American Cinematographer - February 2009 - (Page 44)

Dead Reckoning “If somebody touches it, it’s got to be real,” says Pope. Accordingly, this revolving door was built onstage, while the rest of the building was fabricated in post. Gaffer John Sandau established a daytime ambience for the scene with an overhead rig comprising diffused FinnLight Toplights. and then build a set around that rehearsal,” says Pope of working in the green environment. “We were free to consult and improvise.” The method was stretched to its limits in a long walk-and-talk sequence that follows The Spirit, Commissioner Dolan and Officer Morgenstern (Stana Katic) through the daytime streets of Central City. During their walk, Pope explains, “they encounter a reporter, construction workers and girls in an ice-cream parlor yelling for The Spirit’s autograph. Cabs pass by and almost run them over. And almost none of this existed [onstage] except the people.” “We put green tape down on the green floor and told the actors that’s where they could walk,” explains Sandau. “To make it look like sunlight, we put 20Ks and 10Ks on Condors, and we softened them a bit. We sometimes had two Condors and let it get a little darker between them, as though the actors were walking through the shadow of a building. We also had FinnLight Toplights to give us an overall ambience. The Toplights use six Par 64 globes, and we used medium and wide beam 1,000-watt globes. We used those instead of space lights because they’re more efficient, have a lot more punch and are built with two frame holders; you can double-diffuse them and then hang a larger frame below to make a soft, almost non-directional light.” In an effort to simplify the post pipeline and give the visualeffects team (comprising 10 vendors from multiple countries) a leg up on their work, the filmmakers decided early on to establish an alldigital workflow that began with Panavision’s Genesis high-definition-video camera. Both Pope and Maschwitz had previous experience with the camera. “If you really control the lighting, the Genesis produces amazing results that can be seamlessly dropped into the digital workflow,” notes Maschwitz. Because the Genesis has a top speed of 50 fps, another camera was needed for the high-speed sequences. “We felt the Phantom HD had the best shot at holding up next to the Genesis,” says Maschwitz. “It has the same size chip, so we could use the same lenses and get the same focal lengths.” The Phantom comes standard with a PL mount, so the production’s camera (rented from Abel Cine Tech) was fitted with a Panavision mount to accept Primo primes (provided by Panavision Woodland Hills). Despite sharing compatible 1920x1080 sensor sizes, the Genesis’ sensor comprises a 12.4-megapixel CCD array, whereas the Phantom HD incorporates a CMOS imager. Further differences abound between (continued on page 48) 44 February 2009

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

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