1. OCTOBER 2011
$5.95Canada $6.95

3. M E M B E R P O R T R A I T
Thomas Ackerman, ASC
“M
y dad worked at the Times
Theater in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, and I saw every
movie that came to town from the
projection booth. The smell of
machine oil and a carbon arc
was part of it, but what really got
me was the magic on the screen.
“Then I landed a summer
job at the Collins Radio photo
lab. When things were slow, I
plowed through stacks of
American Cinematographer. It
changed my life.
“Technical methods are
evolving much faster than they
did in the past, but the aesthetics
of making pictures remain much
the same. AC is far more than a
trade journal; it’s the voice of
artists around the world. No
matter how busy I am, it’s my
way of keeping in touch.”
— Thomas Ackerman, ASC
©photo by Owen Roizman, ASC
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4. Photographer: John Hayden Busch
“I spend most of my working hours on
location so I need to know that I’m carrying
the most reliable equipment. That’s why
I always travel with Schneider 4x5 and
6x6 filters. They give me the highest
quality look across all formats.
Recently, I did a shoot at 9000’ in the
Poudre River Valley of Colorado. I found
that the ND Soft Grads, combined with the
Circular True Pols worked particularly
well. The Grads helped blend the dynamic
range in the sky, allowing our camera’s
sensor to see what it needed. The Schneider
filters helped me create the crisp, contrasty,
artsy images that we were going for.”
Cinematographer Eric Schmidt was videos for everyone from Bruce Springsteen to
nominated for an ASC Award for his work Foo Fighters and shot over 500 commercials
on Cold Case and has shot several features, including the distinctive The World’s Most
including The Mechanic and I Melt With You. Interesting Man spots for Dos Equis.
He has created striking imagery for music
B+W • Century
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5. It Starts with the Glass tm

6. O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 V O L . 9 2 N O . 1 0
The International Journal of Motion Imaging
On Our Cover: Driver (Ryan Gosling) is a stunt man by day and criminal accomplice
by night in Drive, shot by Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC.
(Photo by Richard Foreman Jr., SMPSP, courtesy of Film District.)
FEATURES
28 Road Warriors
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC envisions a modern noir
for Drive
44 Man of Action
44
Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC taps Super 16mm
anamorphic for Machine Gun Preacher
52 Home Invasion
Alik Sakharov, ASC re-imagines a 1970s classic
with Straw Dogs
62 King of New York 52
Filmmakers recall the heyday of General Camera Corp.
DEPARTMENTS
8 Editor’s Note
10 President’s Desk
12 Short Takes: Woolite “Torture” 62
16 Production Slate: The Skin I Live In • Margin Call
68 Post Focus: Restoring A Trip to the Moon
74 Filmmakers’ Forum: Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
78 New Products Services
82 International Marketplace
83 Classified Ads
84 Ad Index
86 In Memoriam: Takuo “Tak” Miyagishima
87 Clubhouse News
88 ASC Close-Up: Xavier Grobet
— VISIT WWW.THEASC.COM TO ENJOY THESE WEB EXCLUSIVES —
DVD Playback: Party Girl • Cul-de-Sac • Insignificance

7. O c t o b e r 2 0 1 1 V o l . 9 2 , N o . 1 0
The International Journal ofMotion Imaging
Visit us online at
www.theasc.com
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PUBLISHER Martha Winterhalter
————————————————————————————————————
EDITORIAL
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stephen Pizzello
SENIOR EDITOR Rachael K. Bosley
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jon D. Witmer
TECHNICAL EDITOR Christopher Probst
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Stephanie Argy, Benjamin B, Douglas Bankston, Robert S. Birchard,
John Calhoun, Michael Goldman, Simon Gray, Jim Hemphill, David Heuring,
Jay Holben, Mark Hope-Jones, Noah Kadner, Jean Oppenheimer,
John Pavlus, Chris Pizzello, Jon Silberg, Iain Stasukevich,
Kenneth Sweeney, Patricia Thomson
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American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 91st year of publication, is published
monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp., 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A.,
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4 ————————————————————————————————————

8. © Bill Frakes
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9. American Society of Cinematographers
The ASC is not a labor union or a guild, but
an educational, cultural and pro fes sion al
orga ni za tion. Membership is by invitation
to those who are actively en gaged as
di rec tors of photography and have
demon strated out stand ing ability. ASC
membership has be come one of the highest
honors that can be bestowed upon a
profes sional cin e ma tog ra pher — a mark
of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS - 2011/2012
Michael Goi
President
Richard Crudo
Vice President
Owen Roizman
Vice President
John C. Flinn III
Vice President
Victor J. Kemper
Treasurer
Frederic Goodich
Secretary
Stephen Lighthill
Sergeant At Arms
MEMBERS OF THE
BOARD
John Bailey
Stephen H. Burum
Richard Crudo
George Spiro Dibie
Richard Edlund
Fred Elmes
Michael Goi
Victor J. Kemper
Francis Kenny
Isidore Mankofsky
Robert Primes
Owen Roizman
Kees Van Oostrum
Haskell Wexler
Vilmos Zsigmond
ALTERNATES
Michael D. O’Shea
Rodney Taylor
Ron Garcia
Sol Negrin
Kenneth Zunder
MUSEUM CURATOR
Steve Gainer
6

11. Editor’s Note
A few years ago, I drifted into a screening of Bronson at
the Sundance Film Festival and was blown away by its
audacious style. Caught off guard by the director’s chops,
I did my homework and discovered that I had somehow
overlooked the early works of Danish filmmaker Nicolas
Winding Refn, known in Europe for his gritty Pusher tril-
ogy, which brings viewers face to face with a rogue’s
gallery of Copenhagen drug peddlers.
During an interview about Bronson, Refn and I
bonded over our fetish for avant-garde cinema, engaging
in a truly monastic discussion of filmmakers like Kenneth
Anger and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Echoes of their inspira-
tion are evident in Refn’s latest film, Drive, for which he
won the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Director prize this year. Riding shotgun on Drive was
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC, whose early work on Anger’s Lucifer Rising gave him extra cred
with Refn.
In a fully loaded piece by associate editor Jon Witmer (“Road Warriors,” page 28),
Sigel says Refn used his intellect and creativity to create exciting car chases on an indie
budget: “[He] wanted the film’s three main driving sequences to each have its own charac-
ter and not be a traditional car chase. It wasn’t so much about being loud and noisy as it was
about having a defined tonality.”
Life-or-death confrontations also amp up the drama in Machine Gun Preacher, shot
by Roberto Schaefer, ASC, AIC, and a remake of Straw Dogs, which Rod Lurie modernized
with the help of Alik Sakharov, ASC.
Schaefer and director Marc Forster had to balance scenes shot in the States with
sequences staged in and around Johannesburg, South Africa (standing in for Sudan and
Uganda). Schaefer tells David Heuring (“Man of Action,” page 44) that the project “seemed
to want an epic feel, but without gloss. We were after an immediate, down-and-dirty feel
that people could relate to, but we also wanted to do justice to the sequences in Africa,
which have landscapes and a lot of big action sequences.”
As a cinematographer on the HBO series The Sopranos, Rome and Game of Thrones,
Sakharov has shot his share of memorable showdowns, but on Straw Dogs he and Lurie
were tangling with the ghost of the ultimate tough-guy auteur: Sam Peckinpah. As Michael
Goldman reveals (“Home Invasion,” page 52), the filmmakers opted for visual restraint while
staging the story’s brutal violence. “We didn’t want the photography to feel like it was call-
ing attention to itself,” says Sakharov. “We wanted it to feel like a camera just happened to
be there, quiet and subdued, while these events were taking place.”
The glory days of Manhattan’s General Camera Corp. are recalled in a piece by New
York correspondent Iain Stasukevich (“King of New York,” page 62). The company thrived in
the 1960s and ’70s, when it was a second home for current and future ASC members,
Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.
including Gordon Willis, Owen Roizman, Victor J. Kemper and Fred Schuler. “General
Camera was like a home,” says camera assistant Gary Muller. “There was truly no other place
where you could get that kind of knowledge and honesty.”
Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor
8

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B e c a u s e i t m a t t e r s .

13. President’s Desk
Within the ASC there are two basic forms of membership: active and associate. Active members
are cinematographers, and everyone knows what we represent to the ASC, but there is some
mystery about the role of the associate member.
According to the ASC’s constitution, an associate member is a person who is not a direc-
tor of photography, but is engaged in work that contributes to cinematography through either
technical expertise or the rendering of services or products directly related to cinematography.
That captures the gist of it, but in practice associates do much more. They come from all corners
of the industry; they include camera manufacturers, post supervisors, color timers, company exec-
utives, lighting-equipment designers and many others. The contributions of one legendary East
Coast associate, General Camera co-founder Dick DiBona, are detailed in this issue.
Regardless of their business affiliations, ASC associates leave those agendas at the door
when they enter the Clubhouse. They participate selflessly on committees and contribute a life-
time of knowledge and expertise toward the common goal of making our craft the best it can
be. They are a vital part of the Society.
Associate members understand what motivates us to do what we do, and they support
that vision in ways that go beyond mere tech advice or equipment discounts. They are collabo-
rators for the ASC the way our crews are on set. They are an integral part of our major functions,
such as the ASC Awards, and major contributors to publications such as the American Cine-
matographer Manual. They challenge the Technology Committee to forge the way toward new frontiers, and join in the preserva-
tion push to guarantee that our work will be seen for generations to come.
Three associates, Bob Fisher, Larry Parker and Brian Spruill, have proven so valuable and committed to the ASC that we made
them honorary members, a distinction we bestow upon a very select few.
The ASC is a small family, so the loss of any member, active or associate, is felt by us all. We recently lost Tak Miyagishima,
who epitomized the character and importance of an associate member. The innovations he brought to motion-picture camera tech-
nology became an indelible part of our craft. He was present at our events and contributed ideas toward our goals. He used his
considerable influence to open doors for our members when it mattered most. And he did all this with the grace and easy famil-
iarity of a friend.
The ASC would not exist were it not for the dedication and commitment of our associates. You know the names of our active
Goi photo by Owen Roizman, ASC. Miyagishima photo by Larry Hezzelwood.
members — they’ve shot some of your favorite films. The next time you glance at the membership roster in this magazine or on our
website, take note of the names of our associates. They are our unsung heroes. If we are able to reach for the stars, it’s beca use
they build the platform that enables us to get there.
Michael Goi, ASC
President
10 October 2011 American Cinematographer

14. Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
is proud to announce that Johnny E. Jensen, ASC (Lost in
Yonkers, Rambling Rose), has joined our world-class faculty in
our distinguished cinematography department which includes
Jürg Walther (Carol King and James Taylor: Live at the
Troubador), headed by Bill Dill, ASC (Sidewalk Stories).
Jensen, Dill and Walther lead the cinematographers of
tomorrow through a curriculum that emphasizes
hands-on practical application in our state of the art
facilities with industry-standard equipment.
L-R: Walther, Jensen, Dill
Jensen’s photograph courtesy of Owen Roizman, ASC
Robert Bassett, Dean
ftv.chapman.edu

15. Short Takes shot it like we would a movie,” says Trost.
Zombie says the style he and Trost have
worked out is predicated on speed and variety.
“When we’re doing coverage of a scene, unless
there’s a problem, I don’t like to do multiple takes
with the same lenses because then you get into
editing, and you have the same setup and the same
lens over and over,” says Zombie.
The duo managed about 75 setups a day on
Halloween II. “Brandon gets the way I like to
shoot,” says Zombie. “And we usually don’t have
the time to do it any other way.”
One way to achieve that kind of quantity and
still craft a high-quality image is to shoot with two
cameras and minimal lighting. “On ‘Torture,’” Trost
explains, “we shot all the spooky stuff in broad
A burly sadist puts clothing through its paces in “Torture,” a Woolite commercial shot by daylight. I didn’t use anything except for some
Brandon Trost and directed by Rob Zombie. negative fill.”
The “fade” sequence in the commercial
I On-the-Rack Fashion
By Iain Stasukevich
employs some practical tungsten fixtures provided by the art depart-
ment, and Trost punched them up with a couple of 1K Par cans.
“Rob and I tend to use practicals or nothing at all,” he says.
Rob Zombie might seem an unlikely choice to direct a Woolite “Torture” was not only Zombie’s first commercial, but also his
commercial, but ad agency Euro RSCG Worldwide actually tailored a first experience with a digital-cinema camera; Trost convinced him to
spot to him. It’s called “Torture.” experiment with a Red One (upgraded with the Mysterium-X
“The concept is that there’s a mysterious figure out in the sensor). “Rob and I both like the texture of film because we can
woods called The Torturer, and he’s torturing clothes,” says Zombie. degrade it,” notes Trost. “But you can do that with digital, too, and
At first Zombie had to turn the project down because of tour- I wanted to show him those possibilities.”
ing commitments, but the agency kept changing the dates and loca- Based on some tests he’d done with the Red for the feature
tions to fit his schedule. When they finally locked a date in Vancou- Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance , Trost decided to shoot all scenes
ver, Zombie called in cinematographer Brandon Trost. involving The Torturer at 3,200 ASA — even though they’re all day
The Woolite gig marks the third collaboration between Trost exteriors. “It brings out noise in the image, so it starts to feel like
and Zombie, after Halloween II (2009) and music videos for the grain and starts to look a little more analog,” he says. “When you
Zombie tracks “Sick Bubblegum” and “Mars Needs Women.” add a little contrast, the digital grain starts to stand out. When Rob
“I really like working with Rob, and we work really well saw that, he got really interested.”
together,” says Trost. “The key is that we both know what we want, “Cinematography matters to me, but I don’t share this new
but we’re not so committed [to those ideas] that it’s at the expense obsession with higher resolution,” notes Zombie. “I think things are
of doing what’s best for the project.” becoming so high resolution that they look like shit. People look
“Brandon is open-minded,” Zombie remarks. “I’m never at a weird. You can see the makeup in the actors’ pores. I’ve always shied
loss for what I want on set, but I’m always hoping that he’ll have an away from that.” In fact, he tends to lean in the opposite direction:
idea of how to take things a step further. Sometimes he’ll make for Halloween II, he and Trost chose to originate on Super 16mm,
suggestions and I’ll stick to the original plan, but that’s okay because and they pushed the stock so hard that shots sometimes came out
there’s no ego between us.” too dark or out of focus.
Filming took place over two days in and around Vancouver, Being able to see the image immediately on set is what finally
with the first day set on a derelict farmland just south of the city. The convinced Zombie to take the digital plunge. “That’s something that
Torturer does his worst — stretching out a cardigan on a medieval I like about it as well,” says Trost. “It makes us a little more comfort-
rack, shrinking a pretty top before using it to strangle a mannequin, able and allows us to work a little more quickly. It’s especially good
and fading a pair of jeans under the brutal heat of electric lamps. for focus, because we do a lot of handheld work with no marks. If
The agency only produced six panels of storyboards, but “we we can see right away that we’re sharp, it makes a big difference in
12 October 2011 American Cinematographer

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Top row, left to right: Curtis Clark, ASC; Richard Crudo, ASC; Daryn Okada, ASC; Dennis Dillon, DP; Francis Kenny, ASC
Bottom row, left to right: Cassie Brooksbank, Senior, USC School of Cinematic Arts; Cameron Combe, Student Filmmaker, Cal State Long Beach;
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17. how quickly we can work.”
With Zombie, Trost prefers to shoot
wide open, narrowing his depth-of-field as
much as possible. At 3,200 ASA, even stack-
ing multiple filters and narrowing the
camera’s shutter down to 45 degrees only
afforded him a stop of T2.8. (He used Zeiss
Ultra Prime T1.9 lenses.)
If the first half of the spot is classic
Zombie, the second half is a complete shift.
“We also did the ‘Look how bright and clean
and glossy and gorgeous the world is when
you use Woolite’ part of the commercial,”
says Trost. This segment features pretty girls
walking down a peaceful street, trying on
new clothes in a sunny bedroom, and relax-
ing in a yoga studio by a lake.
The shots in these scenes — captured
at 800 ASA in single-camera setups on loca-
tion around Vancouver — are smooth and
stabilized. Strong, high-key illumination is
provided by 6K and 18K HMIs. “It looks like
standard commercial fare, which is
awesome because it’s Rob Zombie behind
the camera,” says Trost. “I was really happy
to see him do something totally outside his
wheelhouse.”
For his part, Zombie shrugs off the
suggestion that dabbling in conventionality
might pose a challenge. “How hard can it be
to light two 20-year-old girls nicely and ask
them to pretend that they’re shopping?”
The challenge, if there was one, was
in the commercial medium itself. There was
little time for preparation leading into the
production, and once the shoot wrapped, all
of the footage was turned over to the post
team. (Technicolor Vancouver handled the
color correction.)
“I don’t know if this is normal, but
I’ve never been involved with color correc-
tion on a commercial,” says Trost. “But I’ve
always been happy with the way they’ve
turned out. That’s no surprise, because the
agencies usually pump a lot of money into
the grade.”
On “Torture,” Trost did his best to
bake in a look that couldn’t be undone. “I
knew my involvement [in post] would be
little to zero, and I figured that if I made it
look the way we wanted it to on the day we
shot it, then everybody would be happy with
Top: A woman admires her freshly laundered blouse. Middle: The hooded fiend hunts for unsuspecting it later.” ●
apparel in a Gothic landscape. Bottom: Zombie (left) and Trost take a break from the mayhem.
14 October 2011 American Cinematographer

19. Production Slate
Plastic surgeon
Robert Ledgard,
M.D. (Antonio
Banderas)
proceeds with an
unorthodox
experiment in a
scene from The
Skin I Live In,
shot by José Luis
Alcaine, AEC.
The Skin I Live In photos by Lucìa Faraig and José Haro, courtesy of El Deseo and Sony Pictures Classics.
I Bad Medicine
By Jean Oppenheimer
The film was shot entirely at practical locations. Most of the
action takes place indoors, with day interiors relying almost exclu-
sively on simulated sunshine. Working with a single camera (an
The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito), the latest collaboration Arricam Studio), the filmmakers made decisions about blocking,
between iconoclastic Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar and cine- camera placement and camera moves on set. The only calculations
matographer José Luis Alcaine, AEC, resists easy classification. Alcaine worked out beforehand concerned the hue and angle of
“From one moment to the next it is a melodrama, a thriller, a horror the simulated sunlight. He recalls, “I asked our script supervisor to
film and a love story,” observes Alcaine. In contemplating a visual draw up a shooting schedule for me with the actual times of each
design for such a hybrid, Almodóvar initially considered an expres- sequence. Instead of ‘daytime,’ it would say ‘18:00 [6 p.m.].’ That
sionistic approach, but he eventually opted for a style that assidu- allowed me to plan the color and angle of the HMIs coming
ously avoids any visual clues that might influence viewers’ percep- through the windows.”
tion of the characters or hint at where the story is going. Essentially, To light Vera’s room, which was located on the second floor
the look “doesn’t emphasize anything,” says Alcaine, who and had trees and a swimming pool directly outside the windows,
answered AC’s questions via e-mail with the aid of translator Deidre Alcaine’s crew positioned three 12K HMIs and a mix of Osram fluo-
MacCloskey. rescents on scaffolding outside. The cinematographer has relied
Based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel Mygale, the film concerns almost exclusively on Osram tubes for the past 25 years. “They are
a brilliant plastic surgeon, Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), who inexpensive and they don’t take up a lot of space,” he told AC in
becomes obsessed with creating an artificial human skin after his 2006 while discussing Volver (Dec. ’06). “They have dimmers that
wife is horribly disfigured in a fire and takes her own life. Robert can be interconnected, they cause practically no variation in the
lives and works in a secluded mansion, where he has two compan- color of the light emission anywhere in the dimming range, and
ions: the housekeeper, Marilia (Marisa Paredes), and a beautiful you can shoot at any shutter setting.”
patient named Vera (Elena Anaya), who wears a skin-tight body Alcaine’s lighting package, which came from Iluminaciones
stocking that covers her from head to toe. Vera has been a captive Cinetel, where owner Rafael Martos helps him design many of the
for six years, and cameras in her room allow Robert and Marilia to housings for the Osram tubes, included 10-banks with 20 55-watt
track her every move via monitors positioned around the house. Dulux tubes, 20-banks with eight 36-watt Dulux tubes, 15-banks
16 October 2011 American Cinematographer

21. Top: Ledgard’s
daughter (Blanca
Suárez) escapes
his watchful eye
at a party to
take a fateful
walk with Vicente
(Jan Cornet).
Bottom: Director
Pedro Almodóvar
(right) looks on as
Banderas and
Elena Anaya run
through a scene
involving Ledgard
and his captive
patient, Vera.
This large
fluorescent source
was typical of
Alcaine’s approach
to Vera’s room.
had to be precisely synchronized. At one
point, the video camera (a Panasonic AG-
HVX200) pushes in on Vera until her face
fills the frame while the Arri pushes in from
behind Robert, who is standing in front of
the screen. In another scene, Robert
watches as Vera sits with her back against
the arm of her divan, her legs stretched out
in front of her; Robert also has a divan in his
room, and the camera remains behind him
as he sits down in a position that mirrors
hers, except that he is on the opposite side
of the frame. The two characters appear to
be facing one another.
Vera is almost always lit with fluo-
rescents placed at the edge of the frame
and usually aligned with her eyes. Lighting
Robert’s bedroom required ingenuity
because of the blue cast emitted by the
massive monitor. “To make it work, I had to
of four 36-watt Lumilux tubes, 8-banks of knows Robert watches her, and she often make all of the lighting [in the room] that
two 36-watt Lumilux tubes, and a variety stares straight into the camera, as if meet- same color,” reports Alcaine. “[I did this] by
of 18-watt Lumilux tubes. “We had ing his gaze. “We shot Vera in her room lighting with 5,500°K [tubes] placed behind
3,200°K tubes and 5,500°K tubes, and if and Robert looking at her on the monitor Antonio and at his sides. That way we
we needed to get an in-between color at the same time, and the actors were, of didn’t have light all over the room, which
temperature, we mixed them on the course, in two separate spaces, so Pedro also helped [eliminate] reflections. The crew
banks,” says Alcaine. had to coordinate their performances dressed in black for the filming of these
Among the film’s most inspired perfectly,” says Alcaine. For the smaller scenes.”
sequences, from both a conceptual and monitors in the kitchen, he adds, “we shot Alcaine notes that The Skin I Live In
technical standpoint, are scenes of Robert the video footage first and then played it marks his first digital intermediate with
in his bedroom at night, watching Vera on when we were filming the kitchen scenes.” Almodóvar. Their four previous collabora-
a giant monitor that covers one wall. Vera The camerawork in each space also tions — Volver, Bad Education, Tie Me Up!
18 October 2011 American Cinematographer

22. A half-century of service, mentorship,
friendship, innovation, brilliance and passion.
Your legacy will live on.
Takuo “Tak” Miyagishima
1928-2011

23. crimson drapes in a couple of settings, a red
dress in a shop window, or fresh blood on
the floor.”
Alcaine remembers a mildly trouble-
some night exterior at a location in Galicia,
where Robert and his teenaged daughter,
Norma (Blanca Suárez), attend a wedding.
Norma wanders into the garden with
Vicente (Jan Cornet), a young man she has
just met. When Robert can’t find his daugh-
ter, he goes outside to look for her. “The
vegetation was very thick, and light could
barely penetrate it,” recalls Alcaine. “My
source of inspiration was the great French
artist Henri Rousseau, in particular his 1910
painting The Dream. Even though it was
night, I tried to make the greens very strong
and bright, just as in the painting.”
The film’s biggest lighting setup was
a nighttime car chase along an isolated,
winding road deep in a forest. Robert
pursues Vicente, who is on a motorcycle,
because he believes Vicente has raped his
daughter. The filmmakers had to light
almost a full mile of road to capture the
action. “We had two 18K HMIs, three 12K
HMIs and a crane truck with six 12K HMIs,”
says Alcaine.
Alcaine praises his crew for their
“enormous contributions.” He notes, “My
gaffer, Fernando Beltran, works with me a
lot, and on this film, as always, he did a
superb job. Our camera operator was the
excellent Joaquin Manchado, who, though
a fine cinematographer himself, offered to
serve as operator in order to be part of the
production.”
Top: Ledgard admires his handiwork after Vera returns from a trip to town. Contemplating the five films he has
Bottom: Alcaine (left) and gaffer Fernando Beltran confer on location. made with Almodóvar, Alcaine observes,
“It’s strange. Pedro and I understand each
other very well, but we hardly ever talk. Our
Tie Me Down! and Women on the Verge of anamorphic, but Pedro decided this one intuitions about the images are almost
a Nervous Breakdown — were timed should be 1.85:1,” says Alcaine. “I was always the same, and only occasionally do
photochemically. “The DI allowed us to grateful because that meant I could use my they need any clarification. This shoot was a
suppress the tiny imperfections in Elena’s favorite lenses, [Arri/Zeiss] Master Primes.” real delight for me, and I think for him, too.”
skin, befitting Ledgard’s ‘perfect creation,’” The camera package came from EPC in
notes the cinematographer. All of the Madrid. TECHNICAL SPECS
negative processing, scanning, color correc- Another distinct difference was the
tion and filmout was handled by Fotofilm color scheme. Almodóvar’s films are 1.85:1
Deluxe in Madrid. “I found the work of the renowned for their rich, bold colors, with a 35mm and Digital Capture
entire laboratory to be of a very high stan- special emphasis on red. “By Pedro’s own Arricam Studio; Panasonic AG-HVX200
dard,” says Alcaine. design, however, this movie looks very Arri/Zeiss Master Prime
The Skin I Live In marked a few other neutral,” says Alcaine. “The tones are Kodak Vision3 500T 5219;
firsts for the Almodóvar/Alcaine team. beige, white, gray, black and metallic. Only Fujifilm Eterna Vivid 160
“Our previous four films were shot occasionally is there an explosion of red: Digital Intermediate ➣
20 October 2011 American Cinematographer

24. Why am I having so much fun?
Bob Primes,ASC reveals his inner child playing with the cool
toys and other kids at Clairmont Camera; a fun place to play.
I've played in some great camera rental houses.
The best constantly innovate and create awesome
new tools,toys and widgets to make our work more
beautiful,faster,easier and more fun.
Denny Terry Clairmont,Alan Albert,Tom Boelens
and crew set fanatically high standards of quality,
service,innovation and integrity.
But that's old news. Everyone in the biz knows that!
I want to talk about how much fun I have at Clairmont.
The sign of a well managed team is the morale and
happiness of the players.
Clairmont is a busy place,yet somehow,miraculously,
everyone seems relaxed,delighted to see you,help you
create solutions and are just as crazy about the latest
toys and widgets as you are.
It is this uncanny ability of everyone you encounter to
share the joy and enthusiasm of our art form that kicks
the Clairmont experience into another dimension. Those
old-fashioned virtues of integrity,involvement,caring,
warmth and joy are really what it's all about.
Robert Primes,ASC
www.clairmont.com
Hollywood Vancouver Toronto Albuquerque Montreal
818-761-4440 604-984-4563 416-467-1700 505-227-2525 514-525-6556

25. Will (Paul Bettany, right) consults with Sam (Kevin Spacey) as a crisis looms at their firm in Margin Call.
I Capturing a Financial Freefall
By Patricia Thomson
phy wrapped, the producers approved an
18th day to shoot real trading floors
downtown and some nighttime heli-
ment of Bloomberg Trading Systems,
which not only loaned and wired up 150
trading stations, but also created a loop
“The longer I work in films, the copter shots of the hero high-rise. of screen shots showing financial graphs
more I find I need less lighting,” says The story, which takes place over that any Wall Street trader would recog-
New York-based cinematographer Frank 36 hours, is a pressure-cooker workplace nize as authentic. “That really helped
DeMarco. A pianist since age 6, he offers drama. When one analyst, Eric (Stanley bring things to life,” says Chandor.
a musical analogy: “I remember listening Tucci), gets sacked, he passes a jump Those monitors were both motifs
to jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter when drive to an entry-level colleague, Peter and practical sources. “From the minute I
he was in Weather Report. He was a (Zachary Quinto), warning him to “be wrote the first couple of scenes, I decided
virtuoso; he’d be playing a thousand careful” as the elevator door closes. Peter those screens should be a recurring visual
notes a second. I saw him again about 15 extrapolates the drive’s financial formula theme,” says the director. Always loom-
years later at the Blue Note, and he was to its logical conclusion and sees immi- ing over analysts’ heads and active even
an older, mellow guy, and everyone in his nent disaster for the firm. He alerts his during the dead of night, “they’re repre-
young, hot group was playing a million boss, who in turn calls his boss, and so on sentative of the outside market pressure
Margin Call photos courtesy of Roadside Attractions and the filmmakers.
notes a minute. Wayne was just playing up the chain. The movie examines the and the paranoia in these crisis situa-
one note, but everybody was listening to response of each character to the firm’s tions,” he says. “The screens let you
him, because he was doing something likely meltdown as they race to resolve know that the market never sleeps.”
interesting with that note. It’s similar with the situation before “The Street” finds Another motif is Manhattan, a
lighting: once you find the one light or out. “It’s not panic if you’re the first one living, pulsating presence outside the
the minimum number of lights that work, out the door,” says CEO John Tuld office windows. “We had beautiful floor-
you make it work, really bend it. That’s (Jeremy Irons), as he greenlights a fire sale to-ceiling windows, and the breathtaking
what people are going to see and feel.” of worthless stocks. view of Manhattan is definitely one of the
DeMarco had ample occasion to Most of the movie was shot on the characters,” says DeMarco. “It’s always
bend a few notes on Margin Call, an 42nd floor of 1 Penn Plaza. As luck would there, looming and glowing in the back-
ensemble drama written and directed by have it, the floor’s previous occupant was ground.”
J.C. Chandor, whose characters — a a hedge fund. “That was a gift,” says To ensure that the windows
group of Wall Street analysts — are the Chandor. “Everything we might need wouldn’t blow out during day scenes,
first to foresee the 2008 financial melt- was there: boardrooms, a 200-person DeMarco had his crew cover the windows
down. The cinematographer had 10 days trading floor, corner offices, hallways.” with 4'x8' sheets of ND.3, ND.6 and
of prep for the 17-day shoot, which took Even the trading-room desks had been ND.9. Upon doing so, they discovered a
place mainly in a high-rise office building left in place. problem: though the windows looked
in Manhattan. After principal photogra- Another boon was the involve- identical, each had a slightly different
22 October 2011 American Cinematographer

27. (upgraded with Mysterium-X sensors) as
his main cameras. However, he found the
Top: This shot of daylight-balanced sensor to be closer to
cast and crew
preparing a scene 400 ASA. “Maybe it’s 800 ASA in HMI
in Sam’s office light,” he allows, “but I was shooting
shows the mostly in tungsten or mixed light, and I
neutral-density
panels used for found the sensor wasn’t as sensitive as its
day interiors at specs claimed.”
the location. Nevertheless, the camera’s sensitiv-
Bottom: Seth
(Penn Badgley) ity was sufficient to allow DeMarco to
receives a make the onscreen monitors work for
worrisome call at him. “I balanced the overall lighting on
a nightclub.
the set so the monitors were always legi-
ble,” he says. “Even with overhead light-
ing, you could still very much see the
width ranging from 50-52. The 48 ND panels cost a little money up front, they content on the monitors. In really dark
panels therefore left a gap. DeMarco’s saved a ton of time and aggravation, scenes, the monitors often become the
solution was to ask production designer because we didn’t have to add big HMIs light source.”
John Paino to make removable pilasters to inside to balance with the outside light,” DeMarco’s minimalist lighting is on
act as vertical window dividers. “Once we adds the cinematographer. display in a shot that tracks through the
installed the ND panels, we could take Because most of Margin Call takes empty office after the firm’s bigwigs have
these pilasters and Velcro them against place at night, DeMarco knew he needed set the wheels of fate in motion. The
the window,” says DeMarco. “They not to shoot at around 800 ASA. He explains, camera dollies past trading stations with
only hid the gaps, but they also looked “Shooting film wasn’t possible on our glowing monitors, and then continues
great. As exterior lighting changed, partic- budget because J.C. wanted to capture into an office belonging to Sam (Kevin
ularly at the end of the day, it was a the dialogue-heavy drama with two Spacey). “That was a dead-of-night
breeze for [key grip] Caswell Cooke and cameras, so we decided to go digital.” scene,” says DeMarco. “We kept the
his crew to quickly change the panels. (Footage of the real trading floors and the other rooms dark, so the monitors are
“Our limited budget made it a nighttime aerial work was shot on film, doing a lot of the lighting. We left on
tough choice for the producers, but they Kodak Vision3 500T 5219.) some of the small tungsten practicals on
recognized that even though the ND DeMarco chose two Red Ones the desks, enhancing them with stronger
24 October 2011 American Cinematographer

29. augmented that with small Rosco LED
LitePads that were balanced to match the
monitors’ cool hue.
Although the movie’s subject is
grim, Chandor’s goal was a handsome
film. “I didn’t ever want this to have a
Cinematographer gritty, down-in-the-pits feel,” he says.
Frankie DeMarco “The audience has to spend an hour and
takes a break on
the roof of the a half in this room, so I wanted it [to look]
production’s as beautiful as possible.” DeMarco strove
primary location. for smooth dolly moves and used older
Zeiss T2.1 Standard Speed primes as his
main lenses. (He also used Angenieux
Optimo 17-80mm zooms.) “The older
lenses have a wonderful way of maintain-
ing a handsome image while smoothing
out the harsh look of these new large-
chip digital cameras without requiring
bulbs on dimmers, and we hid some Kino was pretty simple. We used Kino Flo filters,” he observes.
Flos on the floor to enhance particular Image 80s on rolling stands for big wide At times, however, the drama
pieces of architecture. shots to give everybody a little edge or called for lighting that was intentionally
“We changed out the bulbs in the open up an area, and we used Arri brutal. DeMarco notes, “The night exteri-
ceiling lights to work with our color Pocket Par 200-watt and 800-watt Jokers ors of Peter wandering the city streets in
temperatures,” he continues. “Once to put hot hits here and there for day a pensive daze were lit with a mix of
gaffer Radium Cheung and I figured out scenes.” For close-ups, he cranked up the ambient city light and a little fill; the mix
our night and day lighting schemes, it computers’ brightness levels and reflects the character’s moral ambiguity.”
26

30. In another example, Sam and an assistant Rosco LED LitePad so you could simulta- TECHNICAL SPECS
wait to conduct colleagues to a bigwig neously see the actors in the car and
meeting. “They’re standing right under a Manhattan reflected in the curve of the 1.85:1
recessed ceiling light, and it gives them limo window,” says DeMarco. Digital Capture and 35mm
both hideous raccoon eyes. It’s a severe Fortunately, the technical needs Red One, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Arri 435
moment, but the look is appropriate for and the emotional dynamics of Margin Zeiss Standard Speed, Angenieux Optimo
the story and the emotion of the scene.” Call neatly converged. “Using minimal Kodak Vision3 500T 5219
For the toplit conference-room lighting allowed us to move quickly, Digital Intermediate ●
scenes, DeMarco’s crew hung skirted which was extremely important on a
China balls on a “suicide arm,” which he movie with such a short shooting sched-
describes as “a hefty stand with a long ule,” says DeMarco. “Using minimal
pole. Then, to brighten someone’s face or lighting also means you’re not going to
put a little glint in his or her eyes, I used have a lot of f-stop; a 40mm lens at a T2
an altered-snoot Mole Baby Soft. It’s gives you about 8 inches of depth-of-
called a Néstor, after Néstor Almendros field, so you essentially hold the face.
[ASC]. You can shoot soft, concentrated Thus, while Manhattan shimmers out-of-
light 6 to 8 feet out without it spilling all focus in the background, the characters
over everything. Apart from that, we just are visually isolated in their own respec-
had a few practicals in the background.” tive spaces, which perfectly reflects their
DeMarco used a Canon EOS 5D mental and emotional states.”
Mark II in tandem with the Red cameras “People like this pride themselves ERRATUM
for a couple of driving scenes. In one, two on being able to stay calm on their worst
junior analysts scour the city for Eric, their day, so at key moments in the drama, In last month’s print edition, Dante
fired boss. The Canon was suction- these characters just pull back,” says Spinotti’s first name was misspelled in the
cupped to the limo’s untinted windows. Chandor. “Frankie’s cinematography ASC Close-Up (page 104).
“Inside the vehicle, we positioned a does a beautiful job of [conveying] that.”
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27

31. Road
Warriors
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC and
director Nicolas Winding Refn
revolves around the unnamed Driver (Ryan Gosling), who
spends his days as a Hollywood stunt driver and his nights
behind the wheel of getaway cars for members of the Los
craft a violent fairytale on the Angeles underworld. In order to protect his neighbor, Irene
streets of Los Angeles. (Carey Mulligan), he agrees to help her ex-con husband,
Standard (Oscar Isaac), pull off an easy heist. But when the
job goes horribly wrong, Driver has to cut a bloody swath to
By Jon D. Witmer guide Irene to safety.
“It’s almost a mythological story, not a story about
•|• today or yesterday or tomorrow, so it was important that the
movie have an almost indefinable time period,” says director
of photography Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC. After Drive
I
t’sday 11 on the shooting schedule for Drive, the first was in the can, Sigel spoke with AC by phone from the U.K.,
Hollywood movie from Danish director Nicolas Winding where he was shooting Jack the Giant Killer for Bryan Singer.
Refn, who made his name on the international stage with Drive marks Sigel’s first collaboration with Refn, and
such projects as the Pusher trilogy, Bronson (AC Oct. ’09) the cinematographer recalls that when he was approached
and Valhalla Rising. Refn has invited AC to the set, built on about the project, “I took a look at Bronson and was really
the fourth floor of Los Angeles’ Park Plaza Hotel. With a impressed. It was clearly a film with a limited budget and
blanket wrapped snugly around his waist, the director leads limited resources, but it had a very strong vision from the
the way down a faux-brick hallway that opens into a room director.”
featuring four mirrored walls outlined with vanity bulbs — “I met with a lot of wonderful cinematographers —
the dressing room of a strip club. It’s time, Refn says, “to that’s the good thing about Hollywood, they’re all out here,”
place the girls.” says Refn. “But when I met Tom, I really dug his energy, and
Based on the crime novel by James Sallis, Drive his background as a documentary filmmaker made me confi-
28 October 2011 American Cinematographer

32. dent we could make our seven-week
Unit photography by Richard Foreman Jr., SMPSP. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Film District.
shooting schedule work. Plus, his first
film as a cameraman was Kenneth
Anger’s Lucifer Rising!”
Refn often cites avant-garde
filmmaker Anger as an influence. “The
first visual reference I showed Ryan in
regards to Drive was [Anger’s] Scorpio
Rising,” he says. “Ryan asked, ‘Why are
you showing me a movie with a lot of
guys working on motorcycles?’ And I
said, ‘It’s how it’s shot — the sensual,
sexual nature of it, the fetish, the objec-
tification. That’s what we should try to
go for.’”
In addition to Anger’s oeuvre,
Refn and Sigel were inspired by the
look of location-scout photos Sigel
snapped using the Hipstamatic app on
his iPhone. “There are some color
palettes in that program that reference
retro photographic looks, like Koda-
chrome or Ektrachrome,” says Sigel. “I
showed Nicolas some of the photos, Opposite: The unnamed Driver (Ryan Gosling) takes the wheel in Drive, directed by
Nicolas Winding Refn and photographed by Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC. This page, top: Driver
and he wasn’t certain of the strange becomes a thorn in the side of mob boss Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks). Bottom: Sigel plans a
tonalities, but he really responded to shot of Driver and Irene (Carey Mulligan).
the vibrancy of the colors. We designed
ww.theasc.com
w October 2011 29

33. ◗ Road Warriors
a lot of sets and costumes to make use
of that kind of vibrant palette.”
Early in his month-long prep,
Sigel decided to shoot with Arri’s
Alexa digital camera. “We had a tight
budget and very little time, and I was
intrigued by the look I could get
shooting available light downtown,” he
explains. “I did some driving tests with
the Alexa, and it blew me away in
terms of what it could do with existing
light.
“I rated the camera at 800
[ASA],” he continues. “I think the
myth of digital is that you underexpose
because it can’t hold the highlights like
film. I find that when you underexpose
digital more than a little bit, very often
you increase your noise level signifi-
cantly. What’s extraordinary about the
Alexa is that even if I pushed the
sensor to 1,600 [ASA] there was very
little noise, and I could actually under-
expose quite a bit without introducing
noise in the blacks. The dynamic range
was mind-boggling.”
Top: Driver and The cinematographer adds that
Shannon (Bryan he typically shot nights and interiors
Cranston) talk
inside Shannon’s
around T2.8, and day exteriors around
garage. The T8.
location is Clairmont Camera in North
actually a
Hollywood
Hollywood provided the camera pack-
picture-car age. Sigel shot most of the picture
garage; the warm using the 15-40mm Angenieux
backlight was
provided by a 5K
Optimo zoom lens. “I also used Cooke
gelled with Rosco S4 primes for the daytime car interiors,
Urban Color. and Zeiss Master Primes for the night-
Middle: Refn
(left) talks
time car interiors.”
Gosling and He kept filtration to a mini-
Cranston through mum, although he occasionally
a scene that
shows Driver in
employed a Tiffen Soft/FX filter (in
his day job as a either 1⁄2 or 1 density) for diffusion.
Hollywood stunt “Nicolas really loves wide lenses,
driver. Bottom:
Driver flips a
like the 18mm and 21mm,” says Sigel.
police car for the “That’s a challenge when you’re trying
movie within the to get a lot of work done in a short
movie.
period of time. You tend to want to set
up multiple cameras and have the tele-
photo lens pick off close-ups while
you’re getting a two-shot, but we
limited that approach as much as we
could.
“Whenever there was a fight or
an act of violence, we’d get two
30 October 2011 American Cinematographer

34. cameras on it so we didn’t have to
repeat that action over and over,” adds Irene and
Driver’s
the cinematographer. apartments were
Sigel operated the A camera, built inside the
and Greg Lundsgaard served as B- Park Plaza Hotel,
and they were
camera/Steadicam operator. “I’d designed to
worked with Greg before,” says Sigel. function like a
“He’s got a good eye, and I’m very practical
location. The
confident in what he does.” common corridor
By the time Sigel joined the (top and
production, it was a given that the bottom) was lit
with 250-watt
entire shoot would happen in and Photofloods
around L.A. The Park Plaza Hotel fitted inside wall
became one of the production’s hubs. sconces.
The location provided ample space to
build the strip club’s dressing room, the
design of which grew out of Sigel’s
preproduction discussions with Refn
and production designer Beth Mickle.
Sigel recalls, “I mentioned that on
Frankie Alice,we created a dressing
room that had tables at different
angles, so when we shot we got layers
and layers of detail in the mirrors.
Nicolas took that idea one step further
and said, ‘Let’s make it all mirrors.’ So
we basically made a mirror box — it
reminded me of a Lucas Samaras
sculpture — and it was just lit with
practical light.
“We had one shot where we had
to do a 360-degree camera move,”
ww.theasc.com
w October 2011 31

35. •|• “Pretty in Pink With a Head Smash” •|•
I ’d come down with the flu and had
taken some anti-flu drugs before
meeting with Ryan Gosling about
Drive, and I was high as a kite through
dinner. Halfway through the meal, I
asked if he could take me home,
because I needed to lie down. It was like
a blind date gone bad. In the car, Ryan
turned on the radio, and REO
Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This
Feeling” started to play. I was so out of
it I started crying, turned the radio up
and began singing. Then I turned to
Ryan and screamed, “I know what
Drive is! It’s about a man who drives
around at night listening to pop music
because that’s his emotional release!”
Ryan said, “Okay,” and that’s how
the film was born. explained to him that I don’t do a lot of but as another canvas.
I loved James Sallis’ book. It’s an coverage, and I like wide-angle lenses I stipulated in my contract that
existential story about a stuntman who’s because I want depth. I wanted to go my editor, Matt Newman, would edit
also a getaway driver. He lives in with a classical style, which I felt would the film with me. When we make the
Hollywood, he can’t quite deal with give the film its own identity. Also, I’m first cut, we make the movie incoherent
reality, and he goes a bit psychotic at the colorblind, so I told Tom and Beth just to see what it is not. By doing that,
end. Driver is two people: by day he Mickle, the production designer, “I you can see if there might be other ways
works in Hollywood, and at night he need contrasting colors, and I like a lot of putting the movie together. Then we
drives in an almost armored suit. I of red.” It was a wonderful collabora- start cutting it more as planned. It’s a
wanted him to be like a superhero in tion. constant discovery process, which I like.
the making. There are so many movies where Showing Drive at Cannes was
I wanted to make Drive an L.A. you see cars spin and fly. With our very joyful because I’d been able to make
fairytale, which is what Sallis’ book is. budget, we couldn’t even get close to the movie I wanted to make, which in
To make the violence feel extreme, I that kind of action, so I wanted to see if itself is always a battle. I’d been nervous
had to make the first half of the movie I could define each driving scene specif- that working in Hollywood would
very pure and sentimental, almost like a ically. I did something similar on mean I might not have the control I
John Hughes movie. Then it goes really Bronson, in which each of the three usually have. But Ryan had director
violent. It’s like Pretty in Pink with a fight scenes had a different feel. I don’t approval, and he protected me — it was
head smash. have a driver’s license, but I’ve always a similar situation to when Lee Marvin
I spent a lot of time redesigning been fascinated by speed, and I also insisted on John Boorman directing
the script with Hoss Amini, who have a fetish for curves, so I wanted to Point Blank — and producers Adam
adapted the book, and Ryan. We had shoot the cars how I would see them Siegel and Marc Platt were also very
the whole movie on index cards, and sexually. I’m very much a fetish film- respectful. There are a lot of smart
we’d move things around on the living- maker; I make films out of what I people in Hollywood. I was in good
room table. Then, at night, Ryan drove would like to see. hands.
me around and showed me Los Visually and technically, I try to Coming from Europe to make
Angeles. We were almost living the make every film different. We shot a lot films in Hollywood, it’s almost like
movie as we were writing it. of Drive in slow motion because I love you’re living the dreams of all the
I felt I would benefit from work- that language. European filmmakers who came to
ing with a Hollywood cinematogra- Shooting with the Alexa was a Hollywood from the very beginning.
pher. While talking with Tom Sigel blessing. I don’t see it as a replacement You can make your film within the
[ASC], it quickly became clear that we for 35mm negative, which is a unique system. There’s still hope.
had similar tastes and understandings. I thing we’ll never find a substitute for, — Nicolas Winding Refn
32 October 2011 American Cinematographer