American Cinematographer - February 2009 - (Page 40) Dead Reckoning Bill Pope, ASC and director Frank Miller use digital tools and oldschool tricks to bring a comic-book hero to life for The Spirit. by Jon D. Witmer Unit photography by Lewis Jacobs “A 40 February 2009 t these frame rates, you just have to blow the heck out of them,” says cinematographer Bill Pope, ASC, as crewmembers, armed with air movers, take positions alongside a staircase painted chroma-key green. It’s Dec. 13, 2007, day 47 of the 48 shooting days in New Mexico’s Albuquerque Studios for The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller. As operator Vali Valus, 1st AC Greg Luntzel and camera tech Brannon Brown prep a Vision Research Phantom HD high-speed camera, actors Gabriel Macht and Jaime King climb the staircase and wait for 1st AD Benita Allen to yell “Action!” “It’s the movement of the actors’ hair and clothes that really give you the sense of being underwater,” Pope explains. Miller’s script for The Spirit calls for a handful of underwater sequences, but producer Deborah Del Prete established a dictum early in prep that there would be no below-surface shooting. “I wanted to make sure these characters looked their best all the time,” says Del Prete. “If we put the actors underwater, there’s no way their makeup could stay perfect.” The “dry-for-wet” technique the filmmakers settled on involves capturing quick bursts of action at high frame rates. “The hair and body motion looks most like it’s underwater at 400 to 500 fps — or even 700 fps,” says Pope. “But at that speed, it’s hard to act fast enough to move the narrative, so we’ve ended up shooting between 200 and 400 fps.” (Months later, speaking by phone, visual-effects supervisor and 2nd-unit director Stu Maschwitz recalls, “The actors needed to learn the mysterious art
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2009 American Cinematographer - February 2009 Contents Editor's Note Short Takes: Circus Production Slate: The International Reverte 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions Dead Reckoning Embracing Anamorphic Citizen of the World Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky American Cinematographer - February 2009 American Cinematographer - February 2009 - American Cinematographer - February 2009 (Page Cover1) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - American Cinematographer - February 2009 (Page Cover2) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - American Cinematographer - February 2009 (Page 1) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - American Cinematographer - February 2009 (Page 2) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Contents (Page 3) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Contents (Page 4) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Contents (Page 5) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Contents (Page 6) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Contents (Page 7) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Editor's Note (Page 8) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Editor's Note (Page 9) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Short Takes: Circus (Page 10) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Short Takes: Circus (Page 11) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Short Takes: Circus (Page 12) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Short Takes: Circus (Page 13) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 14) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 15) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 16) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 17) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 18) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 19) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 20) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 21) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 22) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 23) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 24) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte (Page 25) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 26) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 27) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 28) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 29) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 30) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 31) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 32) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 33) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 34) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 35) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 36) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 37) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 38) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions (Page 39) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 40) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 41) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 42) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 43) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 44) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 45) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 46) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 47) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 48) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 49) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 50) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning (Page 51) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 52) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 53) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 54) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 55) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 56) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 57) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 58) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic (Page 59) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 60) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 61) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 62) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 63) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 64) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 65) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 66) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World (Page 67) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta (Page 68) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta (Page 69) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta (Page 70) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta (Page 71) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 72) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 73) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 74) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 75) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 76) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 77) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 78) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 79) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 80) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services (Page 81) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - International Marketplace (Page 82) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Classified Ads (Page 83) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Ad Index (Page 84) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Ad Index (Page 85) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Clubhouse News (Page 86) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Clubhouse News (Page 87) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky (Page 88) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky (Page Cover3) American Cinematographer - February 2009 - ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky (Page Cover4)
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