American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K4

Stephen Windon, ACS is
best known for some of the
most widely seen images
depicting World War II in
HBO’s The Pacific. Windon
shared credit with Remi
Adefarasin, BSC on the
miniseries, and his work
on the episode “Okinawa”
earned an ASC Outstanding
Achievement Award, as well
as an EMMY® nomination. His
credits include two films in the
Fast and Furious franchise, as
well as Deep Blue Sea and The
Patriot, among others.
In shooting The Pacific,
Windon was focused on
honesty and believability,
down to the beads of sweat
on a malaria-stricken soldier’s
face. This time around,
Windon is back in war mode,
and while G.I. Joe: Retaliation
leaves a bit more room for
dramatization and even
playfulness, the early talks
with director Jon M. Chu and
producers Herb Gains and
Lorenzo di Bonaventura were
centered around creating a
realistic look on which to base
the action and adventure.
“Jon wanted to make
everything feel as real as
possible,” says Windon. “Even
though there are extensive
visual effects in the film, he
wanted the characters to
seem like people you might
come across in real life. He
wanted a very organic style
with nothing forced or too

clean and polished. We
talked about making it fun,
without distracting from our
characters.”
G.I. Joe: Retaliation was Chu’s
first foray into the action genre,
after successes like The League
of Extraordinary Dancers and
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.
HBO initially suggested that
film was the right origination
medium for G.I. Joe: Retaliation,
but left the decision up the
filmmakers. Windon and Chu
were all for it.
“Film just seemed right,”
Windon explains. “Jon was
very pro-film. For the time,
the look we wanted, and
the texture, it was the right
decision.”
Windon shot in the Super
35 format to achieve a wide
2.40:1 aspect ratio. For most
shots, he used PANAVISION
cameras and PRIMO lenses,
although for overcranked,
slow-motion shots he used
an ARRI 435. He also made
extensive use of the small
ARRI 235 camera.
“I like to use the 235 at
hip level, and it’s just great
at that,” he says. “I used that
technique quite a bit on The
Pacific, with a little monitor
onboard and no eyepiece. It’s
literally ‘shoot from the hip.’”
That was in keeping
with the shooting style
that evolved, which prized
continuous movement. “We

just kept driving into things
and getting whisked along,”
Windon describes. “The
film takes place in different
countries with different
governments, events and
strategies. That was the fun
thing for me — there were so
many distinctive looks in the
film. It’s quite a journey.”
Almost the entire movie,
aside from some mountain
shots photographed in British
Columbia, was done in
Louisiana. Windon estimates
that 85 percent of the film was
produced on sets, many of
which were built at a hulking
former NASA facility east
of New Orleans called the
Michoud Assembly Facility.
“I’ve never seen buildings
as big as these,” remarks
Windon. “We were filming
in these massive chambers,
if you like, and they became
our sound stages. One of
them looked so good that
we ended up using it as a set

itself, a place where huge
missiles are being made. It
was fun to light.”
These big spaces required
plenty of lighting firepower.
The production used an
abundance of 20Ks and large
Fresnel units. Dinos and
Maxis were used to create
strong beams of light coming
in windows.
Another sequence done
at Michoud depicts a Tokyo
rooftop. Windon shot with a
360-degree TransLite. The
nearby Greenwood Plantation
stood in for the U.S.
President’s vacation home.
Fort Pike was the location for
a climactic confrontation in
Act III. A corner of City Park
in New Orleans was used
as a nighttime entryway
into an underground lab.
There, Windon played with a
mixture of sodium vapor and
tungsten light.
He says that the KODAK
Film stocks — mostly KODAK



American Cinematographer - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2013

American Cinematographer - April 2013
Table of Contents
Editor's Note
President's Desk
Short Takes: 7x6x2
Production Slate: War Witch • The Darkest Day
Hello, Yellow Brick Road
Hell on Wheels
All In
6 Sundance Standouts
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Christopher Baffa
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - American Cinematographer - April 2013
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Table of Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 4
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 5
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 6
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 7
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 8
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 9
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Editor's Note
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 11
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - President's Desk
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 13
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Short Takes: 7x6x2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 15
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 16
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 17
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 18
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 19
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Production Slate: War Witch • The Darkest Day
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 21
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 22
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 23
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 24
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 25
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 26
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 27
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 28
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 29
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 30
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 31
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 32
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 33
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 34
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 35
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Hello, Yellow Brick Road
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 37
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 38
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 39
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 40
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 41
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 42
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 43
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 44
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 45
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 46
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 47
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 48
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 49
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 50
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 51
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Hell on Wheels
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 53
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 54
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 55
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 56
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 57
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 58
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 59
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 60
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 61
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 62
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 63
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - All In
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 65
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 66
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 67
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 68
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 69
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 70
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 71
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 72
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 73
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 74
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 75
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 76
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 77
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 78
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 79
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 6 Sundance Standouts
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K1
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K3
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K4
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K5
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K6
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K7
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K8
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K9
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K10
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K11
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K12
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 81
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 82
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 83
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 84
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 85
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 86
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 87
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 88
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 89
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 90
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 91
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 92
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 93
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 94
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 95
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 96
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 97
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 98
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 99
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 100
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 101
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 102
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 103
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 105
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 106
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 107
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 108
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 109
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 110
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 111
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 112
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 113
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 117
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 119
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - ASC Close-Up: Christopher Baffa
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Cover4
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