Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC de wali! Lubec, ASC a naturalistic approach to depi ; astm let Rm Ya esi mebe) ena mmr ey ny POTS nT iN see rent 9board and provide The story takes and nothing different, up, ready background action place in the ne feels. radicall future until a Stange motorbike with a passenger Platform pulls up alongside the bus. Big green pan Hearby buildings indicate where huge video images are going to be inserted during post. on the sides of Alfonso Cuaron Stirs @ run-through of the action, Gaffer John “Biggles” Higgins Sinisa the sky through a neutral Binsity monocle to calculate the fins path for the next half-hour fe pers erator George Richmond handholding an Arricam Lite aming Jains the open bus door, while his brother, Nichmond, is E85 control. Noto, Jonathan “Chunky iding focus using a The bus starts its hand actor Clive Owen runs side the double-decker and amera swings ovet an elderly Man pase : Bh gp Psse8et Alter the elears Peck quietly confers with Higgins, They decide to bring up the dim interior of the dirty vehicle by setting up some lights to bounce beadboard outside the bus. The sare in position in five minutes more tweaking, film. flat. Cuarén is ready to roll After some Just before the first take, Lubezki tums off the lights, and the entire s shot without any film lighting. In the dailies the next day, the us scene looks great. The image guish the bright gutsy; you can disti exterior, and the bus interior is dark, but it brighten es past Luberki reviews b When you're nc on the set ys momentarily as the fac of the day before Jpting, everyone be conscious that if you | thats it’ The fill he continues, sunlit building th ‘accident you 8 1, accidents aren't kind o} et when you don't light. Howey always good. Asked ceiling nanic because Sometimes you pan ain x 'm a feature-film ci English r atoprephes acd Tee eee instinets are ays tr al ae ippealin to go back to basic -anflict that dren of Men. the imag say, ‘No, | don’t want this is a movie I couldn't ha .e This page: After when I was younger. [ don sare help I i a grou m going on the oN ant more learn, the resist c With ad ‘ fighters, theo Maybe I'm getting lazy _ Lubecki’s résumé suggest you! otherwise. His recent credits include tha Al (see AC Nov. "0! jcket’s A. Series rs Events (AC D 4) and Assassination of Ri Nixon, ar jast year he earne i Academy Award nomination, tor Terrence Malick’s The New W © Jan. "06); he was vu nominated for Sleep! ¥ in ASC Award nominees AC Dec \ Little Princess (another american Cinematographer 61Humanity’s Last Hope Right: Marichka (Onna Pellea) helps Theo and Kee plan their ‘escape from England's police state SC no: n of Men is uubezla's fifth feature-film collabo on, following L A Little Hysteria, Great Expectations and YTu of Men, an adapta ction novel by place in England in For unknown reasons, abies, no is approached by an ex-girl friend, julian (Julianne Moore), who leading an underground move i ment that is fighting the authorities At Julian’s request, Faron reluctantly agrees to help two fugitive women move across checkpoints and bor ders to the seashore, where they are to flee the country. He soon lear: that one of the women is pregnant, and th 62 December 2005 wife. The treacherous voyage leads to dangerous encounters with police and rebels, and Faron dedi cates himself to safeguarding the first baby in a generation, Laced with themes of ecolog ical disaster, media saturation and terrorism, Children of Men has a timely message that surpasses its entertainment value. the specific plot o fore than 1e movie, what 1 like is that it’s a future that remind ow of the present,” says Lubezki. Is a political fila that says we have to save the world right now, before its too hate Shot entirely handheld with very little film lighting, Children of Men has a visual aesthetic that bor ders on documentary, Luberki recalls that the genesis of this look started with a decision to avoid standard shot break pwns. He explains that he and Cuaron have an aversion to tradition: “A-B-A-B) al coverage, with intercutting of g shots of wo actors, decided to have every shot be a shot in itself and avoic coverage, even the : get away from doing X The more I work this om 1 realize that convent is what makes me same. You go to se 4 drama, ora horror is all somehow feel the sf the cinematic language ily evolved that N at een te Gece ly exploring the visual i & avoid — intercutting, of Children of Men was she ty single takes, which w ned inediting “either for rhyt Is matic intent. We did th of. re adie long shots to try to get the to feel they are there ec to sho Lubecki made early on was Children of Men with as few iil One of the key 1 ® lights as possible. “L cictn’t wall light the movie, or at least | dial want it to feel lit I want the Vigil to feel ay though the action is MR Pening for real, I didn't wanefile anything pretty or beautiful ‘or example, I didnt a backlight on an actor sai or beauty reasons), Of course, | uldnt get away with not lighting ala, When winter came, the loca etween build: getting dark very early ame of our locations had to be bull on soundstage. Lhad to light pat m, but I did itin such @ way atural source, usually through He used the same approach the film’ cl Which he | Tinickin idhieve a be 8 Minimum exposure of Nicene in a ic birth scene it with a single bulb lantern) to i pothead’s abode Fan DY with a “gigantic ma ball” aboy, the actors on the ich, along Sigh ME With a. background Bie 2 peo or set ae tte Lubezki tried to MS the lighting fixtures in police bus terminal was filled wit grid of Nine-light Mini-Brutes, yielding convincingly oppressiv t. "We didn't use them as fil xterior of the fortified nig center, he used a series of open-fac metal-halide lights. “These lights arLubezk's tavored suspend fightbex from a ‘cane, Below: Longer lightboxes wore used to iMluminate bot sides of « bus on « reenscreen stage was slightly out ibtle, slow flick ound designer the effect by adding a ning sound. “Then 1 the light off, and there's a darkne h ng to hap) ked the ment nd you matographer punctu nes with these dis 64 December 2006 turbing darknesses. When the time came to film the young woman to Faron, type of li revealing her Pregnang tated about use. The scene take Lubezki hesi- ting to place in his research indicated manger, a that such settings have“t lighting: fluorescents or big tung. sien lights t first I thought the little uncomfortable ented fluorescent ful soft source on the nt belly, becat n on Kodak Vision2 SOOT 5229 because its lor allowed him to shoot in without lighting: did tests in the car, the 2 and the outside was £168 Thad decid stock was a show what's happening ever able to see the cloud the sky is blown out. Willpursh. Lwanted the midtones to be softer i the faces, and 5229 allows youtoatieve that. 1 very similar fishing the positive” He adds, “The lids in $229 are not very rich, but you cam erush them in the digital Frermediat (DT]” ‘The cinematographer did not want the production to screen low- contrast dailies with washed-out backs, so in consultation with severly Wood, vice president of tech- neal engineering at Deluxe Hollywood, and Tan Robinson and at Deluxe London, he mm dailies treated with a ereent application of Deluxe’s rietary ACE. silver-retention the filmmakers a f the picture's final look. adtones and highlights were sty, but the blacks mained black because we left some ee says Luberki, “You can duplicate silver-retention. processes in a DI, but you can get close the kind of contrast and curves ve” For the DI, he worked ott at EFilm to di We didn't want the lor look; we wanted nore naturalistic rast stock, e in a cat, as the to the coas aren't lit, an Jon't light — sunlight comin though a canopy of trees, hitting th th Ws and bouncing around in sas sud effect the 15 5 al aly as it disappears. I love tha I6e variations happen naturally. I urs to re-creat lat with light h minimalist approae Hextended to wardrobe choice on Te Mand and ‘The Nev hat you get « more natural ge if you let the wardrobe depart Hent do their work without trying (0 meticulously maintained custom camera packages Arriflex/Aaton/Panasonic Photo-Sonics 4ER+ 35mm/16mm/DV/HD accessories/support lenses/speciality items fillers/expendables. call for details, 16 years experience. Serving the midwest. Film and now aigital.Humanity’s Last Hope Aight: An Are 25 was attached to 0 ‘Sparrow Hoad and mounted on The Two Axis Dolly so the filmmakers could remotely dolly, pan and tit their camera in moving vehicles, creating lynamic ‘camera angles. by of Doggicam Systems, the Sparrow Head earned a Technical Achievement Award at the A vehicle's real drivers get ready to roll The crew ‘duplexed” the roof so the dolly © operator focus right ar puller anc sed th Lutezki could | operate the 1 didn't want to impose the midwife is wear ofwhats — outfitand issitti ing, and this really sur- most light. But you hav here there is the Det these an abar They would say, ‘Are mistakes go in the interest of real 1 sure, Chivo? Bec: alot of ism. It like putting on an 85 filter the bright sun camera from 3 and 1 would everything looks better but the day interior did ne ledge above the fits right for the character, {'m image isn't as complex t. Lubec Aspens ng to tell youif Hike it or not Lubecki notes that not relying cover one of the big windows Will take [ made in this nits encourages transparent tape and shatter na car scene, where the lem-solving on location. He gives glass; the frac esa ts 48 stantly changing the cinematographer. “Th As we reveal the room, Wer at fi, and as he wal Sieg tina hes to her,it’s 6. uubezki’s desire r ism sometimes necessitated 1 ving the story, For exampley 65 December 2006Humanity’s Last Hope Right: Over dinner in the Picasso Hall at the Ministry ‘of Ars, Th ‘asks is old friend Nige! (Danny Husto 10 provide him with transit papers. Below: ‘Actors Owen, Huston (far right) and Ed Westwick (head of table) ‘absorb some guidance trom director Alfonso Cuarén inding and a country road, really awful — I would have had to ut up some horrible, fake-looking ights” says the cameraman. “When sczipt that says two lovers ing hands on a beach at cinematographer I know it was going to be 68 December 2006 its going to look fake. For some movies, that fake, over-stylized look is beautiful, but in this movie it would have betrayed everything we had done before. So | pleaded for another approach to the scene.” Itis a testimony to Lubezki’s relation: ship with Cuaron that the director agreed to chang nd set the action at dawn. The cinemate rapher worked with Ist AD Terry Needham to change the shooting schedule so that the scene could be shot dusk for dawn over three the script, evenings. The result is a sequence that starts in the dark farm, which is ie fluorescents and sodium vapor lights, and ends, after 2 series of dawn-like transitions, with a dam time shot. The gradation f0my dawn to daybreak is masterful alii Lubezki confesses, partly accident with “I started shooting the lst J carly to get everyone concential and later we shot it at dusk. Bul best scene was the one I shot if time. So I timed the whole sce# get lighter, so that we could end in daytime. You think differel When you have a DL. It was brill but a brilliant accident, It’s om my favorite scenes in the movigg “The wonderful thing al Terry [Needham] is that he has of experience as a Ist AD on: complicated movies, like Full“exterior x thet mui g, and the filmn in Stage D at Pinewood Studios. filmmaker. It k there; the image You don't see our track Much « hot with an Arri Lite, and the pros uctio e first to use Prime s have @ they're sharp, flare,” notes Lu blacks black but also allowed halae tion to happen.” His only criticism is that the lenses were sometimes too her always carried an “e: e” for occasions when ‘We shot most of the mi 18mm lens; v we watch the actors fre there are aln ceptic ay, but the main ctive, and not t ictors. I see an iner close-ups in many fil Vhy is that r its due to direct tomed to watching thin because they're watchin; assist On a small monitor, t want closer and ck Movies are all 1 close-ups and y master shot. Maybe our this movie came some of the stuif that t current cinema.” 70 December 2006Humanity’s s Last Hope Right A crowd of Londoners watch represented here Caney a 2 . a4 “here ce crit Invisible between ses The LED displays and billboards went th iterations, which began with a super-futuristic look but culminated in a rougher, more Lubezki explains that one i . motivation for naturalism w Y convey the violence in the stor properly. “There’s a lot of violencein eae the film, and I don't know why, but Bottom: Lubezki violence looks beautiful on fila Scene Destruction and the attendant tex while working ture and smoke all ph with e car rig well. Vic I didn’t want this movie to beautify ographs ence is very cinematic, and or glorify it. lo deglamorize the violence Lubezki took his cue from doa mentaries. “When you're watching the news or a documentary on ya one of the thi s tha here is no coverage. It’s not all cull with beau ups of the gull or the w motion. Til other thing you notice in mi good war documentaries is that i cameraman is often runnin a fixed lens — running to cover til action and also running to save Hil life. So we tried to avoid cutting all beautiful framing. Somehow shoal ig handheld and not cutting ma Violence not only less appealing, stronger. It looks more naturalis and you feel more for the charactet as opposed to falling in love with 72 December 2006Come visi | PACU EER DL ae Laud ahaarnsat porible beauty of war | Taibezki says he and Cuaron | jal ovo major disngreements on heir APP Fat bad oo with Steadicam. “In J, L wanted to do a combi coach to the picture. The | ny mind a of handheld and Stead ise [ think if you shoot every thing handheld [the techniqu its power In my dream or OLEAN tation os alelteteaanentes ane Gallen of Mer was going to be 60 ” OT eles pereent Steadicam; with a good itor, it doesn't look mechanical, futon the first day of shooting, we did five takes with the Steadicam, gpd then Cuarén said, “Take away theSteadicam, we'll do it handheld. After that, the Steadicam stayed in the truck, and every day I tried to | put itup, until one day Cuaron said, Ghivo, forget the Steadicam. We're never going to use it! One of the things 1don't like about handheld is that when you're trying to concen: ate on a person's face in a wide lose definition because nete’s motion blur. It drives me se 1 want to be able to is razy, bec Ww focus on the actor's eyes: The other disagreement the director and cine natographer had to do with staging handheld camera. It is custom ry to have camera movernent mot: rated by the actors, but in Children 6 Men, the handheld camera some mes creates its own path, inde pendent of the actors’ movements. slionso and I started doing that on Tu Mama? Lubezki notes. In one scene in Children ° Men, there is a confrontation when {Wo cops stop the fugitives’ car. The amera follows Faron as he steps out of the vehicle. When the cops are Sunned down and Faron runs pack tothe car, the camera stays behind to PAR Peay PSR Lae WWW.CHAPMAN.LEONARD.COM film the car speeding away, and then Pans to linger on the two dead cops: | Liuberki comments that the camera is almost another character, @ pet Sona who is“introducing the ener8y | of the filmmaker, telling y° 'mportant and what we should be r Naa} pu what is fy Bia Pen akinHumanity’s Last Hope Theo crosses a bridge to visit his frend in the Ministry of the Arts. This scone’ futuristic setting was also created by Double Negative. The ministry building was actually a composite ‘of two elements: London's Battersea Power Station and a bridge lacated over the Mi rondway in Surrey. Once a suitable bridge was located, Double Negative's 3-D team, led by 6 sunervisor David Vickery, began augmenting the station with aglass structure to create 2 building ofthe future. The designs for the glass structure were taken from actual plans for the station’s development, but were enhanced by the Double Negative team to match the esthetics ofthe film, Final touches included the addition ofa seulpturo te the right side of the station and « CG floating pink gig (visible above the third chimney from the let). built by Philip Johnson and anchored to the roof in homage tothe cover of Pink Floyd's 1974 album Animals. Finally, e matte painting of London was used as « background. / ECHWVOMmLawv New from TECHNOCRANE: Precise and repeatable camera movements, the perfect tool for virtual sets and CGI. www.technodolly.com looking at. The camera is telling yoy that these two cops are also paren or fascists, or whatever. The cameraig inviting you to see something exteps ng that itis The camera is invite ing you to see the context in anothep [like that a lot The staging of handheld cam nal to the plot and also important era motion was the subject of muh discussion between Luberki and Cuaron. “When the camera movesin onan actor who is sit ing, it distragtg > says the cinematographer, 1 didn’t want to feel the ence, but Cuarén said ¢ contrary, we should fecl the camefae man, almost like in a documentary Sometimes the camera operator ad difficulty doing a shot, because if ving the camera when the actor is not m@ve counterintuitive to start ing, or to let the actor move outlo frame. | still had in my mind a more naturalistic approach, which is tial2 cannot follow the actors ttt Mey the take is over. But Cuaron ne dea of the handheld to the ind rade it very compley ares omething we still debate.” rene of the most memorable he film is an uninterrupted ean’ shot inside a futuristic car eM acters, including Faron and My puhave aplayfl moment togeth hu suddenly come under brutal ok by agang of marauders; the car i peswith one dead passenger, only estopped by two cops, result a ensuing gunplay discussed aboy. tn this tour de force one-shot vencs the camera moves fluidly feos the car from front to rear and fiito right, casily placing itself fetweem the characters. The secret to this extraordinary genewas acamera car outfitted with the Two Axis Dolly, a special rig signed and built by inventor Gary Thishgesof Doggicam Systems. Three rack, which was itself Moved fore and aft along the two Supporting parallel ‘tracks. The cam- fa was suspended from the dolly tito the car belewe and controlled by Frank Buono, the Two Axis Dolly Operator, who was seated in a translucent cabin above the dolly. Car was steered by two drivers, one in front and one behind (when driving in reverse). Lubezki explains that the One-shot sequence actually contains couple of seamless cuts, such as one at the time of a one as the leaves the car to follow Faron outside Looking back at the challenge of shooting an entirely handheld film that avoided coverage and light- ‘The camer low-ridi illet impact and amer: ing, Lubezki reaffirms his admiration for Cuaron.*You need a great direc- tor to take these kind of chances, Our argument over handheld vs. ‘Steadicam was the first time we'd had a disegreement, and in the end, | think he proved me as the Spanish slang for ch acl, “Casrén sid he wanted the film to have huevos, and it does” Ml Digital Intermediate Printed on Fuji F-CP 3513D1 invention and continung d Technocrane op