American Cinematographer - May 2017 - 29A

Last Action Hero
By Phil Rhodes

At nearly 200 years old, Logan (Hugh
Jackman) isn't as agile as he used to be. The
adamantium-clawed warrior once known as
Wolverine walks with a limp, has a chronic
cough, and can only tear into a bloodthirsty
rage when absolutely necessary. And under
Logan's guardianship at their bedraggled
desert hideout is powerful telepath Professor
Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), former
leader of the long-defunct X-Men, who in
2029 is now in his 90s and afflicted with
seizures capable of temporarily paralyzing
everyone around him. With the bulk of the
world's mutant population having been
rounded up and dispensed with years ago,
and the birthrate of new ones down to zero,
Logan and Professor X are trapped without
recourse, clinging to a dream of someday
buying a "Sunseeker" and heading out to
sea.
Enter a young girl named Laura
(Dafne Keen) with powers remarkably similar
to Logan's, who is being pursued by a cadre
of unsavory operatives. And so the timeworn
heroes head once more into the breach,
embarking on a perilous road trip to save the
next generation.
Logan, directed by James Mangold
Digital Exclusive

May 2017

and shot by John Mathieson, BSC, is a raw,
brooding meditation on mortality that pits
fear against hope as it looks to the future -
with a photographic style to match.
Mathieson, for his part, was initially cautious
about becoming involved. "[Executive
producer] Joe Caracciolo asked me a couple
of times to do it," he says. "I said no. I was
hoping to do a film in the desert, a really lowbudget film." But when the other job fell
through, "Joe said, 'Come and meet Jim
[Mangold].' And I said, 'Okay - fine,
great.'"
Less than a week and a half after
returning to his home in London, Mathieson
"got a visa sorted out and started prep," he
relates. "That was March 10 [2016, when
photography began]. It's been quite a fast
film. That's the way films should be.
"It wasn't a big film to prep," he
continues. "It was a case of getting 'round
the locations. We took private planes and
flew around - New Mexico, Mississippi."
Main-unit photography consisted of a 73day shoot and was based predominantly in
New Orleans, La. The largely exterior nature
of the film simplified things, as Mathieson
explains. "When you're prepping something
like that, it's usually the lighting that's the big
issue," he says. "I never really light exteriors;
I never got the hang of that. I wasn't too
American Cinematographer

worried about dragging 12 18Ks up a
mountain. You can do far more with silks
and 12-by-12 blackouts."
The photography is designed to
emphasize the rawness and heat of the
desert locations. "We wanted to make
Logan look rough," Mathieson notes. "A
diamond, but rough. Deserts are hot and
horrible - none of the sweeping soft dunes,
Lawrence of Arabia stuff." References, he
says, included "road movies. Two-Lane
Blacktop [1971], Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
I was going to make a great American road
movie, [with the characters] starting in
Mexico, moving up through New Mexico,
Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and escaping
into Canada."
Equipment included three Arri Alexa
XTs and one Alexa Mini, which were mainly
paired with Panavision's E Series anamorphic
lenses. In certain instances, such as when
visual effects required it, spherical Zeiss
primes were used, and the cameras were set
to Open Gate mode to maximize resolution
when cropping to match the final 2.39:1
aspect ratio. The production also carried two
anamorphic zooms: a Panavision AWZ2.5
37-85mm (T2.8) and a Cooke MK2 Super
Zoom 50-500mm (T5.6). Spherical zooms
included a Technovision Cooke Varotal and
an Optica Elite 120-520mm (T2.8).

Photos by Ben Rothstein and James Mangold, courtesy of Marvel and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

The nearly 200year-old
eponymous hero
(played by Hugh
Jackman) of the
feature Logan
summons his
strength and lets
out his claws to
defend a new
generation of
mutants.

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