American Cinematographer - January 2018 - 32

for direct point-source lights achieved with
tungsten or HMI units," she adds. The
exception is Judy's snow globe, which was
illuminated with a specialty LED. To make it
work, Howsepian and production designer
Doriane Desfaugeres tracked down a snowglobe shell with a translucent bottom, into
which they incorporated an LED from
LiteGear.
Grading took place at Technicolor,
where colorist David-Aaron Waters worked
with Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve.
The most challenging scene in the
movie - and Howsepian's favorite - was
the opening shot. As Amir plays his violin in
front of Disney Hall, the camera follows a
business card that floats through the air and
finally settles into the young man's violin
case. "The card, which was added with
visual effects, follows the angles of Disney
Hall," says Howsepian. "We shot this on
Steadicam with operator Aaron Gantt, and
focus puller Thais Castrale was pulling to air.
We had a fairly good idea of how we
wanted the camera to move, but on the
day, Aaron, Mia and First AD Ted Campbell
truly perfected the blocking, positioning
and speed."
Undergraduate Category
Widow
Cinematographer: Logan Fulton
(Loyola Marymount University)
After shooting director Rachel Econ's
junior-level thesis film, Logan Fulton
rejoined her for Widow, a short Western
32

January 2018

about a retired gunslinger (played by Naiia
Lajoie) who, after she finds her husband
shot to death, pairs up with her brother-inlaw (portrayed by Jordan Jones) to find the
truth - and ends up finding betrayal.
Fulton says the prospect of shooting a
Western was immediately appealing.
"There is something inherently cinematic
about them," he says, "and the theme of
revenge is also inherently dramatic."
Widow was shot in Benson, Ariz.,
where production designer Marisa Stelly
turned an abandoned building into the
protagonist's home. Econ and Fulton referenced The Assassination of Jesse James by
the Coward Robert Ford - shot by Roger
Deakins, ASC, BSC (AC Oct. '07) - for its
use of light, shadow and silhouette. "Rachel
and I share similar tastes aesthetically," says
Fulton. "We like to shoot dark, gritty things,
and we wanted it to look realistic."
From Loyola Marymount University's
camera collection, Fulton selected an Arri
Alexa Mini and a set of Arri/Zeiss Ultra
Primes. "I think one thing that's nice about
the Alexa is the great dynamic range," says
Fulton, who captured 3.2K ProRes 4:4:4:4
XQ files to CFast 2.0 memory cards. "I'm
impressed with its low-light capabilities,
which was important for our night work."
Fulton opted for the Ultra Primes
because of their sharpness and reliability.
"Since we had to move quickly, I liked that
each lens was [a similar] size and weight,
which meant that we could swing lenses
without needing to reconfigure our matte
box and follow focus," he says. "They also
American Cinematographer

have easy-to-read and reliable marks, which
was important for first AC Dawson Taylor,
who prefers to pull off measurements
rather than look at a monitor."
For lighting, Fulton had an Arri M40
HMI and a 6,500-watt generator, both from
Castex Rentals, as well as Loyola Marymount's 3-ton grip-and-lighting package,
which included an assortment of smaller
HMIs and tungsten heads; a J.L. Fisher
Model 21 Jib; and a Fisher Model 11 Dolly,
the small size of which made it a good
choice for interior locations. Exterior scenes
were lit largely with muslin in front of Ultrabounce, with both materials tied to the
same 12'x12' frame. "This gives the Ultrabounce a slightly softer quality, which helps
you not feel the source as much," the cinematographer says. Occasionally he also
used the M40 outside, either as an edge or
to throw it into the bounce when the actors
walked through the shade.
For interior work, Fulton mostly lit
with HMIs through windows. "Then," he
says, "we used a lot of skip bounces - 2by-4 'silver surfer' bounces to catch
sunlight, or we'd throw a Joker-Bug 800
into them. This was a fast way to add
natural-looking fill."
In one scene, the widow and her
brother-in-law face the outlaws in a saloon.
"It was such a large space and the camera
was moving a lot," says Fulton. To light the
expanse for the wide shot, Fulton waited
for the sun to be in the best spot to shoot,
and then hazed the interior to create shafts
of light through the windows. Key grip

Widow photo courtesy of Logan Fulton.

Left: The Society honored Loyola Marymount University undergrad Logan Fulton for his work on Widow. Right: Fulton receives his award, flanked
by ASC President Kees van Oostrum (left) and ASC Secretary David Darby.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2018