American Cinematographer - April 2008 - (Page 90)

Filmmakers’ Forum Shooting a Big “Little Movie” by Steven Fierberg, ASC Right: Mel (Del Zamora), Delilah (Jaclyn Jonet) and Fred (Ed Pansullo) prepare to toast marshmallows in Searchers 2.0, a wry homage to John Ford’s classic Western. Cinematographer Steven Fierberg, ASC notes, “The campfire scene was lit with three Tweenies on a flicker box, with a blackjack to light the background. Every extension cord we had ran power from our ‘almost nearby’ hotel rooms.” Below: Fierberg jokes, “Years of yoga enabled me to hoist the Mitchell R35 and Worrall head with only one hand.” 90 April 2008 Photos by Dale Alexander and Alex Cox, courtesy of New Concorde Home Entertainment. t was a strange fall. Four different movies fell through. One shut down two days before we started shooting. I had acclimated myself to the idea of spending December on some kind of long spiritual journey, or at least a European vacation, when I got a call from an old friend, Alex Cox, asking if I wanted to shoot a little project in 15 days. It was Searchers 2.0, a modern road movie referencing the John Ford I masterpiece and a host of other mythic American movies; the story follows two unemployed actors (played by Ed Pansullo and Del Zamora) and a disillusioned daughter (Jacklyn Jonet) on a quest for revenge. Along the way, from the coarse spiritual wasteland of Los Angeles to the sacred Navajo homeland of Monument Valley, they contemplate landscapes that suggest possible right ways to live and manage to avoid learn- ing from any of them. It’s a funny and poignant homage to American mythmaking that subliminally critiques our contemporary role in the world. Alex directed Repo Man, Sid and Nancy and Walker, and his producer, Jon Davison, produced such films as Airplane, Robocop and Starship Troopers. Our production would be very different: we would be shooting on HDV under the Screen Actors Guild’s ultralow-budget independent contract, which meant the total cost was under $200,000. We had the smallest crew — one director of photography, one gaffer, one key grip, one sound person and no camera assistant — but it was filled with the best. Luckily, my friendships allowed me to bring on two crewmembers who were supremely overqualified, gaffer Steve Mathis (Moulin Rouge) and key grip Dale Alexander (Entourage). Darin Hicks and Simon Tams, the unit production managers, were used to movies on the scale of Transformers. Our production designer was Cecilia Montiel, who has worked regularly with Robert Rodriguez, and our exceptional soundperson, Alexandra Gallo, helped carry lighting and camera gear. Unlike the big films we’d all been a part of, on Searchers 2.0, everyone wrapped, even the director. Alex spent many weeks roaming the areas we were to shoot in and found most of the locations himself. Then, he, Jon and I went on a one-week scout, tracing the route our characters would be taking. We used the same vehicle we would later use as the picture car in order to shoot drive-bys when they presented themselves. Although Alex had many spots in mind, whenever I spotted something interesting, we’d

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2008

American Cinematographer - April 2008 Contents Editor's Note Global Village: The Counterfeiters Short Takes: Milia Production Slate: Paranoid Park Production Slate: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane Card Sharks Temple of Doom 3-D Cinematography Sundance 2008: Mining for Movies Post Focus: Digital Film Tree Gets into Peyote Post Focus: FotoKem’s 3-D Workflow Post Focus: Technicolor Digs in at Pinewood Filmmakers’ Forum: Steven Fierberg, ASC on Searchers 2.0 New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Rodney Taylor

American Cinematographer - April 2008

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