer monitor. John tried
valiantly to set it up for real, even
making a 2" working display, but
optical geometry wasnt on our side.
Instead, he shot both reflected faces
separately, and they were later
composited along with a real
computer display.
The most finicky master
twin interiors were Coralines Real
and Other bedrooms, also
photographed by John Ashlee. His
challenge was a moving-camera
match-dissolve in 3-D that was
complicated by two sets with radi-
cally different physical depths. It
took numerous move tests and
rebuilding architecture, even
bedposts, to line up on a pivotal
frame in the dissolve, followed by
extra finesse in post. John lit each
bedroom for maximum difference
in mood; Other bedroom scenes had
warm practicals and multiple spots
shaping and picking out details
designed to delight, but it was never
overly bright, allowing bright moon-
light to play a part. In stark contrast,
he rendered the Real bedroom with
chilly soft light from the overcast sky.
32 February 2009
Above: As
they venture
deep into a
forest, Coraline
and a companion
discover there
is a physical
limit to the
Other World,
which recedes
into a milky-
white limbo.
Below: Lit by
cinematographer
Frank
Passingham, the
Plexiglas set
gives animator
Phil Dale plenty
of light. The
rigs supporting
Coraline and the
cat were painted
out in post and
replaced with a
second pass.
2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions

34 February 2009
To create a magic, self-illumi-
nated garden, Paul Gentry balanced
a combination of fiber-optics, small
incandescents and LEDs embedded
in fanciful animated flowers, plus
black-light-activated paint. I suspect
the growing flowers will be mistaken
for CG work, but it is all real stuff.
Sometimes we shot Coraline sepa-
rately so flowers could be animated
in reverse by trimming them frame-
by-frame.
Frank Passingham rendered a
more dangerous version of the
garden, tinting it with poisonous
green moonlight and carefully
diminishing glowing plants while
raising contrast. In quite the oppo-
site tone, he made the Other house
exterior a beacon of light, overpow-
ering the full moon with warm prac-
ticals in windows, outdoor lanterns
and architectural lighting. In effect,
the house itself became the key light
for a charming conversation
between Coraline and a wise cat.
I wish George Pal were alive to
accept our salute to his 1940s-era
Puppetoons. He would smile in
recognition at a sequence using
sequentially sculpted series of
figurines rather than flexible
puppets. Brian Vant Hul shot a rous-
ing brass band of circus mice march-
ing in formation, requiring
animators to keep track of hundreds
of replacement mice and change out
each mouse for each frame. Brian,
who was also the shows visual-
effects supervisor, juggled different
scales of sets and characters with
complex camera moves throughout
the scene.
I discovered that real circuses
arent lit with great finesse, so to
create more magic, Brian enhanced
the tent interior with Mini Flos
washing up walls for a more appeal-
ing background. The mice them-
selves worked in hard-edged
spotlight that was brighter and
cooler than the background. Brian
also rigged a few practicals overhead
for atmosphere, creating hot points
of blown-out circus colors. For
reverse angles on Coraline, he used
soft uplight to suggest bounce from
the spectacle offscreen.
Coraline discovers an opulent
19th century theater in the Other
basement, where she enjoys a vintage
burlesque followed by a breathtaking
trapeze act. Peter Sorg used many
MR16 architectural lights to streak
up walls and low-voltage halogens
for footlights. Adding other practi-
cals, mini spotlights on motion-
control movers and a central China
ball for fill, Peter surpassed the
grandeur of our reference, which was
the London Opera House.
We took full advantage of 3-D
in the trapeze act, and I suggest you
see the movie twice so you can watch
this scene with glasses on and off. It is
an effective use of animated IO and
convergence; it adds scope and
excitement without nuking the
eyeballs.
Peter turned right around and
relit his theater sets for a much
spookier note. Coralines flashlight
and some very dimmed-down prac-
ticals provide the apparent sources;
they were augmented with focal
spots and mini-profiles that we hope
will go unnoticed. A blazing spot-
light comes on to reveal a cocoon in
the form of a large taffy wrapper,
overpowering any other lighting.
2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
For an exterior
view of
Coralines
Real house,
cinematographer
Mark Stewart
surrounded his
subjects with
bounced light
to create
an overcast,
rainy-day look.
Peter carefully balanced background
practicals to remain just visible
enough to describe the space but
draw no attention.
In a more somber sequence,
Peter used a fireplace as a flickering
source on Coraline, who sits alone in
a dark room as the embers die. A
wide shot emphasizes her isolation as
the firelight grads off quickly from
where she sits. Small bulbs in the fire-
place were rigged to flicker in sync
with off-screen focal spots under
DMX motion-control.
The Other living room takes
on three separate characters, the first
being a duplicate of the dreary night
look in Coralines Real World. The
second phase is a colorful come-on
in which every piece of furniture
glows as a saturated neon source.
The self-illuminated props had clus-
ters of red, green and blue surface-
mount LEDs embedded throughout
their translucent silicone forms. By
adjusting the colors on separate
DMX dimmer channels, Chris
Peterson could match production art
without using gels. Backlit purple
walls were created with traditional
gels on movie lights, but the out-of-
gamut color came back bluish. We
got closer by reddening them to the
point where they looked completely
wrong on set but just fine when
photographed. The room comes to
life as furniture and lamps dim up in
an overlapping cascade of light cues.
Steve Switaj fabricated a DMX card
that could handle 48 channels, more
than normally available under Kuper
control, and Chris used every one of
them.
At one point, Coraline is
thrust into a dark, dank iron-plate
cell where she meets three pale-green
ghost children. Chris Peterson shot
the ghosts separately on motion-
controlled rods against greenscreen
that covered the set walls. The same
motion-control rigs repeated the
movement during animation of
Coraline, and this time they carried
light bulbs, creating interactive light
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36 February 2009
Passinghams
lighting of an
Other house
night exterior is
enhanced by
True Blue-gelled
moonlight, fiber-
optic stars
punching
through black
backing and a
horizon glow.
were motion-controlled to counter-
rotate against each other.
Later, when things go bad, the
portal is dusty, dark and full of
cobwebs. Peter Williams hid sources
wherever he could, relying on hidden
cutouts and small hidden sources
within the tunnel. This was one of
many sets where white LEDs were
put to good use. They worked well as
Obie lights, too right on the lens.
For an even darker tunnel,
Peter used a candle carried by
Coraline as the only source. He
mounted a tiny, high-current lamp
at the tip of the candle and hid it
from camera with an equally small
piece of blackwrap. The lamp got so
hot it had to be turned off between
exposures. With a candle flame
added by the visual-effects team, the
source looks genuine, with natural
falloff.
The last shot in the movie was
actually shot last. Mark Stewart set
up on five stages to shoot elements
that would be combined into one
long, meandering camera move that
would go through a garden party
that appears to emanate from the
ghosts. Chris activated glow-in-the-
dark stars on Coralines sweater with
UV tubes and augmented with blue-
gelled movie lighting.
With each frame so dearly
bought, stop-motion lighting usually
strives to see character detail
throughout, and this is sometimes in
conflict with dramatic purposes.
Peter Williams took a walk on the
dark side with Coraline running
down a midnight hallway, letting her
pass through pools of toplight and
areas where she is a dim silhouette.
Overexposing highlights
normally to be avoided helped
Peter Williams and Frank
Passingham create a flawless white
limbo for some sequences. At the
point where highlights reached their
maximum pixel value, they had no
retrievable detail, thus hiding shad-
ows and imperfections in the set. In
one such scene, Coraline wanders
out of an Other World forest and
discovers the artificial world to be
unfinished beyond what Other
Mother needs to carry out her deceit.
The forest gradually simplifies as
Coraline moves further into it, and it
eventually devolves into white noth-
ingness. Frank created that void with
a table made of milky Plexiglas that
was underlit by Kino Flos and
surrounded by a white wall. He was
almost able to eradicate the table
edge in-camera with exposure, and
visual effects finished it off. Echoing
that, another scene features a climac-
tic chase in a giant spider web that is
suspended over a featureless, milky
void. On multiple sets, both camera-
men used front light on white cycs to
create the limbo effect.
Because Coraline crawls
through a portal to get to and from
the Other World, there are a lot of
tunnel scenes in the film. Chris
Peterson shot the friendly version, a
cushy, organic-looking tunnel that
glows with moving purple and cyan
patterns projected by Source Four
Lekos from behind its translucent
wall. (The magazines cover shot
shows this look.) He created the
patterns by taping scraps of color gel
onto pairs of large Plexiglas discs that
2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
and then rise up over the house,
landing in the same composition as
the films opening shot. Soft, yellow
keylight and enveloping bounce fill
rendered a more appealing color and
contrast ratio than the standard cold,
rainy look.
With five different mo-co rigs
in play, Brian Vant Hul and Nic
Marrison took the precaution of
tracking each rig as it played back its
version of the move. They compen-
sated for variances that turned up,
making all the elements track each
other accurately.
I like to think we all came out
of Coralines 83-week shoot a little
smarter about 3-D cinematography.
Perhaps fellow first-timers will find
the following notes useful:
Besides getting more intuitive
about setting up, we learned to make
the most of a big 3-D moment it
takes planning, not overdoing IO
distance. That includes using modest
settings for several shots leading up
to the big moment.
We learned that a quick cut
doesnt register 3-D in the eyes of the
viewer. The shot has to be onscreen
long enough to fuse, and only then
should you concentrate on the
subject. Increasing IO is futile on a
short shot; it exacerbates viewer diffi-
culty and does not make the shot feel
deeper.
Although we strove to avoid
coming out shots for pure
gimmickry, Coraline includes a few
legitimate uses of the effect. In every
case, we made the emergence as slow
as the tempo allowed so viewers
could follow. We also did our best to
connect emerging objects to the
background an outthrust hand
was much more effective when the
arm and shoulder were also visible.
Most 3-D purists insist on
staying sharp throughout the frame,
the theory being that we concur-
rently fuse and focus on objects in
the real world, and not doing both
will cause eyestrain. We learned that
backgrounds can be successfully shot
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soft in most circumstances, provided
that we give the viewer no reason to
look back there. (Thats our job as
filmmakers in 2-D or 3-D.)
Soft foregrounds are a little
tricky but can be used with care,
especially in accordance with the
aforementioned provision. In 3-D,
its annoying to look through a
tangle of soft-focus branches to see a
sharp character, but if the branches
are in another part of the frame, it
seems to work. Our most successful
use of shallow depth of field used
rack-focus between close and distant
characters who were conversing. I
think it helped that character voices
guided the eye in sync with racking
focus. Had there been a smaller
image sensor available with thermo-
electric cooling and dust protection,
I would have preferred it, just for
depth of field in 3-D. Such a sensor
would likely have trimmed our
write-to-disk time as well.
We had been warned that
digital paint-out of puppet supports
would not work in 3-D because the
digital paint would reveal itself, float-
ing in the same space as the removed
support. Thats true if one is working
on a 3-D computer model, but we
were going to work on left and right
2-D images. It was not the disaster
predicted, but compositors had to be
very consistent on both eyes.
Brian Vant Hul shot a lot of
live-action effects elements with a
Red One, all in 2-D, amid concern
that they would be revealed as flat.
Time and money limited us to this
approach. The best example of his
success is a sequence featuring thick
2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
38
Cinematographer/
visual-effects
supervisor Brian
Vant Hul layered
several 2-D fog
elements to
create the
illusion of 3-D
depth for
this scene.
ground fog that was added in post.
By layering several 2-D fog elements
in proper 3-D alignment, he created
a believable illusion of full depth.
One theory our work upheld
was that scenic flats would reveal
themselves in 3-D. We had to move
painted backgrounds significantly
farther from the set, even when seen
out a window. Fortunately, we were
in a big building.
Stop-motions characteristic
lack of motion blur sometimes
caused a stuttering effect in 3-D
horizontal motion, especially in fast
camera pans. This was over and
above the effect in traditional 2-D
film projection. Oddly enough, it
creates less readability than if the
motion had natural blur. The visual-
effects team added motion blur to
several shots that especially needed
help.
My advice to anyone starting
out fresh with 3-D is to seek counsel
from a veteran of 3-D production
and experiment when you have
enough experience to be conversant.
Equally important: watch dailies on
a full-size screen with a real 3-D
theater projector.
All through production, we
worked in sRGB color space, so it
made some kind of sense to work
from that familiar territory
(converted to Rec709) in the 2K
digital intermediate. Technicolor
Digital Intermediates accommo-
dated, responsibly warning us that it
was a smaller, different gamut than
film. Colorist Tim Peeler lent his
practiced eye through successive
grades for RealD 3-D, 2K D-Cinema,
film emulation and home video.
(The film will be projected in Dolby
3-D in some markets.)
With deep respect, I salute the
Coraline crew for successfully shoot-
ing the most ambitious and techni-
cally challenging film in the
stop-motion genre. Working respon-
sibly and with professionalism,
everyone produced consistently
beautiful work.
Ed. Note: A more detailed
account of this production will be
posted on www.theasc.com/magazine
in February. I
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39
40 February 2009
A
t these frame rates, you
just have to blow the
heck out of them, says
cinematographer Bill
Pope, ASC, as
crewmembers, armed with air
movers, take positions alongside a
staircase painted chroma-key green.
Its Dec. 13, 2007, day 47 of the 48
shooting days in New Mexicos
Albuquerque Studios for The Spirit,
directed by Frank Miller. As opera-
tor Vali Valus, 1st AC Greg Luntzel
and camera tech Brannon Brown
prep a Vision Research Phantom
HD high-speed camera, actors
Gabriel Macht and Jaime King
climb the staircase and wait for 1st
AD Benita Allen to yell Action!
Its the movement of the
actors hair and clothes that really
give you the sense of being under-
water, Pope explains. Millers script
for The Spirit calls for a handful of
underwater sequences, but produc-
er Deborah Del Prete established a
dictum early in prep that there
would be no below-surface shoot-
ing. I wanted to make sure these
characters looked their best all the
time, says Del Prete. If we put the
actors underwater, theres no way
their makeup could stay perfect.
The dry-for-wet technique the
filmmakers settled on involves cap-
turing quick bursts of action at
high frame rates. The hair and
body motion looks most like its
underwater at 400 to 500 fps or
even 700 fps, says Pope. But at
that speed, its hard to act fast
enough to move the narrative, so
weve ended up shooting between
200 and 400 fps. (Months later,
speaking by phone, visual-effects
supervisor and 2nd-unit director
Stu Maschwitz recalls, The actors
needed to learn the mysterious art
Bill Pope, ASC and director Frank Miller use digital tools and old-
school tricks to bring a comic-book hero to life for The Spirit.
by Jon D. Witmer
Unit photography by Lewis Jacobs
Dead Reckoning
Dead Reckoning
The entire dry-for-wet effect
is put to the test in a take that lasts
no more than a few seconds: with
air movers attacking the actors from
all sides, King (playing the siren
Lorelei Rox) leaps in the air, kicks
her legs and shakes her hair while
Macht (playing The Spirit) throws
himself forward in a belly flop. The
whole thing lacks a certain grace, to
say the least, until the Phantom
HDs footage is played back.
Suddenly, both actors appear to be
suspended in the depths, hair and
clothes swirling around them.
Maschwitz shouts in excitement
from behind the monitor, and it all
clicks. Poetry.
of 500-fps acting. The great thing
about the Phantom was that we
could instantly show them play-
back in beautiful slow motion on
an HD monitor, and they could see
that one little flick of an eye could
turn into an incredible moment.)
With the help of gaffer John
Fest Sandau, Pope bolsters the
underwater atmosphere with light
projectors with patterns we
thought looked like water, says the
cinematographer. John pounded
lights into reflecting boards and
Mylar, which we shook around to
make some sparkle. You can do the
dumbest stuff in the world, and
when youre filming at 400 fps, sud-
denly youre a poet.
The projectors, manufac-
tured by Rosco, were the simplest
of all the ones we tested, says
Sandau. Two wheels rotate in
front of a light. You can put differ-
ent lenses on it to get a tighter pat-
tern with more throw or a wider
pattern with less distance. [Key
grip] Tony Mazzucchi and his crew
rigged a pipe to hang off the bot-
tom of a Condor, and we hung
eight of these fixtures off that.
Theyre DMX-controllable, and
when we needed the extra stop for
high speed, wed have three or four
hitting the same space, and when
we didnt need the speed, we could
spread them out to cover a bigger
area. I think its the best water effect
Ive ever seen.
American Cinematographer 41
Pulp Sensibilities
Im a cartoonist, says Miller.
I believe in comic-book stories
that are fun to draw and fun to
write. Outside of Millers own
work, there is perhaps no better
example of such a story than The
Spirit, created by Will Eisner in a
weekly series that ran from 1940-
1952. Miller and Eisner were close
friends until Eisners death, in 2005,
and Miller notes, Wills influence
on my work was seminal. His stuff
was advanced beyond anything Id
ever seen before. Over a career that
spanned roughly six decades, Eisner
pushed the limits of sequential art,
challenging how stories could be
told and ultimately ushering in the
Opposite: The
Spirit (Gabriel
Macht) watches
over Central City.
This page, above:
Ellen Dolan (Sarah
Paulson) consoles
her father, Police
Commissioner
Dolan (Dan Lauria).
Below left:
Director Frank
Millers graphic
sensibilities
punctuate The
Octopus (Samuel
L. Jackson)
reaction to The
Spirits war on
crime. Below right:
Miller (in black)
explains his vision
to cinematographer
Bill Pope, ASC.
P
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42 February 2009
Dead Reckoning
long-form graphic novel.
Given that legacy, Miller hesi-
tated when he was first approached
about a film version of The Spirit. I
took three minutes to say,
Absolutely not! he recalls. Then I
realized I couldnt let anybody else
touch it, that my understanding of
the material was probably deeper
than almost anybodys. Then I was
ready to direct the movie.
Taking a few cosmetic liber-
ties, the film follows Eisners mask-,
fedora- and red-tie-sporting hero
from his origin as Denny Colt, an
idealistic cop who becomes a vigi-
lante when he wakes up, quite alive,
after being murdered. The Spirit
wages his two-fisted war on crime
alongside Police Commissioner
Dolan (Dan Lauria), and together,
they go after the king of criminals,
The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).
The Spirit marks Miller and
Popes first collaboration, but it was
not the first time their paths had
crossed. Pope, a longtime fan of
Millers comics, explains, I still have
a comic of Franks that I bought
when he did signings at [Los
Angeles comic shop] Golden Apple
in the Eighties. Its been read so
many times its totally worn out.
When I got the call [for The Spirit],
there was never any doubt; I had to
do it. Asked why he approached
Pope, Miller cites the cinematogra-
phers work on Darkman (1990). I
thought that was one of the best
superhero movies ever made, he
says. It had a real pulp sensibility.
Likewise, The Spirits big-
screen adventure bears many a pulp
hallmark, not least a supporting cast
of femmes fatale. Borrowing freely
from Eisners work, Millers screen-
play incorporates Silken Floss
(Scarlett Johansson), Sand Saref
(Eva Mendes), Plaster of Paris (Paz
Vega) and the Commissioners
daughter, Ellen Dolan (Sarah
Paulson). Bills got a great eye for
making women look beautiful, says
Sandau. Hes very much a soft-light
To capture The
Spirits underwater
encounter with
Lorelei Rox (Jaime
King), the
filmmakers utilized
a dry-for-wet
technique that
involved blasting
the actors with
air movers while
recording at speeds
of 200-400 fps with
a Phantom HD high-
speed camera. The
water effect was
further emphasized
with Rosco light
projectors
suspended from
Condors.
Left: A 20'x20'
section of floor
was constructed
for The Spirits
lair beneath
Wildwood
Cemetery, and
the shadow from
the overhead
window frame
was achieved
practically using
a 20K Fresnel
and a massive
frame with
adjustable slats.
Below: While
most of the film
was shot against
greenscreen,
certain scenes
such as those
set inside Sand
Sarefs (Eva
Mendes) hotel
room were
shot against
black.
guy, and hes very careful about
making sure both eyes are lit. We
used the Kino Flo BarFly quite a bit;
its a small fixture with a lot of
punch that works as a really nice
eyelight. Pope took his glamour
work even further in the digital
grade, which he describes as a
bodacious, stylistic leap into the
Miller and Eisner world. They
romanticize women to a major
degree, so we decided to go with the
MGM-circa-1934 look the
women are diffused and everything
else is sharp. People will either hate
us or laugh with us.
Stage Plays
With digital technology, I
feel we can recapture what film-
makers like Orson Welles and Fritz
Lang did we can create very stark
work that is not based on the way
things really look, says Miller.
Instead, its based on whats inside
the directors and animators
heads. As was done on Sin City and
300 (ACApril 07), two recent adap-
tations of his comic-book work,
Miller decided to craft The Spirits
look by shooting largely against
greenscreen and creating environ-
ments in post. The Spirits green
world spilled across stages 7 and 8 at
Albuquerque Studios, with the
largest of the greenscreens running
the length of a stage and reaching up
some 40' toward the perms. To light
the screens, Sandaus crew set up top
and bottom rows of Kino Flo Image
80s, plus a row of Kino Flo
ParaBeam 400s and 200s to fill in a
green cove that obscured the bot-
tom row of Image 80s from the
cameras view. I think we ultimate-
ly ended up with about 260 fix-
tures, says the gaffer. All the Kino
Flos illuminating the greenscreen
were fitted with green tubes and
run through a dimmer board.
Sandau explains, At times we
would just need two tubes on each
fixture to get a correct level on the
green, but when we did off-speed
stuff, we could bring up eight tubes
top and bottom to get a higher level
of exposure.
Its almost like a stage play,
where you do weeks of rehearsal
American Cinematographer 43
and then build a set around that
rehearsal, says Pope of working in
the green environment. We were
free to consult and improvise. The
method was stretched to its limits in
a long walk-and-talk sequence that
follows The Spirit, Commissioner
Dolan and Officer Morgenstern
(Stana Katic) through the daytime
streets of Central City. During their
walk, Pope explains, they
encounter a reporter, construction
workers and girls in an ice-cream
parlor yelling for The Spirits auto-
graph. Cabs pass by and almost run
them over. And almost none of this
existed [onstage] except the peo-
ple.
We put green tape down on
the green floor and told the actors
thats where they could walk,
explains Sandau. To make it look
like sunlight, we put 20Ks and 10Ks
on Condors, and we softened them
a bit. We sometimes had two
Condors and let it get a little darker
between them, as though the actors
were walking through the shadow
of a building. We also had
FinnLight Toplights to give us an
overall ambience. The Toplights use
six Par 64 globes, and we used
medium and wide beam 1,000-watt
globes. We used those instead of
space lights because theyre more
efficient, have a lot more punch and
are built with two frame holders;
you can double-diffuse them and
then hang a larger frame below to
make a soft, almost non-directional
light.
In an effort to simplify the
post pipeline and give the visual-
effects team (comprising 10 ven-
dors from multiple countries) a leg
up on their work, the filmmakers
decided early on to establish an all-
digital workflow that began with
Panavisions Genesis high-defini-
tion-video camera. Both Pope and
Maschwitz had previous experience
with the camera. If you really con-
trol the lighting, the Genesis pro-
duces amazing results that can be
seamlessly dropped into the digital
workflow, notes Maschwitz.
Because the Genesis has a top
speed of 50 fps, another camera was
needed for the high-speed
sequences. We felt the Phantom
HD had the best shot at holding up
next to the Genesis, says
Maschwitz. It has the same size
chip, so we could use the same lens-
es and get the same focal lengths.
The Phantom comes standard with
a PL mount, so the productions
camera (rented from Abel Cine
Tech) was fitted with a Panavision
mount to accept Primo primes
(provided by Panavision Woodland
Hills).
Despite sharing compatible
1920x1080 sensor sizes, the Genesis
sensor comprises a 12.4-megapixel
CCD array, whereas the Phantom
HD incorporates a CMOS imager.
Further differences abound between
44 February 2009
Dead Reckoning
If somebody
touches it, its
got to be real,
says Pope.
Accordingly,
this revolving
door was built
onstage, while
the rest of the
building was
fabricated in
post. Gaffer
John Sandau
established a
daytime
ambience for
the scene with
an overhead rig
comprising
diffused
FinnLight
Toplights.
(continued on page 48)

46 February 2009
Pope (seated
on dolly)
captures a
sprawling walk-
and-talk
sequence
onstage in
Albuquerque
Studios. Look
Effects later
constructed
the actors
surroundings
under the
guidance of
visual-effects
supervisor Stu
Maschwitz.
T
he Spirits Central City has always
been a thinly disguised substitute
for Manhattan, so its no wonder
director Frank Miller describes the
setting of his film as a combination
of my and Will Eisners versions of
New York City. Because principal
photography happened entirely
onstage, bringing the city to life
required the efforts of 10 visual-
effects vendors across North
America and Australia: The
Orphanage, Riot, Digital
Dimension, Fuel VFX, Furious FX,
Ollin Studio, Entity FX, Rising Sun
Pictures, Cinesoup and Look Effects.
All vendors were kept on the
same page at The Orphanage, where
visual-effects supervisor Stu
Maschwitz and his collaborators
did EDL-based ingest of SR tape
[recorded from the Panavision
Genesis] and got 10-bit DPX out the
other end, he says. Thats how the
entire movie made its way from tape
to our Nucoda Film Master system.
Everything we shot became a DPX
sequence.
A somewhat more circuitous
workflow had to be devised for the
Vision Research Phantom HD cam-
era, which records a bayer-pattern
image in a .cin file. In a document
Maschwitz drafted for the vendors
about the workflow, he explained,
These .cin files were converted to
.dng sequences at The Orphanage
and then converted to 10-bit DPX
using Adobe After Effects. This was
done to take advantage of the
Photoshop/Lightroom raw conver-
sion algorithms, which were tested
to perform better than Vision
Researchs own de-bayering soft-
ware.
The 10-page workflow docu-
ment provided the visual-effects
houses with step-by-step instruc-
tions for creating their own 10-bit
DPX deliverables in the Cineon log
format and replicating the LUT the
filmmakers viewed on set.
Maschwitz wrote, All principal
photography was monitored in
Rec709 HD video through a high-
contrast, low-saturation LUT
known as Mash4. The Mash4 LUT
contains subjective color correction,
a film-print preview and a conver-
sion to video space.
I determined that The Spirit
was a neighborhoods hero, says
Miller. If you have a working
knowledge of Manhattan, youll find
that from Jane Street to Houston
Street is Central City. Building that
neighborhood for a daytime walk-
and-talk that follows The Spirit
(Gabriel Macht), Commissioner
Dolan (Dan Lauria) and Officer
Morgenstern (Stana Katic) down
streets, sidewalks and alleyways fell
to the crew at Look Effects, led by
visual-effects supervisor Max Ivins
and visual-effects producer Melinka
Thompson-Godoy.
Looks workflow is usually
based around Apples Shake soft-
ware, but the team opted to work
primarily in Adobe After Effects for
The Spirit to more easily integrate
with Maschwitzs After Effects-cen-
tric operation at The Orphanage.
Maya was the primary software we
used for all of the 3-D tracking ren-
dering, notes Ivins. Tracking was
done in several packages, including
Boujou and PFTrack, and Maya for
hand tracking.
Because [the walk-and-talk]
covers so much ground, you lose a
lot of the tracking markers, he con-
tinues. So we pre-processed almost
every background with a method of
extracting the contrast from the
greenscreen; we were tracking the
corners, the edges and sometimes
the surface and the seams of the
greenscreen. We put that through
our 3-D tracking software and pret-
ty much tracked without tracking
markers. Figuring that out saved us
hours. There were only a couple of
shots we had to hand-track.
Simultaneous to the tracking,
Looks artists expanded the concep-
tual environments created in-house
by Peter Lloyd or provided by The
Orphanage, and then projected
rough geometry onto the scene to
test the accuracy of the tracks.
Throughout the process, the Look
team confabbed regularly with
Maschwitz via CineSync, a remote
review and approval program
enabling live, real-time interaction
with the footage (Post Focus, ACJuly
08).
As Central City took definite
shape, the lighting captured onstage
was tweaked to fit the actors new
surroundings. There are a lot of
subtle color corrections and shifting
of levels to get everything right for
Building Central City
American Cinematographer 47
the environment, says Ivins. We
work with what were given, but we
also end up doing a lot of 2-D [cor-
rection]. This included darkening
the actors when they step into a dig-
itally fabricated alley, for example.
Atmosphere is everything in
Central City, and in addition to cre-
ating a subtle haze to obfuscate
background layers, the Look team
was tasked with a night scene featur-
ing The Octopus (Samuel L.
Jackson), one of his goons and a
flurry of snowflakes. Thompson-
Godoy recounts, Stu wanted the
snow to fall photorealistically. He
actually went to New York and shot
photos of snow against streetlights,
and they proved to be a really valu-
able reference.
Part of the sequence involved
a split-diopter effect, which required
completely different treatment of
each flake as it crossed from one side
of the split to the other. It goes from
being a little flake of snow to being a
big, out-of-focus flake when it cross-
es that line, says Thompson-Godoy.
And the snow had to interact with
the people it couldnt look like
shining objects when it crossed
them. We had to finesse how bright
the snowflake was on the persons
body versus on his face.
While all of the vendors
worked with identical Mash4 LUTs
as a reference, everyone delivered
uncorrected, raw 1920x1080 images.
Then, the LUT was re-applied in
The Orphanages Nucoda Film
Master, and all of the shots were
hard-matted to 1920x818 for exhibi-
tion in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio.
Considering everything the
Look team had to master for the
walk-and-talk sequence, Ivins
muses, We took something infinite-
ly complex and tried to reproduce it
youve got shadows, reflections,
depth of field and atmosphere. It
makes you appreciate how compli-
cated the real world is.
Jon D. Witmer
Top: A frame grab from the sequence as originally recorded with Panavisions Genesis.
Middle: The frame with the high-contrast, low-saturation Mash4 LUT applied. Bottom:
The composite frame with Looks background before the Mash4 was reapplied.
F
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the two systems. Panavision has
focused on capturing the broadest
dynamic range to satisfy cine-
matographers need for exposure,
says Maschwitz. You can put a
mattebox on the Phantom, but its
still been designed to do ballistic-
impact analysis.
To bring the cameras closer
together and allow the filmmakers
to see an image that would mimic
the high-contrast world of Frank
Miller as much as possible, says
Pope, look-up tables were devel-
oped for both cameras that could be
applied in real time on the set.
(Although the LUTs were visible on
the monitors, footage from both
cameras was recorded raw for full
flexibility in post; see sidebar on
page 46.) Maschwitz explains,
Because the Phantom doesnt have
the same dynamic range [as the
Genesis], it required its own treat-
ment, and we eventually figured out
a LUT that worked. The LUTs for
both cameras actually suppressed
green to various colors, mostly gray.
We also had a version that could
turn anything green into white and
anything not green into black, and it
could take anything red and make it
pure red. We could put Gabriel in
front of a greenscreen, and on the
monitor wed see a black silhouette
with a bright red tie you could
see a Frank Miller drawing in real
time! (The LUT also included a
Kodak Vision 2383 film-print emu-
lation.)
Pope says he had no major
problems with either camera system
during the shoot, but he notes one
drawback to shooting digitally in
general: having to retire to a
blacked-out tent to check his image.
Once youre in that tent, youre one
level removed, and you can make
mistakes because youre not connect-
ed with reality. A cinematographers
job is to run the set, dance with the
actors, dance with the director and
make things happen. When you stick
yourself in a tent, you become like
those directors who just stare at the
monitor and never get out of the
chair youre not doing your job.
When someone comes up
with a digital camera that lets me see
the LUT in the eyepiece, I will agree
that its equal to working with film.
Practical Solutions
Too often, I feel overloaded
with color when Im watching a
movie, says Miller. Everythings
tutti-frutti. And since I think like a
cartoonist, I tend to color like one.
We wanted this to be a black-
and-white movie, but Frank definite-
ly wanted the tie to be red, notes
Pope, standing in his office inside
Albuquerque Studios and waiting for
the call after lunch. So I said, If
were going to have a color, it needs
to have a thematic thread.
Accordingly, the heros red tie serves
as a reminder of the blood spilled
when Colt was murdered and The
Spirit was born. When bad things
are happening, when theres a splash
of emotion, red plays a part, says
Pope.
Emphasizing the red tie called
for some clever tricks, but Maschwitz
notes that it was always pho-
tographed practically it was never
a CG fabrication. When the film-
makers really wanted the tie to pop,
he says, we puppeteered a fluores-
cent tie from off-camera using
monofilament line, and we had an
ultraviolet light hitting it. That gave
us the foundation for some abstract-
ing and some rotoscoping to get the
posterized color effect. The Spirits
black-and-white Chuck Taylor ten-
nis shoes were similarly treated with
a fluorescent paint to make the
Dead Reckoning
48 February 2009
Macht and
Jackson spent
days tussling in
an actual mud
pit. Sandau
explains, We
had FinnLight
Toplights
overhead to
provide some
ambience and
give the mud
some highlights,
and we had
20Ks and 10Ks
through big
frames off to the
sides. When we
needed to get
more light to
someones face,
we used what
we called the
projection
softbox
basically a 2K
with a 2- to
3-foot snoot and
diffusion. Its
soft light, but
its very
controllable.
(continued from page 45)
treads pop in select scenes.
Sandau used the UV-and-flu-
orescent trick on Sin City. Altman,
a theatrical-lighting company,
makes a couple of UV fixtures that
have nice projection, but they burn
an HMI-type globe and dont have a
flicker-free mode, so when we did
high-speed, we put 4-foot UV tubes
into standard Kino Flo four-bank
fixtures. The second unit used the
Kinos almost exclusively. (Bob
Finley, a longtime collaborator of
Popes, was the 2nd-unit director of
photography.)
The filmmakers did not cre-
ate CG actors and shot all stunts in-
camera. According to Pope, there
was also a hard-and-fast rule for
physical elements shot onstage: If
somebody touches it, its got to be
real. Thats something Stu learned
on Sin City, and it was something I
really wanted.
We had a movable swamp
on rollers with grass all over it, and
we rolled it from stage to stage, he
continues. The set piece makes an
important appearance when Dolan
meets The Spirit on Central Citys
outskirts. A corpse lies in the grass,
visible behind the two characters,
whose conversation grows in vol-
ume as tempers flare. The scene is
basically lit with one light, says
Pope. The cops have pulled up and
turned on their headlights [simulat-
ed with Mole-Richardson Single
Pars]. I told the actors, Heres your
light. When you turn your face
away, it looks like youre brooding,
and when you turn toward the light,
it looks like youre opening up. I
look at that scene now and think its
the best scene in the movie, and its
because the actors ran with it. There
was nothing there, just that little
patch of grass in the distance with a
body on it. But Dan and Gabriel
made it very special.
A handful of scenes incorpo-
rated black or white backdrops.
Well-planned rotoscoping is some-
times more efficient than less-than-
perfect greenscreen, and green-
screens are always less than perfect,
says Maschwitz. Diaphanous
material which appears in a lot
of Evas wardrobe gets exponen-
tially more complicated when
youre trying to extract it from 12
different shades of green. So occa-
sionally, we shot on black some-
times black-for-black, sometimes
black to replace later.
After waking from the dead,
The Spirit makes his home in
Wildwood Cemetery, and Pope
recalls shooting inside the heros
lair with almost no greenscreen.
We had a 20-by-20-foot floor
because we wanted that texture,
and we hung black drapes all
around, he says. As The Spirit
crosses the floor, he walks through a
shadow cast by a window frame far
overhead. To achieve the effect
practically, Sandaus crew hung a
20K with a Fresnel lens in it almost
to the perms, and then we had a
cookie as close to the actor as we
could get it, says the gaffer. The
frame was probably 30-by-20 and
hung by chain motors from the ceil-
ing. We could move these big pieces
of wood around and adjust the
angle of the slats running through
it.
Another example of a practi-
cal solution employed onstage
involves the lead-in to a flashback
that unravels the history between
Denny Colt and Sand Saref. As The
Spirit walks along the waterfront, a
A series of
flashbacks
reveal the
history between
Denny Colt
(a.k.a. The Spirit,
played in his
youth by Johnny
Simmons) and
Sand Saref
(played here by
Seychelle
Gabriel).
Straw and an
amber gel were
combined to
create a sunset
effect that
Sandau and
Pope called the
Miller Time
look, referring to
the classic beer
commercials.
American Cinematographer 49
lighthouse beacon flares the lens
and serves to segue into the past.
Sandau recalls, On the set, this idea
pops up out of thin air: Hey, lets do
a lighthouse! So I thought of a
beam projector wed set up for
something else, and one of my guys
got up on a ladder and just panned
it in. That became a regular piece
whenever we did the waterfront.
Most of the time, it was a Mole-
Richardson 2K beam projector,
which has no Fresnel and a set of
concentric rings to focus the light in
a very sharp beam that projects
quite a distance. We also had a 1K
beam projector for tighter sets. You
just pan it through, and it really has
the feel of a lighthouse.
Picking Nits
After seeing the finished film,
Pope acknowledges that some
scenes dont quite match the picture
he had in his imagination. For
instance, when shooting the flash-
back to the young Denny Colt and
Sand Saref (played by Johnny
Simmons and Seychelle Gabriel),
the setting sun lit one side of the
actors faces with golden light, and
the other side was lit cooler, as it
would be at sunset, he explains.
We were meant to have a scene in
which the foregrounds, including
the actors, would be reality-based
and the backgrounds would be
more mannered. Instead, the entire
scene came back from the vendor
with a uniformly sepia color, and
the backgrounds were rendered
realistically. It might sound like a
subtle distinction, but when little
things are projected, they arent so
subtle anymore.
50
Flanked by
The Spirit and
Plaster of Paris
(Paz Vega),
Maschwitz
steels himself
to give
shape to the
green void.
Dead Reckoning
The movie was well done by
all in the visual departments, but
there was a learning curve, and I
dont think [the curve] was ever fin-
ished, he continues. We set out to
do quintessential Frank Miller
images, but to be ultra-Frank, every-
thing should look as brazenly stylis-
tic as possible. He can suggest an
entire alley with just a black line, the
edge of bricks and a white gash [of
light] across the characters face.
Instead of that, we ended up with
some super-real backgrounds. Its
closer to Eisners work, so its part
Miller and part Eisner. Its a hybrid.
To keep a close eye on the
work coming in from the visual-
effects houses, Pope visited San
Francisco during post and sat down
in The Orphanages Bunker, which
Maschwitz describes as the visual-
effects hub of the movie, where
[senior visual-effects producer]
Nancy St. John and her crew kept it
all organized and I kept it all look-
ing right. The heart of the Bunker
comprises a DI suite built around a
Nucoda Film Master with 2K pro-
jection; there, Maschwitz and
Aaron Rhodes, the associate visual-
effects supervisor and lead colorist,
oversaw all 1,966 visual-effects
shots, grading the sequences as they
came in.
The Spirit underwent a final
grade at Modern VideoFilm, where
Pope worked with colorist Skip
Kimball to darken the mids overall
and make it more contrasty, says
the cinematographer. In the end,
some wanted a little more skin tone
in the actors faces than I cared for;
I liked it colder and closer to black-
and-white, but they wanted it to be
more reality-based, so there was
that compromise.
All parties involved Pope
included are proud of their
accomplishments, and Miller seems
to hit the nail on the head when he
says, What I really wanted to cap-
ture was the absolute enthusiasm
and verve Eisner brought to The
Spirit. Weve got a panoply of digital
effects, but the movie isnt cluttered.
Its focused on the story and the
hero. I
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
High-Definition Video
Panavision Genesis, Vision
Research Phantom HD
Primo lenses
Digital Intermediate
Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
51
52 February 2009
S
ince shooting the 1988 char-
acter piece The Accidental
Tourist in anamorphic 35mm
for director Lawrence Kasdan
(AC Nov. 88), John Bailey,
ASC has favored the widescreen for-
mat for dramas both large and
small. Several years ago, he took the
lead in lobbying Panavision to
develop new anamorphic lenses,
and in 2006, the company respond-
ed with the Anamorphic Wide-
Angle Zoom lens, the AWZ2 40-
80mm (T2.8), dubbed The Bailey
Zoom. This was followed by the
Anamorphic Telephoto Zoom, ATZ
70-200mm (T3.5), and by a new set
of prime lenses, the G-Series.
AC recently caught up with
Bailey to discuss his latest anamorphic
picture, the new ensemble comedy Hes
Just Not That Into You. Directed by Ken
Kwapis, the film is based on the best-
selling book by Sex & The City writer
Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.
American Cinematographer:
After you wrapped Hes Just Not That
Into You, you used anamorphic again
on two comparatively low-budget fea-
tures, The Greatest and Brief
Interviews With Hideous Men. Do you
believe anamorphic is now feasible for
any genre and any budget?
John Bailey, ASC: Panavision is
supporting anamorphic again in a way
Embracing
Anamorphic
John Bailey, ASC
takes full advantage
of the widescreen
format on the
romantic comedy
Hes Just Not That
Into You.
by Patricia Thomson
Unit photography by
Darren Michaels
more controlled frame as part of the
aesthetic.
One of the great things about
anamorphic is that you dont have to
cut as much. When youre staging
actors, you can give them a larger
field across the frame to work in. For
shots with three or four actors, you
dont have to be as wide to hold
them all in the frame; you can do a
medium shot. In 1.85:1 or 16x9
video, you might have that wide
frame for just a second, but it would
be too wide to hold for any length of
time, so youd need to cut in for cov-
erage.
For Hes Just Not That Into
You, you had to argue the case for
anamorphic through several layers
of executives at New Line. What
argument did you make?
Bailey: This movie is an
ensemble piece with intercut, paral-
it wasnt a decade ago. The develop-
ment of these new anamorphic
zoom lenses and the G-Series
primes has totally revitalized the
format, especially for young cine-
matographers whod been wary of
the system because of the lenses
limitations or because theyd only
shot video in film school. A lot of
younger cinematographers are
embracing it now.
Because of the wider aspect
ratio and horizontal stability, I
would say anamorphic does not
lend itself so freely to a verit style,
but that has to be qualified because
Lars von Trier and Robby Mller
[BVK] shot video with an anamor-
phic attachment on Breaking the
Waves, and that was very documen-
tary in style. But by and large, when
you decide to shoot a film in
anamorphic, youre accepting a
American Cinematographer 53
lel stories of five women and the
men in their lives. We have certain
scenes where many of them are in
an office or a personal environment
together. I felt the wider aspect ratio
would allow us to be intimate with
them yet keep them together in the
same shot in a way that was more
accommodating than 1.85:1. One of
the things I love about anamorphic
in a character-driven film is that you
use much longer lenses than youd
use in a spherical format, and that
gives you more control of the back-
ground. Being able to throw the
background out of focus really helps
you be present with the actor. With
both 1.85:1 and Super 35mm, you
sometimes have background in
focus way beyond what you want;
thats also one of the great problems
with high-definition video, of
course. Now, if thats what you want,
Opposite: Anna
(Scarlett
Johansson) and
Conor (Kevin
Connolly) share
a reflective
moment thanks
to a mirror
strategically
positioned at the
far-right edge of
the anamorphic
frame. This page,
top: A shot of
Mary (Drew
Barrymore)
illustrates
anamorphics
shallow depth
of field. One
of the things I
love about
anamorphic in a
character-driven
film is that you
use much longer
lenses than
youd use in a
spherical format,
and that gives
you more control
of the
background,
says
cinematographer
John Bailey,
ASC. Being able
to throw the
background out
of focus really
helps you be
present with the
actor. Bottom
left: Bailey at
work. Bottom
right, left to right:
Gigi (Ginnifer
Goodwin), Beth
(Jennifer
Aniston) and
Janine (Jennifer
Connelly) banter
during an
impromptu
meeting.
P
h
o
t
o
s

c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y

o
f

N
e
w

L
i
n
e

C
i
n
e
m
a
.
54 February 2009
Embracing Anamorphic
thats terrific, but for the films I do,
once I establish the environment, I
really want to concentrate on the
intimacy of the performances.
Anamorphic is perfect for that.
Tell us how you convinced
Panavision to prioritize anamor-
phic-lens development in recent
years.
Bailey: It took me 10 years to
persuade them to build the first lens.
I approached Phil Radin at
Panavision in 1993, after Id finished
In the Line of Fire [AC Sept. 93].
That was the first large-scale, multi-
camera film Id done in anamor-
phic, and I felt very compromised by
the number of lenses available and
how mismatched they were. I told
Phil that Panavision should design a
higher-speed, short-range zoom; at
the time, the existing [zoom] was an
11:1 48-520mm, which was a T4.5,
and it was very soft. You didnt dare
shoot it at anything less than a T6.3,
which is absolutely impractical for
an interior. I told Phil, I dont care
about having a long-range zoom. I
just need something for masters and
medium shots to get me from one to
the other. I dont like to use a big
zoom for anything; Ive never need-
ed a 10:1 because I just dont do
moves like that. I needed something
that would allow me to move from a
wide master shot into something
tight enough that would be cuttable
for the coverage. I also wanted to be
able to make a slight size adjustment
on the zoom without having to
move the dolly and change marks.
Phil did what he could, but at
that time, Panavision was going
through a turnover in ownership.
Shortly after that, they made the
decision to get in bed with George
Lucas and Sony, and all the develop-
ment money was devoted to
Panavising the Sony HDW-F900.
One night, I was talking about
anamorphic at a SMPTE meeting,
and I called Panavision out. I said,
Panavision was founded by Bob
Gottschalk and Richard Moore
[ASC] as an anamorphic-lens sys-
tem, and if Bob were alive today,
hed kick the ass of every one of you
Right: Mary warns
Anna about the
hazards of dating.
Bailey used a
prototype of
Panavisions 70-
200mm Anamorphic
Telephoto Zoom to
dolly across the
aisle and move into
a close-up of
Barrymore. That
was a very specific
shot I would not
have been able to do
with any other
lens, he says.
Subsequently, a lot
of the moves from
over-the-shoulder
into a single or from
a three-shot into a
tight over were done
with that lens.
Below, top photo:
Gigi and Conor
share a meal in a
restaurant with
stylish design
elements shown off
to full effect. Bottom
photo: Neil (Ben
Affleck) and Beth
have a heart-to-
heart talk.
another. It makes for much more
even-looking dailies.
Phil says Panavision is having
a very difficult time supplying
enough of these lenses to meet
demand. Theyre rented almost all
the time. There is no anamorphic-
lens system in the world that is as
good as Panavisions, and this has
been a real boost for them.
American Cinematographer 55
who has abandoned your founding
mandate! I think I finally shamed
them, and they started to think
about it seriously. It still took anoth-
er couple of years, and Phil Radin
was my ally all the way.
The first new lens was the 40-
80mm, and even though the range is
only 2:1, I found it very useful. Then,
about a year and a half ago, I went
back to Phil and said coverage was
still an issue; from the medium shots
to the close-ups, I still had to use
fixed lenses, and the Primos only go
up to 100mm, so I had to use the old
E-Series lenses. There was only a
135mm and a 180mm nothing in
between. I said, Is it possible to
make a second lens that would cover
from where the first lens ends and
take me up into a real close-up
range? They then came up with the
70-200mm, which actually goes a lit-
tle bit wider as it ties into the 40-
80mm. Its about
2
3 of a stop slower,
but its still very doable for most sit-
uations. Both lenses have the
anamorphic lens element in front,
so theres much less loss of light.
Shooting anamorphic is now
more like working with spherical
lenses. The optical quality of both of
these lenses is really extraordinary.
The 70-200mm has as good a reso-
lution and color rendition as any
prime Ive used, and, of course,
because its one lens, you dont have
the color shifts you get when you
change from one fixed lens to
Barrymore and
Johannson run
through their
lines for director
Ken Kwapis,
who opted to
stage the scene
as a dolly move
(note tracks on
floor).

56 February 2009
Embracing Anamorphic
On Hes Just Not That Into
You, what kinds of situations were
appropriate for the wide-angle
zooms?
Bailey: When we started pro-
duction [in fall 2007], the 70-
200mm prototype was still being
built, and it wasnt ready for our first
week. Theres a scene in which Drew
Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson
are wandering through the aisles in
a drugstore, and Drew is checking
out different sprays and talking
about the hazards of dating. The
camera dollies across the aisle and
then does a slow push-in on her.
That move across and in to a
close-up was to be done in one
shot. Ken Kwapis and I had been
planning the days shoot to get that
one shot, and we had to keep shoot-
ing around it because we were liter-
ally waiting for Phil to bring the
prototype lens from Panavision. We
had the dolly tracks laid, and Id laid
out the shot with my finder. As soon
as Phil showed up, we slapped the
lens on the camera and did the shot.
That was a very specific shot I would
not have been able to do with any
other lens I wasnt able to move
the camera in close enough on the
dolly to get that shot. Subsequently,
a lot of the moves from over-the-
shoulder into a single, or from a
three-shot into a tight over, were
done with that lens.
How would you have shot
this film before these zooms
existed?
Bailey: We would have had to
lay a lot more dolly track, make cor-
rections on the track, or re-mark the
actors a lot more. As actors work
from take to take, their natural
instincts tend to bring them in clos-
er to each other, but its not so easy
to make a correction if youve got
dolly moves along a fixed path on
rails and are on a fixed lens, so you
tend to get sloppier, looser composi-
tions. You dont want to change the
actors marks because theyve got the
rhythm of where theyre playing.
With the short-range zoom lenses, I
just ask the operator to tighten the
composition by 5-10mm. Thats
been very helpful in maintaining the
intimacy and integrity of the com-
positions we originally set up.
Also, the zooms are quicker. If
youre using fixed lenses, you have to
take out the matte box, take out the
lens, put on another lens, change the
donut and the lens rods. Its not that
it takes so much time, but at times, it
can break the actors flow. When I
want to keep the dramatic focus
together, having the ability to change
focal lengths without changing lens-
es makes a big difference.
How did you approach the
night scenes?
Bailey: On most night street
locations, I was working at a T2.8 or
T3 with the 40-80mm. When I got
in close for coverage with the longer
lenses, Id add a bit of supplemental
light and build it up to a T3.5. Or, if
I were in a real problem, I would just
force-develop a stop there are
four or five shots that were force-
developed. My normal rating is very
conservative; I overexpose by about
half a stop, anyway.
In the scene in the drugstore,
Above: Alex
(Justin Long)
shares his
bartenders
wisdom with
Gigi. Below:
Bailey (far left,
in white shirt)
surveys the set
while Kwapis
(wearing
headphones)
confers with
his cast.
we were shooting at a T4-4.2 using
the 70-200mm, which is a T3.5 lens.
Panavision originally hoped it
would be a T3 or even T3.2, but it
didnt work out that fast. But its fine.
The great thing about shooting full
aperture, which you do with
anamorphic, is your field of infor-
mation is so large that even when
you force-develop a stop, youve got
very high-quality images.
Did you keep the zoom lens-
es on the camera most of the time?
Bailey: Our lenses included
some Primos, a few E-Series and C-
Series lenses and a 3:1 [270-840mm]
zoom, but the two new zooms are so
good I kept them on almost all the
time. I switched back and forth from
one to the other. Keeping the same
lens on not only saves time, but also
eliminates the question of having to
match lenses. Your shot-to-shot
color and density balance is perfect.
I didnt feel at all compromised in
terms of the resolution of the lenses.
In fact, I think the 70-200mm is
sharper than most prime lenses. I
almost always put some diffusion on
it! If I were doing an action film, Id
probably shoot it straight, but for
women, I always put slight diffusion
on it black nets or [Tiffen] White
Pro-Mists or a combination of the
two. If you use the right diffusion,
you can cut the edge without mak-
ing the lens seem soft.
Have any other develop-
ments bolstered the viability of
anamorphic in recent years?
Bailey: Kodaks Vision2 stocks
have made a huge difference. You
have that extra speed and finer grain
and can force-develop without
being compromised. Also, the
advances made in intermediate
stocks are absolutely fantastic. When
Im doing an A-B, trying to match
quality between a print from the
original negative and a fourth-gen-
eration release print, theyre very
close. You dont have the loss in qual-
ity from answer print to release print
that you used to have.
Mfbso
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info@pstechnik.de
www.pstechnik.de
hd@siliconimaging.com
www.si-2k.com
SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera
Thank You
Dir. Danny Boyle,
DoP Anthony Dod Mantle
and their team
for using the SI-2K Mini in
the challenging project to
intercut digital and celluloid
captured images for the
splendid feature film
Slumdog Millionaire.
Anthony Dod Mantle
Pille Film Rental | www.pillefilm.de
57

You did a digital intermedi-

ate on Hes Just Not That Into You,
and youve written in these pages
that youre not a fan of the DI
process. How was your experience?
Bailey: New Line told us
when we were in prep that we could
finish photochemically, but they
changed that right at the point
where we would have been starting
the process. Because the film is
anamorphic and had a very highly
resolved image, Ken and I argued
that we should not be forced to do a
DI particularly a 2K DI but
New Line made us do it.
The matter was further com-
plicated by the fact that I was in New
York on another film when the time
came to do the DI. I had a great deal
of support from Ken, from [colorist]
Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3,
and from our New Line executive,
Rick Reynolds, but I was still 2,500
miles away. I flew to Santa Monica
on the weekends to look at what had
been done and give notes, but I ulti-
mately had very little control. Stefan
and Ken did a really good job, and
Im happy with their work, but the
film still doesnt look the way it
would have if wed finished it on
film. For instance, I feel the gamma
is a little flatter somehow; it should
have had a more dramatic look.
Company 3 has a wonderful process,
but I feel that a negative [struck
from] a DI doesnt have the same
luminosity or transparency that a
film-to-film finish has and it cer-
tainly doesnt have the resolution!
58
The crew
sets up to
capture a
sailboat
sequence with
Affleck and
co-star Bradley
Cooper.
Embracing Anamorphic
Im looking at a print from a 2K
video master, and Id say the original
35mm anamorphic negative is
equivalent to at least an 8K digital
file. As far as Im concerned, using a
DI on an anamorphic film is like
down-rezzing your image from
35mm to 16mm.
Even though Im not able to
do the power windows and second-
ary color-control when I answer-
print on film, theres a satisfaction I
have in maintaining the workflow
on film all the way through. Every
time Ive done a DI, no matter how
good the colorist is, I feel an increas-
ing disconnect. When I shoot,
answer-print and release on film, I
feel a more immediate connection
with my work, and for me, thats
very important. I
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
Anamorphic 35mm
Panaflex Platinum, Gold II
Panavision lenses
Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, 250D
5205, 50D 5201
Digital Intermediate
Printed on Kodak Vision 2383
Bailey offers
Kwapis his
thoughts about
the next shot.
59
D
onald McAlpine, ASC, ACS,
who will accept the ASC
International Award this
month, is truly an interna-
tional cinematographer, hav-
ing shot some of the films that
raised Australias movie industry to
worldwide prominence in the 1970s
and, since then, more than two
dozen films for Hollywood studios.
Two of McAlpines feature credits,
Gillian Armstrongs My Brilliant
Career (1979) and Bruce Beresfords
Breaker Morant (1980), were among
the well-received films that show-
cased the power and beauty coming
out of the Australian industry of the
time. Since working on his first
American picture, Paul Mazurskys
Tempest (1982), the cinematograph-
er has kept busy on a variety of pop-
ular Hollywood projects, including
John McTiernans Predator (1987;
AC Aug. 87); Phillip Noyces Patriot
Games (1992; AC June 92) and
Clear and Present Danger (1994);
Baz Luhrmanns frenetic Romeo +
Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge
(2001; AC June 01); and Gavin
Hoods Wolverine, the upcoming X-
Men spinoff.
McAlpine credits his upbring-
ing in various parts of rural New
Well-traveled Australian cinematographer
Donald McAlpine, ASC, ACS earns the Societys
International Award.
by Jon Silberg
Citizenof the
World
60 February 2009
to Sydney sent his life on another
course.
McAlpine took a group of
students to visit the headquarters of
the Australian Broadcasting
Channel, the countrys relatively
new network. Fascinated by what he
saw, he inquired about a job. He
recalls, I had the 16mm camera Id
used to create the film loops, and I
said, If I capture the end of the
world on film, would you guys buy
it? They gave me four 100-foot rolls
of black-and-white and a sheet
explaining what [images] they need-
South Wales, Australia, with help-
ing him develop an early sense of
open space and country. When his
father contracted tuberculosis and
was sent to a sanatorium, young
Donald began earning money at
the age of 12, doing farm work dur-
ing the harvest. The experience
could have led to an occupation as a
sharecropper, a common path at
the time, but a life of farming did
not appeal to him. Instead, he used
some of the money he made to take
a four-week boat tour of Europe
after he finished high school. That
turned into a full year of working
odd jobs in England, France and
Belgium. I found the way to meet
people and really learn about a
country is through work, he
recalls.
After returning home,
McAlpine enrolled in college as a
physical-education and science
major. Several of his teachers were
coaches for Australian teams that
were preparing to compete in the
1956 Olympics, and McAlpine
helped them by shooting 16mm
and 8mm film loops of the athletes
performances; such films were a
popular teaching tool at the time.
Upon graduating, McAlpine began
teaching phys-ed in a high school in
rural Parkes, and he had been teach-
ing for several years when a field trip
ed to put together a news story. I
shot one about Parkes, a rail town
that was in the process of transfer-
ring from steam to diesel, and I got
a lot of visually graphic material of
locomotives on turntables.
ABC used his footage and
asked for more, so McAlpine creat-
ed a visual essay about the wheat
harvest, chartering a plane to make
it as impressive as possible. The sta-
tion loved it because they were try-
ing to be a national network, but
they were always short of rural-
based material, he recalls. I made
Opposite: ASC
International
Award recipient
Donald
McAlpine, ASC,
ACS. This page,
above: Ewan
McGregor and
Nicole Kidman
share a duet in
Moulin Rouge
(2001), which
brought
McAlpine his
first ASC and
Academy Award
nominations.
Bottom left: On
the set of
Moulin Rouge,
McAlpine (right)
watches
playback with
director Baz
Luhrmann and
Kidman. Bottom
right: McAlpine
at work on
Bruce
Beresfords
Breaker Morant
(1980).
American Cinematographer 61
P
o
r
t
r
a
i
t

b
y

D
o
u
g
l
a
s

K
i
r
k
l
a
n
d
.

M
o
u
l
i
n

R
o
u
g
e

p
h
o
t
o
s

b
y

S
u
e

A
d
l
e
r
,

c
o
u
r
t
e
s
y

o
f

2
0
t
h

C
e
n
t
u
r
y

F
o
x
.

B
r
e
a
k
e
r

M
o
r
a
n
t

p
h
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t
o

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r
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f

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c
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l
p
i
n
e
.
more money for one of those essays
than I did for one week of teaching,
but it wasnt just about the money;
it was a great ego boost. The head-
master eventually told me the work
I was doing for ABC was interfering
with my teaching, and he told me to
cease and desist. When I called the
station to tell them, they offered me
a full-time job. That was all I need-
ed to hear! I became an assistant
cameraman and then a camera-
man.
That opportunity led to a job
with Film Australia, a government-
supported company that created
educational films and cinema
shorts on 35mm. We got to travel
all over the world, he recalls. It
was very exciting. McAlpine was
happy working at Film Australia,
and although the thought of shoot-
ing a feature occasionally crossed
his mind, there was very little fea-
ture production in Australia in the
late 1960s and early 1970s.
Eventually, however, he heard that a
young director named Bruce
Beresford was seeking a cinematog-
rapher to shoot an outrageous
comedy, The Adventures of Barry
McKenzie (1972). Bruces produc-
tion manager was looking at the
core of people shooting 35mm
neg, says McAlpine. Id shot
shorts and some commercials, and
the production manager asked me
for names of people I thought
could shoot a feature. I gave him
three names, and he came back and
said, Bruce watched their work, but
he also saw a little film you did, and
hes very interested in having you
be his cinematographer if youre
willing to leave your job at Film
Australia. I said, Be careful if youre
standing in the doorway! Within
weeks, I was in London preparing
my first feature.
He notes that the era marked
the rebirth of the Australian film
industry, part of a public-relations
effort by the government to address
the perception that Australia had an
Citizenof theWorld
Top to bottom:
McAlpine takes
a break with
actor William
Holden on the
set of Peter
Collinsons The
Earthling (1980);
the
cinematographer
(standing with
Polaroid camera
in hand) and his
crew work in a
tight location on
Beresfords The
Club (1980);
McAlpine
prepares a shot
for Puberty Blues
(1981), another
collaboration
with Beresford.
62 February 2009
P
h
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image problem. People thought of
us as a big farm with no industry
and no culture, says McAlpine.
The country did have a thriving
[film] industry in the 1920s; they
made wonderful films and kept up
with the change to sound, and in
the 1930s, it was going great guns.
Then the Hollywood studios
moved in and said they wanted to
be a part of it. Everyone thought
that was great, but the studios
bought up most of the Australian
production facilities and closed
them down to prevent competition.
Then World War II happened, and
the industry really stopped until
1969.
After shooting two comedies
with Beresford, McAlpine began
shooting four films a year in
Australia. A small group of film-
makers was starting to do serious
work, often focusing on Australias
history. When McAlpine shot the
drama The Getting of Wisdom for
Beresford, he felt he was taking a
step in his own artistic develop-
ment. It was the life story of an
Australian author, sort of a mini My
Brilliant Career, and it was the first
time I had a chance to shoot beauty
instead of just story.
My Brilliant Career came
next, and McAlpines camerawork
on the lush historical drama
brought him a lot of attention. I
think we were trying to find an
identity, he says of his fellow film-
makers Down Under. A lot of the
films we were doing were about our
own history, similar to Americas
Westerns. It was really us trying to
tell ourselves as much as anybody
else that we Australians have an
identity of our own. Everyone [in
the Australian industry] was sort of
thrilled on a whole different level
than happens today; we had small
crews, and everybody was working
outrageous hours and giving their
all. A cinematographer never got
more than two answer prints, but
we had remarkable people in the lab
and got the very best out of those
two prints. We may have been igno-
rant about some techniques and not
that efficient, but we were certainly
working hard.
Breaker Morant, set during
the Boer War, was a big production
for the country at the time, and the
reaction it received internationally
was also significant. It was my first
eight-week shoot so lavish!
McAlpine recalls with a chuckle. I
hadnt done anything on that scale
before. Theres a scene where the
Boers attack the fort and the soldiers
defend the door with a machine
gun, and I remember Bruce
[Beresford] saying, Weve got to
shoot this with seven cameras. And
I said, What the hell are you talking
about? I was ignorant about shoot-
ing that kind of action. So we got in
all the extra cameras for a day, and
everybody had one! We shot the
finale over two dawns, and then wed
continue on to about 10 or 11 a.m.
Above: The
cinematographer
at work on Paul
Mazurskys
Tempest (1982),
doing what I
have to do, he
notes wryly.
Below: Tempest
actors Susan
Sarandon and
John Cassavettes
wait with
McAlpine on
location in
Greece.
American Cinematographer 63
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64 February 2009
Of course, Bruce was right about
bringing in all the extra cameras!
When Mazursky began prep-
ping Tempest, a fantasy very loosely
based on Shakespeares The
Tempest, it so happened that The
Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant
Career and Breaker Morant opened
simultaneously in New York.
Mazursky was impressed by the
looks of all three films, and he con-
tacted McAlpine about Tempest. In
short order, the cinematographer
found himself working with bigger
crews and more gear than hed ever
had before. Its amazing how
accepting I was of all of that, he
recalls. I got used to it very quickly.
I took it and ran with it! He even-
tually shot three more films for
Mazursky: Moscow on the Hudson
(1984), Down and Out in Beverly
Hills (1986) and Moon Over
Parador (1988).
McAlpine collaborated with
Noyce, a fellow Aussie, on the spy
thrillers Patriot Games and Clear
and Present Danger, and the cine-
matographer admired Noyces
ability to work on star-driven
blockbusters and keep the focus on
storytelling. Phil is one of the best
storytellers Ive ever worked with,
he says. Although McAlpine found
a great deal to like about working
in the Hollywood system, he
acknowledges that he has encoun-
tered what so many creative people
in Tinseltown must cope with:
typecasting. Hollywood tries to
typecast everybody. After Down
and Out in Beverly Hills came out,
I received four different scripts for
movies with dogs! But Ive always
tried to do something different. If I
have to choose between two scripts
I like, Ill go with the one thats least
like something Ive done before.
That interest in diversity has
led McAlpine to take on comedies
such as Parenthood (1989) and
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), dramas such
as Medicine Man (1992) and The
Man Without a Face (1993), and
effects-heavy fantasies such as Peter
Pan (2003; AC Jan. 04) and The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe (2005; AC
Dec. 05).
In 1996, Luhrmann, another
Aussie, offered McAlpine a new
creative challenge. Luhrmanns
directorial debut, Strictly Ballroom,
had impressed 20th Century Fox
enough to get them interested in
his next project, an adaptation of
Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.
The project wasnt a go yet, but
McAlpine accepted a meeting with
Luhrmann to see what the director
had in mind. I was between films,
and Id been impressed with
Strictly Ballroom, he recalls. I met
Baz in his offices above a defunct
Chinese restaurant, and when I
walked in, the place was full of,
well, hippies is too strong a word,
but they were certainly very infor-
Citizenof theWorld
Above:
McAlpine and
director/actor
Paul Newman
work out a shot
on Harry & Son
(1984). Below:
Jack Ryan
(Harrison Ford)
races to protect
his family in
Patriot Games
(1992).
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mal. I was old enough to be their
grandfather! But Bazs strength is
his ability to sell anyone on his
ideas. I asked him what age group
he was aiming for, and he said,
Were basically aiming it at 12-
year-old girls. So I asked, Whos
translating the language for 12-
year-old girls? He said, Every word
will be Shakespeares. I started to
lose interest at that point, but hes
such an enthusiast that he ensnared
me.
Luhrmann told McAlpine
Fox had the same concern about
the language, and the studio want-
ed him to shoot a scene so execu-
tives could get a better idea of how
it would play. They wanted a prop-
erly lit scene on 35mm, and I told
Baz that would be an absolute dis-
aster because they would judge
only that scene they wouldnt
use it to imagine what the whole
film could be like, the cinematog-
rapher recalls. Instead, I suggested
we shoot video of big slabs of the
script. What I wanted to prove to
myself, I realize in retrospect, was
the idea that this Shakespearean
dialogue could be understood in
the situations described in the
script. I just couldnt visualize it
working, and if I couldnt visualize
it, I doubted the studio could. So
Baz and the studio agreed, and we
shot with a small video camera. I
told him not to worry about the
look and to put all the money he
had for the test into the sound.
Everybody wanted to know how
the dialogue would work in con-
text, so they had to be able to hear
it!
We shot big slabs of the
script in the rain, staying under a
bridge to keep dry. We work-
shopped the scenes, and we had
Leonardo DiCaprio [playing
Romeo] and a great ensemble of
Australian actors, few of whom
made it into the final film. Then
[editor] Jill Bilcock got hold of the
footage and cut it using the frenetic R
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Top to bottom: A
devastated
Romeo (Leonardo
DiCaprio)
approaches his
lovers coffin in
Luhrmanns
Romeo+Juliet,
which McAlpine
calls probably
the most
rewarding film
Ive ever worked
on; actress
Sonia Braga
cozies up to the
cinematographer
on the set of
Mazurskys
Moon Over
Parador (1988);
director Ron
Howard amuses
McAlpine while
working on
Parenthood
(1989).
American Cinematographer 65
66 February 2009
style you see in the film. I realized
there and then that it was
enthralling and involving and the
language was absolutely under-
standable, and thats when I signed
on.
Shot in Mexico, Romeo +
Juliet was probably the most
rewarding film Ive ever worked on,
continues McAlpine. I was shoot-
ing another film up in Canada when
Romeo + Juliet was released, and my
wife and I went to see it on a
Saturday afternoon in Calgary. I had
to speak to the manager to get a seat
because it was sold out, and we sat
there surrounded by teenagers, and
they were all talking and shouting
before the movie started, as kids do.
I thought we wouldnt be able to
hear any of the film, but as soon as
the opening scene came on, every-
one in the audience just shut up. It
was one of the greatest moments in
cinema in my career! The only
noise I heard through the film was
the sound of some girls sobbing at
the appropriate places.
Moulin Rouge, his next col-
laboration with Luhrmann, was
also extremely rewarding for
McAlpine, who spent a year prep-
ping the picture with Luhrmann
and production/costume designer
Catherine Martin, Luhrmanns
wife. The film brought McAlpine
his first ASC and Academy Award
nominations. Baz is someone who
can get the best out of every grip,
electric, cameraman and actor, he
notes. He inspires everyone
around him, and he has brilliant
judgment.
Being honored with the
ASCs International Award was
totally unexpected, he says. Over
the years, Ive read in American
Cinematographer about the other
people whove gotten the award,
but it never occurred to me that Id
be considered for it. I dont really
think of myself as an Australian or
American cinematographer; I think
of myself as a citizen of the world.
Ive never really considered my
nationality as a brand.
The thing I love most about
my job is the interaction with peo-
ple, he continues. Next to the
director, the cinematographer is the
one on a film who interacts more
closely with more people than any-
one else. Its very rare to find a field
where 100 people are all working
together to realize a single creative
endeavor. When its working like
that and Im part of the team, life is
pretty good. I
Citizenof theWorld
Above: Director
Martin Ritt (right)
chats with
McAlpine and
actors Jane Fonda
and Robert De
Niro on the set of
Stanley & Iris
(1990). Below: The
cinematographer
on location in
New York Armory
for John Badhams
action comedy
The Hard Way
(1991).
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www.nabshow.com
Conferences: April 1823, 2009 / Exhibits: April 2023
Las Vegas Convention Center / Las Vegas, Nevada USA
F
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Capture:
Knowledge
Passion
Content
Ideas
Creativity
Insight
Experience
Innovation
Content Content
Regardless of the important role you play in the creation of content,
from conceptualization through production and post-production, the
NAB Show delivers the tools and techniques to give life to your next
award-winning vision. Experience a wealth of hands-on educational
opportunities designed to expand your know-how and abilities. See,
touch and test the advancements inuencing todays edgiest content,
from HD to 3D, editing, and the latest in animation, gaming, widgets,
social networking and more.
From big screen to small screen to no screen and beyond, the NAB
Show is the ultimate venue for exchanging solutions and strategies
for creating award-winning content to be viewed by local, national
and global audiences. Join the world-wide community of professionals
who share your passion for entertainment excellence. For more
information, visit www.nabshow.com.
Lowry Digital
Restores Manhatta
by David Heuring
Anthology Film Archives, the
British Film Institute, the Library of
Congress, the Museum of Modern Art,
the National Gallery of Art, and the
Nederlands Filmmuseum in Amsterdam
recently collaborated on the restoration
of the 1920 silent short Manhatta, one of
Americas earliest avant-garde films, at
Lowry Digital in Burbank.
To make the roughly 12-minute
film, noted still photographers Paul
Strand and Charles Sheeler spent almost
a year capturing angular shots of New York
skyscrapers, clouds of urban steam and
smoke, and glistening harbor waters with a
Debrie LInterview Type E motion-picture
camera. The editing juxtaposed similar and
dissimilar images to create a symphonic
effect that Strand described as expressive
of the spirit of New York, of its power and
beauty and movement.
Following its completion, Manhatta
was screened several times under a variety
of titles, among them New York the
Magnificent and Fume de New York (The
Smoke of New York), but in 1927, the orig-
inal negative was lost. The BFI discovered
a print of the film in its collection in 1949,
and Manhatta was soon back in circula-
tion, albeit in poorly duped 16mm reduction
prints. Eventually, the BFI source print was
destroyed because of nitrate deterioration,
and only a single 35mm black-and-white
dupe negative survived. This element
served as the source for Lowrys digital
restoration, which was overseen by
archivist, curator and conservator Bruce
Posner.
Although the 35mm dupe negative
was an improvement over the 16mm prints
in circulation, it still displayed many
defects, notes Posner. The problems
included buildup of dirt, scratches, tears,
holes, bad splices, varying grain and
contrast and blocked highlights, he says.
There were also weave and jitter move-
ments in multiple directions, cross-frame
luminance shifts, processing and printing-
light flares, poor tonal grading and
improper stabilization and breathing
caused by mis-registration between indi-
vidual frames along the strip of film.
Compounding matters were image
flaws in the original cinematography; for
example, most of the rhythmic vibrations
appear to have been introduced by hand-
cranking the camera while it was loosely
mounted on a tripod and uneven process-
ing and printing via a primitive rack-and-
tank system. Ultimately, all those flaws
Post Focus
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.
Pictured in this
shot from the
1920 silent short
Manhatta is the
J.P. Morgan
Building on
Wall Street. The
restored frame
is above; the
shot at right
shows the
original frame,
whose flaws
included a
horizontal light
flare and
mottled dirt
markings.
68 February 2009
were photographed into the film at vari-
ous stages of duplication.
Posner conducted tests at several
Los Angeles-area companies using a 2K
scan of Manhatta that was created on a
Spirit DataCine at Post Logic. (The images
were radically off-centered, precluding
the use of a pin-registered scanner.) After
viewing the results and considering bids,
he chose Lowry. Their work proved the
best, and they seemed to have a realistic
understanding of the considerable chal-
lenges involved, he remarks.
Lowry Chief Operating Officer
Mike Inchalik describes the task of restor-
ing Manhatta as painstaking. He
explains, Because we usually repair
damage by borrowing from an undam-
aged area within that frame or from
another frame, restoration gets exponen-
tially harder when the film is so flawed.
Manhatta was damaged to an extent
where it became difficult for artists to
repair it without leaving a trace. A human
being can create the necessary pixels to
make a seamless repair over the course
of five frames, but what about 100
frames? When you add warping, flicker
and inconsistent luminance, there are
serious hurdles to overcome.
To do the heavy lifting, you have
to use automation because the computer
will repair things in precisely the same
way, frame after frame, without a trace,
he continues. That allows the artist to go
in and find usable image areas from
which to borrow to make repairs. Our
company was founded on the invention of
temporal image processing, and were
continually expanding whats possible
through the use of that technology.
The Lowry team spent more than
900 hours on Manhatta between October
2007 and September 2008, and that
included both automated work and the
hands-on efforts of Lowrys staff. Each
of the films 11,223 frames was re-regis-
tered, stabilized and cleaned; scratches,
splices, rips and tears were repaired; and
flicker and flare were reduced.
Posner notes that many of the
steps in the restoration process intro-
duced new problems that had to be
solved in turn. For example, the stabiliza-
tion process resulted in further exaggera-
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69
70 February 2009
tion of pre-existing vertical scratches
that ran across multiple frames. Before
processing, the scratches flowed
straight through the frame, but after
processing, they jumped back and forth
from frame to frame.
Another mysterious problem was
a slight 1-to-6-frame-long fogging of the
film stock at the beginning and end of
each shot. Posner speculates the flares
could have been caused by the start-stop
positions of the shutter in the camera
during shooting, or in the printer during
duplication. It is also possible that short
ends of fogged raw stock were used.
Much of the damage shows as white
flashes where the negative was nearly
solid black. The same frames also
displayed the detritus of cement splicing,
a white or black horizontal line across
the frame, and defects such as nitrate
punches and rips. The restorations
budget precluded the repair of all these
defects, so the restoration team decided
to remove 102 irreversibly damaged
frames.
The restored picture was digitally
graded by Lowry colorist Rick Taylor, who
worked in a Baselight suite, and a key
reference for this work was 14 single
frames Sheeler had saved from the orig-
inal camera negative to make photo-
graphic prints. The pristine, vintage
photos helped the team determine the
ideal contrast, tone scale and color and
also provided exact dimensions for the
film frames, which had been printed in
varying sizes on the 35mm dupe nega-
tive. The restored picture was formatted
to fit an aspect ratio of 1.30:1.
Taylor modulated the overall
tonal scale, keeping whites and blacks
within acceptable technical standards for
digital, film and video color spaces.
According to Posner, the filmout files
registered perfect film-grain reproduction,
while the video files were modified to
appear slightly sepia-colored to match the
film output. Decisions about such things
as grain were made by Posner in consul-
tation with archivists from the various
sponsoring entities. We worked with
some of the worlds most knowledgeable
experts on silent film and still photogra-
phy to realize a digital duplicate of the
35mm original, says Posner.
Early negative stocks were quite
good, but the print stocks werent, he
continues. Since Manhatta was shot off
and on over the course of nearly a year,
the lab work varied greatly from batch to
batch. Seeking a global look for the film
grain became a serious consideration. As
a conservator, youre trying to make some-
thing as close to the original experience
as possible. After cleanup and repair, you
often need to re-introduce some grain, but
you dont want to introduce anything that
looks fake. We resolved those questions
as best we could in concert with our
restoration partners. Lowrys files worked
extremely well with the 35mm fine-grain
stocks.
It is not known whether Strand and
Sheeler intended to have a musical
accompaniment for Manhatta, though the
record shows this was done at some of its
earliest screenings. For the DVD of the
restored film, silent-film accompanist
Donald Sosin was commissioned to
compose a new orchestral score that was
performed by the 39-piece Slovak Sinfoni-
etta. The music was conducted by Peter
Breiner and edited and mixed in Dolby
Digital 5.1 at Chace Audio Productions in
Burbank.
The 35mm archival negatives and
prints were processed and printed at YCM
Laboratories and are being preserved by
the Museum of Modern Art and the
Nederlands Filmmuseum. Lowry also
generated 2K digital files and HDCam-SR
4:2:2 tapes formatted for different exhibi-
tion and broadcast purposes; this material
is being preserved at the Library of
Congress, where Manhatta is listed in the
National Film Registry. I
Pictured are
before (bottom)
and after (top)
versions of a
harbor view.
Flaws in the
source material
included visible
thumbprints on
the print,
vertical print
scratches and
underexposure.
Go to AFI.com/AFIFEST for more information
OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS IN MARCH 2009
Kuro Loft Opens Doors
The Pioneer South Coast Plaza
retail store has partnered with Media-
Mation, Inc. to open the Kuro Loft.
Designed to be a home-entertainment
playground for Hollywoods creative
industry, the Loft showcases todays
advanced display technologies.
The entrance welcomes visitors
with Pioneers high-end music system,
the X-Z9, an iPod/USB/MP3 sound
system that upconverts compressed
audio into full dynamic sound. Moving
deeper into the space, visitors pass
through the Pioneer Hallway, which
marks the historical evolution of
Pioneers plasma televisions from the
worlds first 50" 1080p plasma (Elite Pro-
FHD1) to the first generation of Kuro.
The main area of the Kuro Loft is
the TV Taste Test, which allows visitors
to compare their choice of HD content
(cable, Blu-ray, video games, etc.)
distributed to six 50" flat-panel displays
from Pioneer, Sony, Samsung and Pana-
sonic. These screens are mounted on a
custom-made exhibit wall and are
controlled by a central equipment rack
housed inside this stand.
The final section of the Kuro Loft
is the Ultimate Kuro Living Room, a
home theater consisting of best-in-class
audio and video products to accompany
the award-winning Kuro television.
The Kuro Loft is available by
appointment only. For more information
or to schedule an appointment, visit
www.kuroloft.com.
New Products & Services
72 February 2009
Panavision Adds Phantom
to Rentals
Panavision has announced an
agreement with Abel Cine Tech and
Vision Research for acquisition of Phan-
tom HD high-speed digital cameras. The
contract makes Phantom HD cameras
and custom accessories available for
rent in a complete Panavised package
along with Panavisions inventory of
optics, including anamorphic lenses.
Abel Cine Tech, the exclusive North
American agent for Vision Researchs
Phantom HD and 65, supplies the
camera systems, technical support and
training to Panavision.
Peter Abel, president of Abel
Cine Tech, notes, Our strategic relation-
ship with Panavision moves Phantom
HD into an arena we have eagerly
sought since the cameras inception.
With their experience and unique posi-
tion in the market, we couldnt hope for
a more accomplished partner than
Panavision to make this objective a
reality.
Each Panavised Phantom HD
camera system will include two new
products, the 512 GB CineMag flash
storage magazine and the CineStation
download station. These products speed
production and enhance workflow both
on and off the set. Panavision is the first
to supply this full system (two
CineMags and one CineStation) to each
Phantom HD package.
For more information, visit
www.panavision.com, www.abel
cine.com or www.visionresearch.com.
American Cinematographer 73
EX3 Gets Pro35 Adapter
P+S Technik has introduced a "
Pro35 lens adapter designed specifically
for Sonys PMW-EX3 camcorder, offer-
ing users the ability to use professional
PL-mount 35mm cinema lenses with the
EX3s B4 mount. With the adapter, users
can enjoy the same depth of field, focal
lengths and angles of view found in
35mm film cameras. ZGC, Inc., the
exclusive North American distributor for
P+S Technik, offers the " Pro35 in a
package that also includes a support kit
with bridge, two extension handles, two
regular handles and a battery.
P+S Technik recently received a
GTC Award for it Pro35 family of image
converters.
For more information, visit
www.pstechnik.de or www.zgc.com.
Clairmont Renting
v3 MOE Lenses
Clairmont Camera is now renting
Vision III Imagings v3 MOE (Moving
Optical Element) lenses. Available in
24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and
135mm focal lengths, the lenses capture
different points of view relative to the
plane of focus, thereby adding realism,
depth and shape to scenes and subjects.
Compatible with any industry-
standard PL-mount film or digital
camera, the lenses incorporate patented
v3 parallax scanning technology. The
lens iris rotates in a simple circle, with
the amplitude (distance off center) and
frequency (cycles per second) adjustable
by the camera operator. (The normal
frequency for shooting at 24 fps is 4.3
cycles per second; this can easily be
adjusted for off-speed shooting.)
Clairmonts rental package also
includes the lens controller and cabling.
For more information, visit www.clair
mont.com or www.inv3.com.
Redrock Micro Offers
dSLR Kits
Capitalizing on the high-quality
video afforded by a number of digital
SLR cameras, Redrock Micro now offers
a variety of accessories designed to
transform the cameras into production-
ready cinema solutions.
Redrock Micros dSLR accessory
line includes a 15mm support system, a
follow-focus with 35mm lens gearing for
accurate and repeatable focusing, a
swing-away mattebox for light manage-
ment and easy lens changes, a shoulder
mount and handgrips for steady hand-
held use, and a support cage for
enhanced stability and low-angle shots.
The accessories are available in a dSLR
Cinema Bundle or a dSLR Field Cinema
Bundle; Redrocks modular design
allows users to add more pieces as they
see fit.
For more information, visit
www.redrockmicro.com.
Egripment Extends
Crane Line
Egripment Support Systems has
expanded its product line with the TDT
and Scanner Elite crane systems.
The TDT Remote Crane System
combines a lightweight remote camera
crane and remote head in a single prod-
uct. Portions of the remote head are built
into the front section of the arm, and the
controls at the back of the crane are built
as a part of the weight bucket. The
system is available in 20' (TDT 6) and
30' (TDT 9) configurations, each of
which can support up to a 44-
pound load.
The Scanner Elite is Egripments
follow-up to the successful Scanner
System, which was introduced in 1997.
The Elite is longer (21'), reaches higher
(24') and carries a larger payload (up to
100 pounds) than the original Scanner.
Nevertheless, the Scanner Elite remains
a compact crane system that can be
operated either by one person handling
all controls at the rear of the arm or by
two people, with separate crane and
camera operators.
For more information, visit
www.egripment.com.
Telescopic Introduces
Techno-Jib 24
North Hollywood-based Tele-
scopic LLC has introduced the Techno-
Jib 24 telescoping jib arm. The device
can instantly extend or retract, enabling
innovative shots otherwise achievable
only with a telescoping crane.
A single operator can control
diverse camera movements and opera-
tions (including zoom and focus as well
as telescoping the jib arm) through a
customizable user interface. Controls
and a viewing monitor mount easily on
either side of the arm and can be posi-
tioned for optimal viewing and user
convenience. The Techno-Jib can also
be fitted with a remote head for opera-
tion with conventional hand wheels.
The Techno-Jib 24 extends from
a minimum reach of 9' to a maximum of
24'. The arm travels at speeds of up to 5'
per second, and a soft-stop feature
guarantees an automatic smooth stop
every time. Units come standard with a
Mitchell-mount adapter and can easily
accommodate most remote heads in
either an under- or over-slung configura-
tion. Adjustable weights ensure jib arm
balance with all popular head/camera
combinations. A smaller version the
Techno-Jib 15, with a maximum reach
of 16' is also available.
For more information, visit
www.telescopicjib.com.
Panasonic Unveils
Portable Recorder
Panasonic has introduced the
solid-state AG-HPG20 P2 Portable
recorder/player, which supports the 10-
bit AVC-Intra codec as well as formats
ranging from DVCPro HD to DV and
serves as a master-quality deck for fast
file-based recording.
The HPG20 allows users to play
and review P2 cards on its 3.5" LCD
screen, manage clip files and metadata,
record content from a wide range of
cameras via its HD-SDI input, and back-
up data onto hard disk drives. Featuring
two P2 card slots, the HPG20s solid-
state design holds up to the demands of
field operation while weighing only 2.5
pounds.
Recording and playback formats
74 February 2009
75
supported by the HPG20 include
1080/60i, 1080/50i, 720/60p and
720/50p in AVC-Intra and DVCPro HD
4:2:2; and 480/60i and 576/50i in
DVCPro 50, DVCPro and DV. The unit
plays back content automatically, with
no need to change settings, and can
operate in 50Hz or 60Hz. For added
versatility, the HPG20 supports up-,
down- and cross-conversion for HD or
SD transmission. It also allows confi-
dence playback from P2 files stored on
a hard disk drive.
The units HD/SD-SDI and IEEE
1394 input interfaces open the door for
a variety of applications in HD or SD
production and allow the HPG20 to be
paired with a wide range of tape-based
and solid-state cameras and
camcorders from multiple manufactur-
ers. Additionally, the recorder can play
back to large HD production monitors or
transfer uncompressed content to HD-
SDI-equipped decks and storage
networks. When connected to a
laptops IEEE 1394 output, the unit
serves as a transcoder to HD-SDI-
equipped monitors for full real-time
playback from the timeline.
In addition to viewing recorded
files in a thumbnail view, users can
copy or transfer select clips from one P2
card to another, copy selected clips
from a hard disk drive onto a P2 card,
edit a clips metadata and save a text
memo to individual clips when record-
ing or previewing. P2 cards can also be
76 February 2009
hot-swapped for continuous recording.
Other features include an SD
card slot for loading metadata or saving
user files, and helpful recording func-
tions like a waveform/vectorscope
display, loop record and auto record
commands that accompany the HD-SDI
signal. Internal speaker and headphone
(M3 mini) jacks are also included.
For more information, visit
www.panasonic.com/broadcast.
Alan Gordon Expands Line
Alan Gordon Enterprises, Inc. has
expanded its product line with battery
blocks designed for use with both film
and HD camera systems. The Triton Cine
HD Battery Block 15 AHR uses nickel
metal hydride cells, and the TritonBelt
Battery Belt and Cadblock Battery both
use NICAD cells. Compatible with any
of the standard connections currently
used in the industry, the batteries are
available in 12-, 14.4-, 26-, 28.8- and 30-
volt configurations.
The batteries smart technology
incorporates built-in microprocessors,
which manage battery efficiency and
provide charge termination, voltage cut-
off and an easy-to-read fuel gauge.
The battery blocks are manufac-
tured in the companys Hollywood facil-
ity. For more information, visit
www.alangordon.com.
Red Apple StudioCruzer
Makes Debut
CaseCruzer has introduced the
Red Apple StudioCruzer, a carry-on case
designed to protect a Red One camera
and an Apple MacBook Pro laptop.
The cases interior provides a
snug fit for the One, with separate,
modular cutouts for the body, LED
viewfinder and lens. The lid compart-
ment provides a tight wrap for a 15" or
17" MacBook Pro, with a separate
cutout for the power supply.
Offering superior mobility over
varied terrain, the StudioCruzer features
mounted urethane wheels and a 17"
retractable extension handle. The case
also features side and front carrying
handles. Metal reinforced padlock
protectors add strength and security,
and the case is waterproof, airtight and
dustproof, with a neoprene O-ring seal
and an automatic purge valve.
Weighing 15 pounds, the Red
Apple StudioCruzer measures
22"x14"x9" and comes with an uncon-
ditional lifetime warranty. The manu-
facturers recommended price is $320.
For more information, visit
www.casecruzer.com.
Ikan Unveils LCD Monitor
Ikans V8000HDMI 8" on-camera
HD monitor features a widescreen LCD
panel and a number of input options,
including HDMI, component, S-Video
and composite. The monitor is capable
of displaying images in 1080i, 720p and
480p. Key features of the V8000HDMI
include built-in support for various DV
battery plates, built-in support for V-
mount and AB batteries, safe area
guides for 1.78:1 and 1.33:1 aspect
ratios, and video pass-through for all
analog inputs.
Ikan also offers the monitors
earlier incarnation, the V8000HD, in a
deluxe kit that includes a hard case for
transporting the monitor, a 970 L-series
lithium ion battery (capable of powering
the V8000HD for over three hours), the
ICH-750 battery charger, an AC power
adapter, a DC car adapter and a heavy-
duty camera mount.
For more information, visit
www.ikancorp.com.
Christie Projects Brilliant3D
Christie, a leader in digital
cinema projection, has unveiled its Bril-
liant3D technology, enabling 3-D
content to be projected in full 2K resolu-
tion for digital cinema projectors utiliz-
ing 1.2" DMD chips from Texas Instru-
ments. Christies new technology
provides 33 percent more brightness for
3-D content and uses only a single lens
system.
Brilliant3D will enable ex-
hibitors to project 3-D movies onto the
largest screens while reducing both
lamp and electricity expenses, says
Craig Sholder, vice president of
Christies Entertainment Solutions.
Christie engineers initiated develop-
ment of this technology so that audi-
ences would have the most compelling
3-D experience.
Joseph Peixoto, RealDs presi-
dent of worldwide cinema, adds, This
advancement, combined with our RealD
XL system, enhances the 3-D experience
tremendously. Together, we can fill
screens up to 75 feet in width with true
triple-flash-capable technology, making
3-D films even brighter and clearer.
Brilliant3D will be available on
Christies CP2000-SB, CP2000-XB and
CP-2000-ZX 2K DLP Cinema projectors.
Christies CP2000-M digital cinema
projector, based on the .98" DMD chip,
will also feature Brilliant3D technology.
In addition, Christie has announced a
new suite of variable-prime zoom lenses
that enable a convenient and cost-effec-
tive single-lens solution for 2-D and 3-D
content regardless of format.
For more information, visit
www.christiedigital.com.
77

78 February 2009
shop CS4 and Windows Vista 64-bit
(x64). Version 3.0.2 of the Knoll plug-in,
which enhances the lighting in Photo-
shop images to produce dramatic or
natural effects, takes advantage of the
faster performance and better memory
handling of Vista x64.
Features of Knoll Light Factory
3.0.2 for Photoshop CS4 include
improved performance, better usability,
photo-realistic lighting effects such as
lens flares, real-time preview with
resize capability, 110 lighting presets,
16-bit color support for better looking
glows and gradients, and Mac Intel
compatibility. Digital Anarchys other
Photoshop products have been fully
tested to support Photoshop CS4 in both
Mac and Windows 32-bit environ-
ments, and they will be updated for the
Windows 64-bit environment in early
2009.
For more information, visit
www.digitalanarchy.com.
Digieffects Simulates
Camera, Projection Artifacts
Digieffects is shipping Simulate:
Camera, a plug-in package offering a
specialized collection of effects for
mimicking camera and projection arti-
facts within Adobe CS4 and Apple Final
Cut Pro 6.
Effects featured in Simulate:
Camera include Archive, a film-degra-
dation effect; Overexpose, for adding
variations in exposure to otherwise
stable footage; and Destabilize, useful
for emulating camera shake. Addition-
ally, as with all Digieffects software
launched since Jan. 08, Simulate:
Camera includes Randomizer and
Presets; Randomizer adjusts multiple
parameters within the user interface,
causing new and unpredictable results,
while Presets allows users to move
effect parameters between supported
host applications. Robert Sharp, presi-
dent of Digieffects, notes, These
effects, like many of the latest releases
and upcoming releases from Digief-
fects, are designed to be straightfor-
ward, affordable, every-day usable
staples of visual postproduction.
HDCameraGuide.com
Launches
HDCameraGuide.com is now
online, featuring exclusive video inter-
views, product introduction videos, a
video-rich Learning Center, an Interac-
tive Lens Selector and much more. The
site will also work with manufacturers
to produce product demonstrations and
instructional videos.
Theres a lot of great HD equip-
ment out there, and a wide range of
support products, but its not always
easy to determine what to buy, says
Michael Grotticelli, the Web sites
editor-in-chief. HDCameraGuide.com is
a single-source product-marketing site
that connects buyers with manufactur-
ers products.
The site is designed to help users
decide which HD camera, lens, battery,
tripod, microphone and even
teleprompter is best for their require-
ments. Visitors can also rate cameras
according to a five-star system and add
comments. Theres even a section on
historic cameras that have made their
mark on the industry.
For more information, visit
www.hdcameraguide.com.
Knoll Light Factory Plugs
into CS4
Digital Anarchy has announced
the full compatibility of its popular Knoll
Light Factory plug-in with Adobe Photo-
Simulate: Camera is available for
a recommended price of $99. For more
information, visit www.digieffects.com.
B&G Adds Budget Forms Pro
B&G Designs has added Budget
Forms Pro to its line of production soft-
ware. Designed for budgeting shorts,
features, commercials, music videos,
documentaries and more, Budget Forms
Pro comprises budgeting templates
compatible with any version of
Microsoft Excel.
The Budget Forms Pro CD-Rom
contains three different sets of budget-
ing forms: the film budget, the A.I.C.P.
commercial budget and the music-video
budget. Each template contains a
complete seven-page set of profes-
sional budgeting forms covering all
areas of production, from prep through
post, with a complete line-item break-
down and a top-sheet budget summary.
The top-sheet summary features all
relevant production information, includ-
ing the complete budget breakdown and
grand total.
Compatible with any size and
type of production, Budget Forms Pro
can be easily customized for an individ-
ual projects needs. Users can change
line-item names and percentage
amounts, and add comments and addi-
tional information to the top-sheet
breakdown.
Budget Forms Pro is available for
a suggested price of $129.99. For
more information, visit www.movie
forms.com.
31 0/301-81 87
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79
Cine-tal Announces
Authorized Service Centers
In an effort to provide high-qual-
ity, around-the-clock customer support
for its line of image processing, color
management and display solutions,
Cine-tal Systems has launched an inter-
national network of authorized service
centers. Initially, the network will include
three sites staffed by dedicated, factory-
trained technicians: Imagica Digix in
Tokyo, Japan; Janusz Rupik in Warsaw,
Poland; and Cine-tals headquarters in
Indianapolis, Ind. The company plans to
add several additional authorized service
centers in the coming months located in
leading media-production centers world-
wide.
We feel that it is imperative to
be able to respond to our customers
support needs at anytime and
anywhere, says Bob Caldwell, Cine-tals
director of customer support. If a client
encounters an issue on a Saturday in
Tokyo, it can now be resolved through a
local source that same day.
Cine-tals authorized service
centers will provide both pre- and post-
sale customer support. Services range
from product demonstrations and
customer training to systems repair and
technical support. 24-hour emergency
support is also available through each
location. Our aim is not only to provide
timely response when problems arise,
but also to serve as a resource to our
customers, helping them to get the most
out of our products, says Caldwell.
For more information, visit
www.cine-tal.com.
Sachtler Ships Upgraded
FSB Cell
Following testing by product
developers and selected users,
Sachtlers FSB Cell battery for MiniDV
and HDV cameras has been optimized
and is now shipping.
The FSB Cells underside is fash-
ioned like a camera plate and can be
fastened perfectly onto Sachtlers FSB
fluid heads, ensuring secure locking and
handling features; by mounting the
battery directly onto the fluid head, the
batterys weight (1.43 pounds) increases
80 February 2009
stability without adversely influencing
camera balance, maintaining smooth
and steady pans and tilts.
Depending on the type of
camera, the FSB Cell can provide an
operating time of up to eight hours.
Additional equipment, such as
Sachtlers 8LED on-camera light, can
also be powered by the FSB Cell.
For more information, visit
www.sachtler.us.
Schneider Introduces Tru-Cut
IR-750 Filter
Responding to HD cameras high
sensitivity to light in the infrared spec-
trum, Schneider Optics has introduced
the Tru-Cut IR-750 filter, designed to
eliminate IR light before it reaches the
cameras sensor; use of the filter results
in more vibrant colors and truer blacks
from both CCD and CMOS sensors.
The Tru-Cut IR-750 filter main-
tains a high MTF (modulation transfer
function) in the visible spectrum, and its
coating meets or exceeds military stan-
dards for durability, making it easy to
clean. Like all Schneider professional
filters, the Tru-Cut IR-750 is manufac-
tured from crystal-clear, water-white
optical glass that is diamond cut, preci-
sion ground, and polished to the most
exacting tolerances.
Tru-Cut IR-750 filters are avail-
able in 4"x4", 4"x5.65", 5"x5",
5.65"x5.65" and 6.6"x6.6" rectangular
sizes, plus 138mm, 77mm, 4.5" and
Series 9 round sizes.
For more information, visit
www.schneideroptics.com.
Vicon Adds T10
Vicon has added the T10 to its
recently introduced MX T-Series motion-
capture cameras. The T10 replaces the
MX3+ as Vicons entry-level camera,
offering 3 times the resolution along
with faster performance, 3-D on-board
tracking, backwards compatibility and
new high-powered strobes that
increase camera range and detail.
The T10 is a 1-megapixel camera
that enables users to capture finer
details in larger volumes, and with GigE
Ethernet, data streaming is 10 times
faster than with the previous MX3
system. The new T10 camera delivers
SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Please e-mail New Products/Services
releases to: newproducts@ascmag.com and
include full contact information and product
images. Photos must be TIFF or JPEG files of at
least 300dpi.
a robust motion-capture solution for
body or facial performance that is very
easy to set up and use, says Robin
Pengelly, senior vice president of Vicons
Entertainment Division. Its ideal for
customers who require the fidelity and
power of a Vicon T-Series system but
are working in smaller studio spaces.
For more information, visit
www.vicon.com.
Alan Gordon Offering
Engraved Scene Slates
Alan Gordon Enterprises, Inc.
now offers two styles of engraved scene
slates.
The combo slate measures
12"x9.25" and is made of heavy-duty
plastic. Engraved letters and dividing
lines provide a durable, longer-lasting
alternative to silk-screened lettering.
Machined from Alder wood, the clap
sticks provide a distinctive pitched clap.
The combo slate also comes with a dry-
erase marker.
The insert slate measures 5"x4"
and is made of white acrylic. The slate is
ideal for tight shots that preclude the
use of a full-sized slate.
For more information, visit
www.alangordon.com. I
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Abel Cine Tech 19
AC 23, 85
AFI 71
Alamar Productions, Inc. 82
Alan Gordon Enterprises
82, 83
Arri 45
Backstage Equipment, Inc.
35
Band Pro 5
Burrell Enterprises 82
Camelot Broadcasting Service
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Cavision Enterprises 25
Center for Digital Imaging
Arts at Boston 57
Chapman/Leonard Studio
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Cinekinetic 4
Cinematographer Style 87
Cinema Vision 83
Cinematography
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Cooke 6
CPT Rental Inc. 83
Denecke, Inc. 82
Eastman Kodak 9, C4
Entertainment Lighting
Services 82
Filmtools 75
Five Towns College 37
FTC/West 83
Fuji Motion Picture 33
Glidecam Industries 13
Golden Animations 83
HD Expo 81
Hochschule 69
Hybrid Cases 82
Hydroflex 79
J.L. Fisher 21
K 5600, Inc. 59
Kino Flo 39
Laffoux Solutions, Inc. 82
Lights! Action! Company
83
Lite Panels 2
London Film School 6
Mac Group US C3
Movie Tech AG 82
MP&E Mayo Productions 83
NAB 67
Nalpak 83
New York Film Academy 17
Oppenheimer Camera Prod.
69, 82
P+S Technik 57
Panasonic Broadcast 7
PED Denz 37
Photo-sonics, Rental 51
Pille Film Gmbh 82
Pro8mm 82
Professional Sound 77
Reel EFX 6
Sony C2-1
Spectra Film & Video 83
Stanton Video Services 75
Super16 Inc. 83
Superflycam 35
VF Gadgets, Inc. 83
Videocraft Equipment Pty
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Visual Products 77
Walter Klassen FX 38
Willys Widgets 82
www.theasc.com 50, 58,
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Zacuto Films 83
ZGC, Inc. 6, 57
84

86 February 2009
Hofmann Appointed
Education Director
Sergio Vela, president of
Mexicos National Counsel for the
Culture and the Arts, has appointed
Henner Hofmann, ASC, AMC to a
four-year term as general director of the
Centro de Capacitacin Cinematogr-
fica, located in Mexico City. Hofmann,
who helped found the AMC and served
as that organizations president from
1992-2001, was selected from a final
pool of nine candidates.
No Subtitles Honored
in Santa Fe
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo
and Vilmos, directed by James Chres-
santhis, ASC (AC Sept. 08), won the
Best Documentary Film Award at the
Santa Fe Film Festival in December.
Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (pictured),
one of the films subjects, received a
Luminaria Lifetime Achievement Award
at the ceremony.
Vincent Lauded
Amelia Vincent, ASC was
honored with a Womens International
Film and Television Showcase award at
the organizations inaugural awards
Slumdog Golden at
Camerimage
Director of photography Anthony
Dod Mantle, BSC, DFF was awarded the
Golden Frog for his work on Slumdog
Millionaire (AC Dec. 08) at the 2008
Camerimage Festival in Lodz, Poland.
The jury comprised still photographer
Ryszard Horowitz, editor Steven Rosen-
blum and cinematographers Gabriel
Beristain, ASC, BSC; Stephen Gold-
blatt, ASC, BSC; Juan Ruiz-Anchia,
ASC; John Toll, ASC; Pierre Lhomme,
AFC; Nicola Pecorini; and Nigel Walters,
BSC.
The jury awarded the Silver Frog
to Csar Charlone, ABC, for Blindness
(AC Sept. 08), and the Bronze Frog to
Rainer Klausmann, BVK, for The Baader
Meinhof Complex.
The 16 films in competition this
year also included 33 Scenes from Life,
shot by Michal Englert; Changeling, shot
by Tom Stern, ASC, AFC (AC Nov. 08);
Doubt, shot by Roger Deakins, ASC,
BSC; The Duchess, shot by Gyula Pados,
HSC (AC Sept. 08); Elite Squad, shot by
Lula Carvalho; For My Father, shot by
Carl F. Koschnick, BVK; Four Nights With
Anna, shot by Adam Sikora; Gomorrah,
shot by Marco Onorato, AIC; Go With
Peace, Jamil, shot by Aske Alexander
Foss; The Hurt Locker, shot by Barry
Ackroyd, BSC; La Rabia, shot by Sol
Lopatin; Tulpan, shot by Jolanta
Dylewska; and A Woman in Berlin, shot
by Benedict Neuenfels, BVK.
AC contributor Benjamin Bergery
moderated two master classes during
the festival, one featuring Lhomme and
Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, the other featur-
ing Society members Stern, Ellen Kuras
and Kramer Morgenthau. Also,
Deakins participated in a lighting work-
shop.
For more information, visit
www.pluscamerimage.pl.
ceremony in December. The goal of
WIFTS is to recognize women who have
distinguished themselves in their
respective fields. Awards were also
presented to actress Alfre Woodard,
producer Gale Anne Hurd, film distribu-
tor Adrienne Fancey, and musician and
humanitarian Ada Ho.
Primes Goes Camping
Robert Primes, ASC partici-
pated in a three-day VariCamp alongside
director/cinematographer Suny Behar
and digital-imaging supervisor Nick
Theodorakis in December. The hands-on
workshop covered all aspects of the
Panasonic VariCam cameras, including
the new 2700 and 3700 models.
Burdett, Levinson Join
New LaserPacific Division
ASC associate members Ron
Burdett and Lou Levinson have been
appointed to LaserPacifics new digital
motion-picture mastering and remaster-
ing division. Burdett will serve as
general manager, and Levinson will
serve as the supervising colorist.
Ron Burdett brings incredible
perspective and experience to the task
of creating motion-picture masters
he has been a post-industry pioneer for
more than 25 years, says Brian Burr,
LaserPacifics CEO. While technology
will be an important component of our
service delivery having an expert
such as Lou Levinson guide our creative
hand as we make technology decisions
will truly put the focus on our customers
products. I
Clubhouse News
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88 February 2009
When you were a child, what film made the strongest
impression on you?
When I was 6 or 7, my father asked a colleague if he would bring his
9mm film projector to show a few films for my birthday party. He
brought a few Chaplin shorts, The Rink (1916) and The Immigrant (1917)
among them. For most of us, this was the first time we had seen moving
images, so the effect was very powerful. I have never forgotten the joy
and laughter and sense of magic I experienced along with my friends as
we watched the images projected onto a sheet hastily pinned to the
wall. When I reached the age of 14 or 15, I was already a movie addict
impatient to see the latest Kurosawa or Bergman movie.
Which cinematographers, past or present, do you most admire?
There are many colleagues working in different parts of the world
whose beautiful work I love. Also, ever since I went to film school, Ive
admired the best cinematographers of the silent period, which for me
culminated with Sunrise (1927), and I have gone on admiring the best of
all periods. I would only add that despite ones efforts, if the movie is
not good, then the cinematographers work has little meaning.
What sparked your interest in photography?
My father, Wolfgang Suschitzky, was a photographer and cinematogra-
pher (Get Carter), so naturally, as a child, I was curious to understand
what he did in that darkroom and on those locations.
Where did you train and/or study?
Institute des Hautes Etudes Cinmatographiques in Paris.
Who were your early teachers or mentors?
At film school, the cinematographer-in-residence, Jean Pierre
Mundviller, had started work as a newsreel cameraman and then
became a movie cinematographer in pre-revolution Russia. Hed been
one of the cinematographers on Napoleon (1927). He took me to the
roof of the school building, where hed had a hand-cranked camera
installed. My first lesson on it consisted of him singing the marching
song that French cameramen sang to keep a steady 18 fps. He then
proceeded to teach me how to make a fade in the camera and how to
do a dissolve. To a very young student in the middle of the French New
Wave, all that seemed to be a waste of time. However, those are the
most treasured memories I have of the school, and the early lesson that
I tended to dismiss as not being of any practical use made me think,
years later, of our early, pioneering colleagues; because all effects were
in-camera, they had to make decisions we are never obliged to make,
such as choosing to stop a scene on a good take, winding the film back
for a dissolve, and then taking the camera to the next location and going
for the first take! It filled me with respect for the achievements of the
silent era. Mundviller died only a few years after I studied with him, but
contact with him made me feel I had touched the hand of someone who
was present at the birth of the movies.
What are some of your key artistic influences?
My artistic influences are music, which I have always loved above all
other arts; the best photographers of my childhood and youth, including
Eugene Smith and Bill Brandt; and the movies of Kurosawa, Bergman,
Antonioni and Fellini. After that comes painting, particularly Bruegel,
Goya, Velsquez, Titian and the German Expressionists.
How did you get your first break in the business?
My first break came when I got a job as a second camera assistant on
commercials and then documentaries. I was then lucky enough to get
the chance to shoot my first movie when I was 22.
What has been your most satisfying moment on a project?
I think the most satisfying moments have been those when Ive felt I
was able to contribute to a good movie, proposing something the direc-
tor might not have thought of and having it all happily received. Other
significant moments have involved taking my children to a set on which
I was working.
Have you made any memorable blunders?
If our careers last long enough, we all make blunders. I am no excep-
tion, but as some of mine involve other colleagues, I wont mention
them here!
What is the best professional advice youve ever received?
I was once invited to a dinner where Billy Wilder was one of the guests.
He asked me what I was doing, to which I replied, Oh, a small movie.
He said, Theres no such thing, just good ones and bad ones. For the
rest, I listened to an inner voice that said, Develop as many interests as
you can, as you will need them to fill the long gaps between movies and
enrich life in general.
What recent books, films or artworks have inspired you?
Last week, I re-read My Last Breath, Luis Buuels autobiography, which
inspired me and made me laugh a lot.
Do you have any favorite genres, or genres you would like to
try?
My favorite genre as a spectator is probably comedy. However, the
profession thinks of me as someone suitable for the darker side of life!
If you werent a cinematographer, what might you be doing
instead?
I would love to have been a musician, but I was certainly not good
enough, and I would like to have been a collector and dealer of paint-
ings, but I wasnt rich enough!
Which ASC cinematographers recommended you for member-
ship?
John Bailey and Allen Daviau.
How has ASC membership impacted your life and career?
The ASC makes me feel I am in touch with my peers, even if I cant
attend the meetings. I
ASC CLOSE-UP
Peter Suschitzky, ASC
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