ExposureUSA_Spring2009

8/8/2019 ExposureUSA_Spring2009

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A S U P P L E M E N T T O M I L L I M E T E R M A G A Z I N E

FOCUS ONCINEMATOGRAPHY

King the Wide VieWWoo V V o ROCKING

OUT

CinematographerMatthew Clark

Brings HisA Game

to 2008 EmmyAward-WinningComedy Series

30 Rock

Om rags tO riches umdog Millionaire Photo: Jessica Miglio/NBC


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EdITOR Jon Silberg

CONTRIBUTORSBob degus

Quentin Falk Jon Silberg

davi E. Williams

ART dIRECTORRiva danzig

The opinions expresse in ExposureUSA are those of the people inter-viewe . They o not necessarily repre-sent the opinions of Fujifilm.

A ress your questions ancomments to:

San ra Kurotobi, Fujifilm USA, Inc2220 W. Magnolia Blv .Burbank, CA 91504p: 888-424-3854 f: 323-465-8279Email:

San [email protected]

Exposure USAis pro uce by FujifilmMotion Picture an publishe by

Penton Me ia on behalf of Fujifilm USA.

Exposure USA 2009 FujifilmUSA, Inc. All Rights Reserve .

FEATURESROCkING OuT Cinematographer Matthew ClarkBrings His A Game to 2008 Emmy Awar -WinningCome y 30 Rock 3

ROllERCOAsTER suMMER Terry StaceyCaptures Young Love in Adventureland 7

bRIGHT lIGHTs, sMAll CITY CinematographerTo McMullen Captures the Spirit of Texas HighSchool Football in Friday Night Lights 10

lIvE ACTION ANIMERobert McLachlan, ASC,CSC, Brings the Colors of Fantasy to Flesh-an -Bloo Actors in Dragonball Evolution 13

FIEld OF dREAMs An rij Parekh Trains HisCamera on a Caribbean Baseball Star CalleSugar 16

sHORT FIlM, bIG FRAME CinematographerMark Mervis revisits VistaVision Format forWoo s 19

FROM RAGs TO RICHEs Mumbai Magic asSlumdog Millionaire Gets the Bollywoo Touch from Anthony do Mantle 22

IN THIS ISSUE

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y the time Matthew Clark took over cinematography uties on 30 Rock, he wasalrea y familiar with the challenges an rewar s involve in working on the verypopular, critically-acclaime NBC come y series. As an operator on first unit ancinematographer on secon unit un er cinematographer Vanja Cernjul, Clark

learne firsthan that the show was fast moving, even manic at times, an that each five-to-six-ay shoot ha to cover quite a lot of material at a surprising number of locations.

The scripts can be very ense, Clark remarks about this show, set behin the scenes at alate-night variety show an ealing with put-upon pro ucer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), her loose-cannon star, Tracy Jor an (Tracy Morgan) an her overbearing but o ly likable boss Jackdonhagy (Alec Bal win). Often characters will be looking at a scene on their computer or atelevision, says Clark, so we have to create the scene they see an shoot them in anotherspace watching it. Well also have very quick flashbacks within scenes. Most of the time theseare just a single shot that will be onscreen for two secon s but, of course, you still have tolight it an take care of it.

by Jon Silberg

Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) eyes Jack

Donhagy (Alec Baldwin).

Photos courtesy NBC Photo

Cinematographer Matthew C arbring hi A Game to 2008 Emmy

Awar -Winning Come y serie 30 Rock


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Clark enjoys the challenge of creating different looks for the

30 Rock world, the show withinthe show, and even the interior visions of the characters. Here,

Liz Lemon visits the set of TGS ,the variety show she writes and

produces.

Clark, who has worke as a gaffer an as a cinematographer on several in ie features ina ition to his camera operating, says he takes all of that experience to work every ay shooting 30 Rock. Cernjul ha been brought onto the show without any previous series television cre itsbecause pro ucers ha a mire his work on some in ie movies. Clarks shooting reel was also

evoi of series work but he points out that 30 Rock has more in common with in epen entfilmmaking than with working on a lot of tra itional half-hour come ies.

Theres so much to get one so quickly, he says, you have you get use to reacting as much asplanning. You try to ot all the is an cross all the ts but you can never have everything plannefor on a show like this. In epen ent films helpe me learn how to react to circumstances. Okay,how o we make this exterior work with three PAR cans an a 10K? hen Cernjul was the cinematographer, Fujifilm Eterna 400T became the emulsion usefor practically every setup, with some Eterna 250T always on the truck for use in ayexterior set-ups. Clark, who shot the feature Never Forever (2007) on the 400T (pushea stop to boost the contrast an a some texture an printe photochemically)was comfortable continuing the 400T tra ition.

Clark likes the general low-contrast attributes an latitu e of the 400T because they allow himto get aesthetically pleasing, soft close-ups using only a small amount of iffusion (Tiffen Black

[Eterna 400T] allows us to have rich colors andblacks if we want to or go more muted. When yousit down for final [color correction], you can make

it really crunchy or really open.Matthew Clark


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diffusion/FX) an he can always intro uce a itional contrast at Postworks in the final gra ing.It also helps us move a little faster, he says of the 400T. Its fast an has the latitu e that if wehave to go someplace an shoot say a flashback very quickly, we know weve got [the information]on the negative. If we want a contrastier look, the colorist can crush the blacks. It allows us tohave rich colors an blacks if we want to or go more mute . When you sit own for final [colorcorrection], you can make it really crunchy or really open.

Stan ing sets for the show at Silvercup Stu ios in Long Islan City inclu e Liz an Jacks offices,a writers room an the stu io where the show within the show is shot. Clark says his approach tolighting the stu io essentially picke up where Cernjul left off. Any set with a win ow has a tra itionalback rop outsi e to suggest the views from the famous office buil ing at New Yorks 30 Rockefeller

Plaza. The back rops are so close to our win ows, he laughs, its crazy. Ill use light with a coolercolor temperature at the win ow an then let it get warmer as we go insi e the office to help sell theeffect an I keep really close tabs on that sowhen we go back an forth in the offices, we

ont have to spen a lot of time making thecolor of the light match.

Scenes are generally covere withtwo ARRICAM Lites mostly using mi -range Cooke S4 primes. Having morethan two cameras can really become

a limitation, Clark observes. Werealrea y a han hel , run-an -gun show.Were panning 180 or 270 egrees. Sowith a thir camera, we start to get inone anothers way.

The cinematographer cre its operatorsPeter Agliata an Albino Marsetti an focuspullers Jeff dutemple an Mike Cambria forbeing able to meet the rigorous challengesof this almost entirely han hel show.

I usually want the lens open to about aT 2.8, he says. The rops are so close

Clark uses cooler color temperatures near the window

of Jacks office and then letsthe color get gradually warmer further from the window.

Left: Jack and his mother (Elaine Stritch) call a temporary truce during production of a campy, old-fashioned Christmas special. Above:Kenneth the page (Jack McBrayer) relishes his exalted position duringa TGStaping.


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Its not all the time that you get to workwith such great actors and material.

Matthew Clark

Above: Tracy (Tracy Morgan)and Jenna (Jane Krakowski) vie for attention as co-stars of Liz Lemons TV show.Right: Sometimes, a flashbackor fantasy sequence will only run for a second or two but Clarkand crew must still devote the same attention to it they would to a four-page scene. Here, Liz imagines its her wedding day.

that I nee the shallow epthof fiel . I think it also helps lena sense of imme iacy to whatsgoing onthat kin of ocumentary feel. But it means the operators have to be able to a apt to

anything the actors o an the focus pullers have to be very goo .

hooting 30 Rock, Clark observes, is not like working on a series with a han ful of sets anone overall look. On one ay, he says, we might be oing a variety show with a kin of stu io look, spinning gobos with Lecos an cameras on ollies, then a fake Janis Joplinconcert one rock an roll style with party lights, an then a scene in an office.I like oing all the ifferent kin s of shooting you have to o on the show, he continues. Wei a Christmas episo e this year where the whole episo e was basically Jack trying to hi e from hismomElaine Stritch in a recurring roleso he eci es the staff has to put on a Christmas specialan we create the look of a television variety show onstage, something like the ol Perry ComoChristmas Hour . Then just outsi e that set, we ha the 3 0 Rock worl of Jack an Liz an everybo yinvolve in putting this Christmas show on. It en s with a really sweet moment of Jack an his momsinging at the piano an it ma e me think of all those ol -time Christmas specials I watch as a ki .

Clark a s that the quality of the scripts combine with the talent in front of the camera helpinspire him to meet any pro uction challenges that come along. Its not all the time that youget to work with such great actors an material week in an week out, he says, an I feel thephotography has to always meet those same high stan ar s.

He first felt that as an operator on the show, trying to make every shot count, trying tocapture every moment perfectly. Clark learne quickly that operators on 30 Rock must eal withthe kin of challenge that occurs only on shows where the material an elivery is genuinely

funny. Every once in a while, he a mits, an operator will ruin a take because their shoul ersare shaking from laughing so har . n


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irector Greg Mottola ma esomething of a splash lastyear with his come y fea-ture Superbad with Seth

Rogen, but cinematographer Terry Sta-

cy ( The Nanny Diaries ) ha taken no-tice of Mottolas work a eca e earlierafter seeing his irecting ebut TheDaytrippers . So when the opportunityarose to shoot Mottolas Adventure-land , Stacey was eager to get starte .

The story, base on Mottolas actualexperience working in a Long Islanamusement park, has plenty of comicelements, the cinematographer says,

but I think its more his real sensibili-ties than Superbad was. Theres a lotmore rama within the come y. Its a bit arker. Theres more angst.

The film concerns teenagers James (Jesse Eisenberg) his love interest Em (Kristen Stewart)an a host of other characters playe by come y pros Wen y Malick, Bill Ha er, Kristen Wilg.

I think a goo thing about this film, Stacey says, is its kin of like Greg in that it oesnteasily fit a category. Its a well-tol story about a group of characters you just feel you want tospen time with. The main character meets a girl an this eclectic bunch of people they spenthe summer hanging aroun the park, getting stone an ifferent stories come together.

Though Mottolas experiences were at an amusement park in New Yorks suburbs, the

pro uction foun it a vantageous to shoot in the outskir ts of Pittsburgh, PA an insi e thepopular western Pennsylvania amusement park, Kennywoo . The story was re-written for

by Jon Silberg

Cinematographer Terry stacey Photograph theThri Ri e of Teen Romance in Adventureland

The filmmakers created their own booths within theKennywood amusement park.Left: James (Jesse Eisenberg)and Joel (Martin Starr) use a lullto consider the meaning of life.


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Pittsburgh, Stacy notes. It canbe so ifficult when youre tryingto make one city look like anoth-er. But we i nt have to hi e thatits Pittsburgh. You can still seesome working steel mills fromKennywoo an we were able touse that nicely in the film.

The pro uction spent fourweeks shooting at Kennywooas the park operate arounthem. We foun a corner of Ken-nywoo , the cinematographerelaborates. Pro uction esignerSteven Beatrice esigne spe-cific booths where a lot of actiontakes place an we ha existing

ri es an booths nearby. We shot aroun the park activities an , for a part of the time,aroun Halloween ecorations. There was one big ri e, a rollercoaster built after the pe-rio , that we ha to avoi too. We i nt have a huge amount of backgroun an ha tobe creative in that way. We i nt have the bu get to light the whole park we kept the ac-tion primarily containe to three areas with fill from the balloons or Kino Flos or bouncetungsten light.

Then for the color palette at night, he a s, we went with a so ium vapor kin of look.In an amusement park at night, theres not really any kin of moonlight blue. Its all mixesources an then the kin of so ium vapor look you get from streetlights. So we use tung-sten lights an apricot-colore gels to create a similar feel. Its prettier than real so ium vapor

light but you can believe it coul come from the streetlights.Stacey ha two or three Con ors at any time to play light in the backgroun an woul use

a big soft light balloon as ambient light in the foregroun . We trie to incorporate lights in theactual ri es, he a s. So much of the area was mixe lightstungsten, fluorescents somestreetlights. From a istance we coul fill things up with our own fluorescent lighting an make

it look like something that waspart of the park. One of our biggestsetups is when Jesse Eisenbergan Kristen Stuart kiss behin abig roller coaster. Theyre there

when lights go off for the nightsan there are just a few lights lefton the rollercoaster.

Stacys stocks of choice wereFujifilms Eterna 500T an Eterna250d. The 250d, he explains,gave us a range if it was clou yor usk an it was amazing if thebackgroun got really hot, howwell it coul han le that. At night I

was impresse with how much the500T coul rea . It coul pick up a

James and Em (Kristen Stewart)hit it off during down time at oneof Adventurelands many gamebooths.

The film is designed as anensemble piece in which theaudience gets to know a whole group of characters. Left to right:Bobby (Bill Hader), Joel, Paulette(Kristen Wiig), Em and James.


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lot from the lights that were in thepark. The goo thing about being inan amusement park is that even if something is way eep you can justput a fluorescent light on it an yousee the glow but it looks like some-thing from a nearby ri e.

For that important momentwhen James an Em kiss, the cin-ematographer recalls using, amulti-layere lighting cue that ourlights woul shut off at the sametime as the practicals in the shotto create the feel that all the lumi-nance was coming from the roll-ercoaster. We really ha two 5Kswith chimeras on a 120 foot articu-late Con or that continue to provi e some light so that when all the other lights were off, thetwo of them just look like theyre silhouette by a glow on a sign. The Eterna 500T looke sovelvety rich on this shot.

The irector of photography alternate the style of camera movement to un erline the evelopmentof the story. When James first meets Em, he says, hes uncomfortable. Things are a little locke off,wi er, an hes alone in the frame, separate from the other people. When they meet we playe arounwith the tension of that by going han hel . We mixe it up a lot. At park we wante more flui ity to

olly tracks an we use Stea icam a lot which helpe not have tracks getting aroun the actors.Stacey sums up his an Mottolas approach to setting a look for the late 1980s setting of Ad-

ventureland . The har thing with perio films, he explains, is you want to be true to the perio

an its look but you also ont want it to feel like its not relate to now . Our i ea for this was tomake things look a little more mute , have colors a bit more pastel, than everything now seemsto be. Right now films almost too vivi an sharp an poppy. Everything is going towar this veryclean Hd look. I use Fujifilm stocks on World Traveler an The Nanny Diaries an when weteste it for this film, it was perfect. n

Bobby and Paulette take amoment at the concession stand.

Mike (Ryan Reynolds) with arifle from one of Adventurelands game booths.


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Bright Lights,smaLL City

From the inception of NBC series Friday Night Lights, cinematographer To McMullenexplains, the shows creator, Peter Berg, wante to give the actors complete creativefree om to move, meaning no blocking at all.

The show, base on the book an feature film of the same name, is shot in theheart of high school football countrythe outskirts of Austin, Texasan centers on a thedillon Panthers, a fictional team an the trials on an off the fiel of evote coach, Eric Taylor(Kyle Chan ler). We shoot it with a kin of ocu- rama feel an Peter also gives the cameraoperators the same free om as the actors, McMullen notes, meaning were encourage toshoot whatever looks interesting to them. An actor might be talking an well move off their

face an shoot their han s or feet. It really works because its so organic. So the look reallybecomes this whole collaboration that wasnt just about the blocking or the lighting or theacting but this synergy between everything.

Friday Night Lights is shot with three 16mm ARRI SR III cameras. We have to move fast,sometimes shooting several locations in a ay, McMullen explains. Thats the great thing

by bobdegUS

Cinematographer To McM en Capt re the spirit of Texa High schoo Foot a inFriday Night Lights

Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler)on the field with his players.

Cinematographer Todd McMullen, who uses FujifilmEterna 500T for most of the

football scenes, wants thesemoments to look sharp,

saturated and in your face.

Photos courtesy NBC Photo


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about shooting on film as oppose to vi eo. These

cameras are so compact an always rea y to go.Theyre not tethere to anything. We leave thembuilt, put them into a minivan an move them to thenext location.

The three-camera setups vary epen ing oncircumstances. Sometimes all three will face the same

irection with ifferent focal lengths, an other timesthey might be pointing in three ifferent irections.This very flui style of pro uction, combine withshooting ten-hour-a- ay, six- ay episo es, createsinteresting lighting an photographic challenges forMcMullen an his team, as well as for the actors.

First off, he says, we use practical locations.Theres not a lot of pre-prep. Often, we cant lookat the locations before we get there to shoot. Then,theres the a e challenge of getting interestinglighting, for three cameras in the same room, an stillgetting a ecent light for the actors.

Locations generally fall into one of threetypesthe characters home life, school life anin the nighttime football games. McMullen wantsthose highly-charge games that so invigoratethe whole town, to look sharp, saturate anin your face, since this is their reality, heexplains. McMullen chose Fujifilms Eterna 500Tfor these scenes. I like how it looks an howwell it igs into the blacks, he says. It gives mereally goo skin tones an it pushes quite wellwhen I have no light. I also use 64d an that isfantastic for ay exterior work on the footballfiel an scenes when we were out in the Texascountry with beautiful clou s because it gives thescenes a real nice saturate realism.

For the ay-to- ay rama of school life, McMullenwante the look to be a little more esaturate .I use the Eterna 250 d an a little of the 500T,

epen ing on the circumstances. Then in post I like to bring the saturation own a bit becauseI ont want it to be as vivi as the game ays , almost like their school life was less real.Then we have a thir visual environment for the house where Coach Taylor an his familylive. I primarily shoot 500T there, with some 250d if theres bright sunlight coming throughwin ows. Essentially, I want his house to look warm an inviting.

Because the show is shot in Texas an poste in Los Angeles, McMullen uses pre-setailies looks with colorist Rick dalby at Universal digital. Episo es are e ite an McMullen

Right: Landry (Jesse Plemons, right)and friend in the high school.

Middle: On the field. Players Matt (Zach Gilford, left)and Tim (Taylor Kitsch)

Bottom: Tim (right) talks to a classmatewho works a lunch counter.


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is sent a rough cut on dVd to review. Ill take a look at that an sen notes back to Rick forfinal color. For the most part we shoot it the way we want it to be seen, so theres not a wholelot to o in the final color correction, although sometimes I may see something that I mighthave wante a little more blue or make less saturate an Ill have them fix that.

The whole way we shoot Friday Night Lights is very freeing, he a s. For me it is never ashow where I come in, prelight, an go sit own to watch the scene. I am on set, near a cameralooking at what happens, an a lot of times, I carry a battery-operate Litepanel an if a cameraoperator is shooting something that oesnt have enough light on it, Ill just sneak the Lite Panelin myself.

He realizes that can be tough on the actors, but notes, because we starte off the seriesoing it that way, everybo y knows that was what was happening an the actors ha no problem

with cameras an people moving aroun . An what it i o, was to help us keep moving in anongoing organic way. Everyone involve like working that way.

McMullen also conce es that shooting a show without any blocking can occasionally result inthe unexpecte shot from one camera of another one. But thats where the e itors come in, he

a s. Its still a very rewar ing way to work because of the magic that happens with the actorsan the camerawork that nobo y coul ever have planne . n

McMullen used different looks for the on-field action and the

students lives off the field. Here,two students chat in a restaurant

after school.

For me t s never a show where icome n, prel ght, and go s t down towatch the scene. i am on set, near acamera look ng at what happens...

Todd McMullen


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Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat)takes the heroic Goku (JustinChatwin) under his wing, asthey begin the search for theDragonballs.

Photo: Martin Gavica

nspire by the popular Japanese DragonBall anime an manga works of the 1980s an 90s, thelive-action 20th Century Fox theatrical feature Dragonball Evolution features a young hero (JustinChatwin) who sets out to track own a series of mystical relics. With the help of a wise master,

Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), he must also battle an evil lor in or er to complete this ar uous mission.For cinematographer Robert McLachlan, ASC, CSC, the task at han was to give Dragonball

Evolution irector James Wongfor whom he ha previously shot the imaginative features

Final Destination (2000), The One (2001) an Final Destination 3 (2008)a unique look for thisa venture fille with magic environments, flying cars an glowing orbs.

As the features script was a eparture from the manga an the anime, we ha a lot of room toevelop our own visual approach for this project, McLachlan says. Jim Wong an the creative

exec at Fox simply wante something we not really seen before, so we shot a lot of tests. Wei nt have a lot of time, ue to an insanely tight prep, so we really ove in.

Ro ert Mclach an, AsC, CsC, bring the Co orof Fanta y to F e h an b oo Actor

in Dragonball Evolution

by dAvid e. WilliAmS


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Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and Goku must confront muchdanger as they attempt to

retrieve the Dragonballs, themystical objects that together

could control the fate of theuniverse.


Bulma and Goku plot their next moves.


The cinematographer shot the tests uring casting sessions, working with dI ( igitalinterme iate) artist davi Cole an then recor ing the results out an printing to Fujifilm releasestock. We shot a lot of ifferent actors oing a variety of scenes, McLachlan says. It was a verycomprehensive test. When we screene the footage, Fujifilms Eterna Vivi 160T just jumpe off the screen. I wante to use the stock for a long time, as the look it creates appeals to me, butyou have to use the right tools for a given project. Everybo y involve really respon e to whatthe Vivi was giving us an felt it woul be perfect for this kin film.

Visual effects supervisor Ariel Velasco-Shaw confirme that the Vivi woul work well forthe pro uctions consi erable amount of blue- an greenscreen work (many backgroun san environments were create in CGI an a e in post). An so as McLachlan plotte out alighting strategy that work with the stock to make his images saturate an strong.

He also foun that the Vivi s punchiness i not compromise its ability to ren er accurateskin tones, an this was crucial for this film because of the wi e variety of skin tones representein the very iverse cast. We ha a virtual Unite Nations with our actors, ranging from very

ark to quite pale, an the whole range was repro uce beautifully, he observes.McLachlan rate the Vivi at its nominal 160 ASA an expose for a goo , full negative,


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which is what I always want. We shot most of the picture with the Vivi . It i require quite a bitof light, but it ma e for some goo , rich-looking ailies When we got in a pinch with low lightlevels, we use Fujifilms Reala 500d, which worke nicely too. If I lit both stocks with the sameratio of key to fill light, they cut together very well.

McLachlan cre its igital colorist davi Cole for helping to make the most of his images in thedI. davi also time The Lord of the Rings an King Kongfor Peter Jackson, the cinematographerpoints out. Hes incre ibly talente . He i a gorgeous job for us.

Cole also helpe smooth out a creative change ma e uring the mi le of pro uction. As McLachlanexplains, The Vivi has a very crisp look, an it was later etermine by the stu io that we nee ea slightly softer, more romantic feel. Well, we ha alrea y shot a consi erable amount of footage atthis point, so we starte using a bit of Tiffen Glimmer Glass an Schnei er Classic Soft

iffusion to get the esire effect. We knew we have to see what we coul o in post to

make it all match.

Fortunately, the Eterna stocks extremely fine grain gave us images that were so clean

that softening them in post uring the dI was no problem at all. We coul take it much

further than I thought possible an without intro ucing any igital istortion, which

resulte in a very attractive final look that Im very happy with.

Some cameramen, McLachlan observes, might have use a more conventional stockan pumpe up the colors in the dI to achieve something similar to the richly-hue

approach the filmmakers were after for Dragonball Evolution . But this cinematographer

believes that trying to capture on film something as close as possible to the esire final

look always results in a better overall pro uct.

We can o amazing things in the dI suite, McLachlan offers, but you can still only take

the image so far in the igital worl before it starts looking irty an junky. Instea , because

we got very close to our final look on film, we coul use the dI to perfect it an keep that clean,crisp image. n

Lord Piccolo (James Marsters),a being of immense power,and Mai (Eriko), his ruthlessassassin, take the next step toacquire the Dragonballs.

Photo: Courtesy 20th Century Fox.

Goku prepars to protect the Earth from an endless stream of rogues bent on dominatingthe Universe and controlling the mystical objects known as Dragonballs.


When we got in a pinch with low light levels, wed useFujifilms Reala 500 D, which worked nicely...

Robert McLachlan, ASC, CSC


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by bobdegUS

An rij Pare h Train Hi Camera on aCari ean ba e a star Ca e Sugar

Miguel Sugar Santos (AlgenisPerez Soto) shows off his

baseball prowess. inematographer An rij Parekh worke with writer- irector team Ryan Fleck anAnna Bo en on the popular in ie Half Nelson (2006), in which he capture the gritty,sometimes out-of-control worl of a rug-a icte high school teacher. The three re-

teame for Sugar , a film set in the dominican Republic about that countrys Miguel SugarSantos journey as he follows the ream of many thousan s of young dominicans living inpoverty to come to America to play professional baseball.

Parekh attempte to look at the sport from a fresh, unique perspective. People are use to

seeing baseball photographe very objectively on extremely long lenses, Parekh explains. Iwante to groun the film subjectively an trie to get the camera as close as possible to the

FIELD OF


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action. So whereas baseball is usually shot on television from far away with 1600mm lenses, Iprimarily use an Angenieux Optimo 24-290 zoom from much closer.

So close in fact were the cameras to the action, that the camera epartment initially planne towork behin Plexiglas enclosures. It was both frightening an frustrating, the cinematographerrecalls. I was worrie about getting hit in the hea with a baseball. But the Plexiglas was too

heavy an cumbersome to be practical. It slowe us own a great eal. So the pro uctionultimately opte to embrace the same protective metho Baseball itself uses uring training large nets in which Parekh an his team cut holes for the camera lens.

Both because Parekhs visual style place him so close to the action, an because a lot of non-actors were use , slight position changes in a players stance woul ruin the framing.Composition is the most important thing to me. he explains, I ha to come up with a solutionthat accommo ate the pro uction realities an still elivere the framing I was after. So I usea 6-ft Sli er, mounte to the tripo hea , an then we attache the camera to that. This alloweus to make slight last minute composition corrections, if necessary, without moving the tripoan it save time. As a bonus, it let us o small camera moves to give the look of these scenes

the flui style I was after.The people in front of the camera were not accustome to hitting marks an uplicating action

take after take, as professional actors are traine to o. So, because the blocking woul oftenchange ra ically, he says, I en e up lighting rooms, not faces.

Parekh felt that Fujifilms Eterna 500T was a perfect choice for these dominican Republicsequences. The countrysi e there is so lush an I really wante to have this close-to-naturefeel, an the stocks color ren ition was perfect for this.

The bu get an filming style i nt allow for big Con ors an massive lighting setups for arkexteriors so the filmmakers ha to make o with less than i eal lighting situationssuch as anight scene lit by 60-watt streetlamps. It was very ark, he says, very ark! We ha to a apt to

Left: Cinematographer Andrij Parekh operating on the streetsin theDomincan Republic where

Sugar first discovers baseball.

Right: Parekh set up to catch some baseball action.

Left: Sugar gets used to hisnew life in America. Here, a choir

performs a kind of music he isunused to.

Right: Sugar hangs out at alocal eatery.


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the situation. Parekh looke to Fujifilms Eterna 500T to help with these low-light con itions.Sometimes I woul push the Eterna 500 to 1000 an it hel up very well.

It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but the cinematographer was also rawn to this500-spee stock for scenes shot uring very bright ay games. We were filming in the summer,he recounts, very near the equator, with a high-overhea sun for most of the shooting ay.Consequently there was a large contrast range I nee e to capture. Getting enough light onthe arker-skinne actors was always a challenge. I trie to solve it every way I coul think of.

The 500Ts latitu e, he explains, allowe him to fin an exposure that woul let him holetail in the bright highlights an eep sha ows. The sun was so high in the sky, using it as a

source for reflecte -bounce light was ifficult to manage with a small crew. The angle of thereflecte bounce require the reflectors to be on very high stan s, we set it, an then by timewe were rea y to roll, the sun woul have move . So I came up with another solution. I laihuge amounts of white bleache muslin an 20x20 bounces on the groun . It was primitive,but it worke .

Of course, baseball players wear baseball caps with big sun-shiel ing brimsmany acineamtographers nightmare. I aske the costume esigner to make the insi e of the hat-billswhite, Parekh explains, in or er to reflect more light onto the faces.

One of the interesting things about the shoot, Parekh notes of the pro uction that wentto the dominican Republic, the Arizona countrysi e, the cornfiel s of Iowa an New York City,was that while we shot for 40- ays, we i so over approximately six months. Of course, the

ifficulty in this was keeping focuse over such a long perio , as we shoot for a few weeks,an then go away while the next location was being preppe .But this way of working also gave us an unusual luxury, he sums up, because we ha a lot

of time to see what we ha shot, think about the look we wante for the film as a whole, ancontinually refine that look. n

Sugar sees his Americandream embodied in an

all-American fireworks show.

Sometimes I would push the Eterna 500to 1000 and it held up very well.

Andrij Parekh


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Cinematographer Mark Mervis at the VistaVision camera cheeringafter successfully completing acomplex move.

Cinematographer Mar Mer i Re- i it vi tavi ion Format for Woo

by bob degUS

n the 1950s, as a irect reaction to the filmin ustrys perceive threat from television,Hollywoo invente a number of large-formatprocesses esigne to make the big screen evenbigger. VistaVision, evelope by Paramount in1954, involve a camera system that transporte35mm motion picture film horizontally throughthe camera, exposing 24 8-perf frames persecon , rather than the stan ar vertical 4-perf configuration of tra itional movie cameras.VistaVision was use on a few features,inclu ing John For s The Searchers (1956) anAlfre Hitchcocks Vertigo (1958) but by the1970s VistaVision ha largely been relegate tobackgroun -plate work an in recent eca es,barely even for that.

Cinematographer Mark Mervis has shot his

share of plates for visual effects shots but he tooksuch a liking to the format that he has been using it on some recent commercial an short filmwork. The large frame, Mervis observes, offers a vantages even for projects finishing in high

efinition, by elivering to the telecine bay a negative with greater resolution (an more colorinformation) than images shot with a stan ar 35mm camera an yiel ing a finishe pro uctwith a singularly striking look.

Merviss work on the short film, Woo s, provi e a perfect opportunity to exploitVistaVision for the kin of work it was originally create to ocapture images in all their richcolor an fine etail, not simply for photographing pieces of effects shots. The film, irecte byMatthew West, is a 1950s film noir -style mystery inspire by Joel an Ethan Coens in ie thriller

Blood Simple , set against the colorful fall foliage in Richmon , Virginia.Mervis went with Fujifilm Vivi 160T to capture the colorful exteriors an Eterna 500T for the


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few interior shots. I prefer to control color an contrast with pro uction esign elements anfilm stock choices instea of waiting until post, he explains. With the Vivi , black is black anthe colors are repro uce vivi ly. It has an appealing crunch. An its also very sharp. The 500Tcut together with the Vivi beautifully.

during the scanning process, he a s, it is easier to take color out of something than it is toa it in. Once you start pushing color when it is not really in the negative, you are going to getall the noise that the film might have, as well as a itional electronic noise.

The VistaVision material was scanne at Los Angeles facility Rushes on a Spirit dataCine ,which allows for the VisaVision configuration. You can scan it at 4K an even at 6K, Mervissays, an see a ifference in a 4K output print, because theres so much more information

there.Combining VistaVisions significantly larger negative area with Vivi s properties, allowe

Mervis to enter the telecine process, as he says, with no grain an with this very accurate colorseparation, so that we coul manipulate the colors in ivi ually, or collectively without buil ingin noise. Colorist Jonny McPheeters an I foun that we ha a great eal of room to manipulatethe image without compromising it. We coul o more to it than we woul have been able to owith conventional 4-perf frames.

Mervis made use of the large format to capture the rich detail

of the Virginia countryside.

The story of Woods allowed the filmmakers to use their 1950s vintage VistaVision

camera to make a 1950s period film, as actor Barry Ellenbergers

fedora makes clear.


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Cinematographer Anette Haellmigk mixes the look of dreamswith the look of reality for State of Mind

But that was not the only reason for his using the format. I thought VistaVisions shallowepth-of-fiel an wi e fiel of view was perfectly suite to our nee s on Woo s Mervis

continues. There is this gravitas that the images have. The negative area is more than oublethe super 35 format, so to get the same angle of view, you nee to use longer lenses withinherently less epth of fiel . You en up with this curious combination of wi e angle an a shallow

epth of fiel that throws the backgroun consi erablyout of focus. Because of that, what is in focus appearsto be terribly sharp, an what is out of focus is just gone,isolating the subject from the backgroun very nicely.

One challenge with VistaVision is often the age of the

equipment, most of which consists of mo ifie Mitchellcameras from the 1950s. The lenses, Mervis explains,are generally Nikon lenses ma e for still photography,which are efinitely not esigne for follow focusing.

But its a great format, he sums up. An we got toshoot a 1950s perio film with 1950s cameras an thatwas a lot of fun. n

Actress Kera OBryon is seen studying an important letter as shes backed by the beautiful foliage.

Below, Mervis and theVistaVision camera in positionto grab some bizarre subjectiveangles for a crucial scene inWoods.


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M m ai Magic a Slumdog Millionaire Get Thebo ywoo To ch from Anthony do Mant e

by QUentin fAlk

Left: Young Jamal (AyushMahesh Khedekar) and his

brother run through thealleyways of Mumbai.

Right: Jamal (Dev Patel) isinterrogated by police after

his unexpected success at Millionaire.

rior to their collaboration on the enormously successful Slumdog Millionaire ,cinematographer Anthony do Mantle ha teame with irector danny Boyleon the features Millions an 28 Days Later. Though this mo estly-bu gete fea-ture became the film of 2008taking an enormous number of awar s, inclu ing

Oscars for Best Picture an Best Cinematography, gaining critical acclaim the worl overan even earning blockbuster-type grossesit was an i ea Boyle almost rejecte out of han . When the irector receive the script by Simon Beaufoy ( The Full Monty ), Boyle

recalls, they escribe it as a f ilm about Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I certainly i ntwant to make a film about that! Then I saw it was written by Simon Beaufoy. They ha ntmentione that.

After 10 to 15 pages I knew I was in, he says. It wasnt ever a question of whats the eal?It was, lets just make it! Of course, as au iences the worl over know, it wasnt a backstagelook at a quiz show. It was a romantic an often very raw story of an 18-year-ol orphan (devPatel) poise to win the biggest cash prize on the show.

To capture the exotic locations--ranging from slums an smart high-rises to a fiercely lit TVstu io--an general bustle, the filmmakers worke on a mixture of film an igital photographyusing a wi e range of equipment an technologies.


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Though open to every format there is (the irector/cinematographer team shot theoverwhelming majority of their thriller 28 Days Later in mini-dV) Mantle foun that 35mm filmoffere him the unique look he wante for a significant portion of Slumdog Millionaire an italso prove logistically more sensible than carrying the monitors, scopes an other peripheralsinvolve in igital shooting to all the crow e , Mumbai locations.

Boyle ha never been to In ia before let alone trie to make a film in the seething environs of Mumbai. We only took about 10 people, the rest were mostly Bollywoo crew, he says. Thatwas the right ecision. You cant really go over there as an army.

Wherever we coul , we shot real locations, a s pro ucer Christian Colson. We shot whatwas scripte , an what was scripte was often pretty complex an took us to a fabulous rangeof ifferent places.

I worke mainly on the Eterna 500T an the Reala 500d, Mantle says, noting that heoften push them a stop. I also shot a great eal of aytime exteriors on the Super F-64d.He a s that he also shot a bit of the Eterna 250d when he foun himself caught in low-lightexteriors of morning or late ay. All these stocks performe very well, he a s.

The artistic reason for pushing on the Fujifilm, he explains, was to try to attain as much of thelocal ambience of Mumbai as possible, especially in the sha ows of the streets at night. I alsolike the effect on colors when the contrast curve of the negative is pushe a little. It somehowfit my vision of the visceral buzz of the street an the people there.

Mantle woul a to the effect by applying iffusion--varying from Tiffen Soft FX an BlackProMist to the occasional ol -fashione fog filters. The softness, he a s, helpe the filmelements cut together with the igitally capture portions of the show.

When I push film stocks like this it is not necessarily to fin grain, Mantle elaborates.Quite the opposite: I then enjoy the higher sensitivity of the stock combine with igital noisere uction an occasional e-sharpening [we can o in the igital interme iate process] beforewe shoot back out on film [for release].

I have been very, very happy with the stock, Mantle sums up, an have not, in retrospect,

regrette the artistic intention. There is no oubt that I woul have preferre to have shot the[TV stu io material] on film simply because 35mm film stock has inevitably more latitu e an ismore robust than [the igital equipment use ].

The film, the actors an the filmmakers have receive too many awar s throughoutthe worl to list them all an among those, Mantle took home what are arguably the twomost prestigious cinematography awar s given for feature film work in this countrytopcinematography honors from the Aca emy of Motion Picture Arts an Sciences an theAmerican Society of Cinematographers. It seems safe to say that a lot of people are veryhappy that Boyle gave the script a chance to grab his interest. n

Additional Reporting by Jon Silberg

Left: Mantle found that a variety of Fujifilm stocks, often pushed a stop, gave him the exact look hewanted for the teeming Mumbai

street scenes.

Right: Jamal sees his city froma vantage point he hasnt had

before.

Above: Mantle with his award from the American Society of

Cinematographers and (below) with his Oscar. The

cinematographer has also takenhome awards for his work on

Slum og Millionaire from all over the world.


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