American Cinematographer - January 2009 - (Page 50) AnOld Soul Right: A giant silk diffuses the light for a daytime street scene. Below: The crew captures a nighttime walk-and-talk between Benjamin and Daisy on a cobblestone street. was about 500 terabytes of material, and it was not reasonable to keep all that online.” Injecting “Bradness” At first glance, Button might appear to have little in common with popcorn tycoon Orville Redenbacher, but both belong to an extremely small club of people who have had their heads digitally replaced. In the case of Redenbacher, it was for a commercial Fincher and Miranda shot two years ago — more than 10 years after Redenbacher died. ConAgra Foods wanted to resurrect his image, so to speak. “David saw the ad as an opportunity to test how one could replace the head of a live performer on the set with someone else’s head,” says Mavromates, who was not involved with the ad. “David likes to joke that he learned how not to do Benjamin Button after that commercial. The software used worked well on short tests, but once they did the whole commercial, it wasn’t a very accurate representation of the original performance.” Throughout Benjamin Button, it had to appear as though Pitt was playing the role at every age, and, of course, the adult actor didn’t physically match the younger Buttons. The solution was to have size-appropriate actors play the character on set and then replace their heads in post with a properly scaled Pitt head that was entirely computer-generated. Digital Domain created the CG heads, working with performances by Pitt that were shot separately. (Digital Domain’s visual-effects supervisor, Eric Barba, declined an interview request.) “There is a well-known study that basically boils down humans’ facial expressions to 156 different ones, and we brought Brad in and captured him making those expressions,” says Mavromates. “When the Digital Domain team applied them, however, they felt those 156 did not cover all the emotions the film need- 50 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 American Cinematographer - January 2008 - American Cinematographer - January 2009 (Page Cover1) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - American Cinematographer - January 2009 (Page Cover2) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - American Cinematographer - January 2009 (Page 1) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - American Cinematographer - January 2009 (Page 2) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Contents (Page 3) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Contents (Page 4) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Contents (Page 5) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Contents (Page 6) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Contents (Page 7) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Editor’s Note (Page 8) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Editor’s Note (Page 9) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Short Takes: Triangle of Need (Page 10) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Short Takes: Triangle of Need (Page 11) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Short Takes: Triangle of Need (Page 12) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Short Takes: Triangle of Need (Page 13) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Short Takes: Triangle of Need (Page 14) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Short Takes: Triangle of Need (Page 15) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 16) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 17) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 18) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 19) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 20) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 21) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 22) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 23) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 24) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 25) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 26) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Production Slate: Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler (Page 27) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 28) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 29) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 30) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 31) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 32) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 33) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 34) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 35) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 36) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 37) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 38) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 39) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 40) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Close Focus (Page 41) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 42) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 43) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 44) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 45) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 46) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 47) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 48) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 49) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 50) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 51) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 52) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 53) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 54) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 55) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 56) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - An Old Soul (Page 57) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 58) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 59) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 60) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 61) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 62) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 63) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 64) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 65) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 66) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 67) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 68) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Brothers in Arms (Page 69) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 70) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 71) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 72) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 73) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 74) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 75) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 76) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 77) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 78) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - A Cut Above (Page 79) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Post Focus: HPA Awards, Still Me (Page 80) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Post Focus: HPA Awards, Still Me (Page 81) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Post Focus: HPA Awards, Still Me (Page 82) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Post Focus: HPA Awards, Still Me (Page 83) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - New Products & Services (Page 84) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - New Products & Services (Page 85) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - New Products & Services (Page 86) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - New Products & Services (Page 87) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - International Marketplace (Page 88) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Classified Ads (Page 89) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Ad Index (Page 90) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Ad Index (Page 91) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - In Memoriam: Robert C. Jessup, ASC (Page 92) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - In Memoriam: Robert C. Jessup, ASC (Page 93) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Clubhouse News (Page 94) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - Clubhouse News (Page 95) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - ASC Close-Up: Gabriel Beristain (Page 96) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - ASC Close-Up: Gabriel Beristain (Page Cover3) American Cinematographer - January 2008 - ASC Close-Up: Gabriel Beristain (Page Cover4)
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