American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 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

American Cinematographer - February 2009

Table of Contents 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 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 5
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 6
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 7
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Editor's Note
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 9
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Short Takes: Circus
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 11
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 12
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 13
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Production Slate: The International Reverte
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 15
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 16
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 17
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 18
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 19
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 20
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 21
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 22
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 23
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 24
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 25
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 27
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 28
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 29
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 30
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 31
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 32
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 33
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 34
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 35
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 36
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 37
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 38
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 39
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Dead Reckoning
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 41
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 42
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 43
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 44
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 45
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 46
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 47
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 48
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 49
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 50
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 51
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Embracing Anamorphic
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 53
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 54
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 55
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 56
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 57
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 58
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 59
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Citizen of the World
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 61
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 62
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 63
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 64
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 65
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 66
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 67
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Post Focus: Restoring Manhatta
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 69
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 70
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 71
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 73
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 74
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 75
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 76
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 77
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 78
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 79
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 80
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 81
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 85
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - 87
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - ASC Close-Up: Peter Suschitzky
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - February 2009 - Cover4
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