American Cinematographer - January 2018 - 70

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Get Small

Top: Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen (Rolf Lassgård, on podium) presents his solution to overpopulation.
Above: The crew captures the "miniaturized" Lassgård on a greenscreen set.

uses the term 'elegant banality.'"
Partial to the look of 1970s films,
Papamichael requested from Paramount
the prints of Chinatown and Black
Sunday, and he liked what he saw. "If you
watch these films projected, they're alive,
man," he says. "The projector, that whole
instability the frame has within the gate
- it's really kind of buzzing. But then
you get used to it, and people forget. My
kids have never seen a film projected,
and the same goes for a lot of people
today." Papamichael also acknowledges
less desirable characteristics, however,
like steep contrast and a lack of detail in
the blacks. He believes digital capture via
Arri's Alexa XT and Alexa Mini
70

January 2018

provided the perfect solution for
Downsizing - increased latitude with
the possibility for image manipulation in
postproduction. According to 1st AC
Jeff Porter, "The Mini was used sparingly - just for small spaces and a few
Steadicam and handheld shots.
"Phedon operated A camera for
each and every shot of the 65-day shoot,
save for a handful of Steadicam shots,"
Porter continues. "Alexander wouldn't
have had it any other way. They have a
shorthand and an uncanny knack for
reading one another's facial expressions.
Alexander doesn't like the idea of a video
village where people congregate around
monitors; instead, he prefers to stay right
American Cinematographer

next to the camera and his actors. He
often sits on the dolly during takes,
watching the actors and occasionally
glancing at the onboard monitor to
check framing."
As cinematographer, Papamichael
required much more than the camera's
eyepiece or an average onboard for
monitoring. Digital-imaging technician
Lonny Danler worked with Porter to
provide "a good, portable solution close
to camera," the DIT explains. "We used
a Sony 17-inch OLED with LUT
boxes, wireless HD, and distribution
amplifiers - specifically Teradek
COLRs, Paralinx Tomahawk receivers
and Freakshow DAs - built onto the
back. The rig was affectionately called
the 'monistor' - so [Papamichael] was
always battery-powered, mobile and
could get where he needed to be without
waiting for anybody. We also had a ballpark-calibrated SmallHD DP7 OLED
onboard monitor for him."
In the rare cases when
Papamichael wasn't operating, he shared
Flanders Scientific OLEDs with Payne,
gaffer Rafael E. Sánchez and key grip
Ray Garcia. Displays were outfitted
with a custom LUT co-developed by
Danler and Technicolor senior digitalintermediate colorist Skip Kimball. "It
was a 30-percent film-print emulation,
since Alexander and Phedon were referencing some Seventies-era films,"
Danler notes. "We wanted that tonal
film curve built into the look and feel."
On-set color management was achieved
via Pomfort's LiveGrade with refinements performed in Blackmagic Design
DaVinci Resolve 12.5.
"The LUT is for lighting, but I
dispense with it when I [start working]
with the colorist," Papamichael says.
"The monitor is my new light meter.
Gone is the mystery of the cinematographer's craft, the guy with the viewing
glass and the light meter and talking to
the lab." He notes that he sees this new
dynamic as conducive to increased
collaboration with the director. "It's
helpful to be able to show him what I'm
doing and explore it," he says. "Now, if I
want to try something daring, he doesn't

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