American Cinematographer - January 2009 - (Page 44)

AnOld Soul a harder moonlight,” says the cinematographer. “The hardest lamp I could think of was a Shadowmaker, which is basically a 7K Xenon in a black box with no reflectors. I shot tests with it, and David loved it. It was a little unnerving to light a 90foot boat with it — I was on the brink of underexposure — but it looks pretty cool. “For sunlight, we used a couple of Arri T24s and T12s with some color on them,” he continues. “The overcast look was just space lights, about 160 up in a grid, that were gelled with 1⁄2 CTB. At one point, I used four Dinos for a look, and I also used a single 24K tungsten gelled with ¼ CTB. I mixed it up. Everything was mounted on track overhead. We had blacks, blues and even some whites that could be brought around the boat.” Atmosphere is a big part of the look during Button’s early years in New Orleans. Though there was electricity at the time, oil-based and gas-based flame fixtures were still common, creating a smoky haze outdoors and indoors. For one striking scene, Miranda kept the atmospheric haze but ditched firelight for electricity to great effect. Button, age 7 but looking 70 and riding in a wheelchair, ventures into a warmly lit church revival held in a large, Above: An exterior view of a revival tent shows the warm glow produced by strings of vintage, clear 60-watt bulbs hung from the ceiling. Below: Inside the tent, a preacher (Lance E. Nichols) exhorts the frail, 7-year-old Benjamin to arise from his wheelchair. know what film stock Tarsem used,” adds Miranda. “He was on his own mission.” For scenes in which Button sails the high seas in an effort to become worldly wise, the boat actually never touched water — it was mounted on a motion-controlled gimbal inside a Sony Pictures soundstage. Nevertheless, Miranda singles these sequences out as the most challenging to shoot. “They were tricky mainly because of all the different looks we had to create to suggest he is traveling around the world — completely overcast, night, night with snow, night with full moon, night with fog, high noon, sunset, and sun coming from various angles.” For a confrontation with a German U-boat, the movements of Button’s tugboat were programmed into a computer, and these movements would trigger certain lights. “Its motion would trigger Lightning Strikes units and other lights that would simulate gunfire during the encounter, for example,” says Miranda. “There were lights to simulate explosions, and though there was no pyro, it actually looks like there was!” Faking moonlight can be tricky, particularly within the confines of a soundstage. “A lot of people do the soft moonlight with balloons, but David and I talked about 44 January 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2008

American Cinematographer - January 2009 Contents Editor’s Note Short Takes: Triangle of Need Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler Close Focus An Old Soul Brothers in Arms A Cut Above Post Focus: HPA Awards, Still Me New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: Robert C. Jessup, ASC Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Gabriel Beristain

American Cinematographer - January 2008

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