American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 53

Opposite: Bazil (Dany Boon, left) listens in as fellow Micmac Remington (Omar Sy) helps him set a trap for a pair of arms dealers. This page, top: Young Bazil (Noé Boon) sees his mother (Lara Guirao) receive word of his father’s death. Bottom: An arms dealer’s security guards mock Bazil when he turns up to request compensation.

take his revenge upon the heads of both companies, and, with his friends’ help, devises a series of far-fetched strategies to sabotage the weapons factories. Micmacs is a quirky mélange of slapstick, fantasy and broad comedy. As is often the case with Jeunet’s films, it presents a world filled with Rube Goldberg devices interspersed with poetic, childlike epiphanies. Upon meeting with AC in Montmartre, Jeunet acknowledges that Micmacs is a genre-mixing collage from his cinematic “idea box.” He explains, “I wanted to do a film about vengeance, a film with strange, original characters — a bit like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — and also wanted to do a story about arms dealers. I knew that it was a little risky to do a cartoon with a serious theme behind it, but I didn’t hold back. “I put everything I had in it,”

Frame grabs and unit photography (by Bruno Calvo) courtesy of Epithète Films/Tapioca Films and Sony Pictures Classics. Additional photos courtesy of the filmmakers.

continues the director. “There are many very different references that the viewer might or might not see, including the films of Sergio Leone,

“I knew it was a little risky to do a cartoon with a serious theme, but I didn’t hold back.”

Mission: Impossible, classic cartoons and the films of Buster Keaton.” The director even confesses to borrowing an idea from the Fox television series
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Prison Break, joking that “they stole two or three ideas from me, so I stole one of theirs.” Sitting down with AC in Paris, Nagata recalls that during prep, Jeunet asked him to do all he could to “to shoot very quickly.” The cinematographer fulfilled this request. “We shot for 80 days, doing 10 shots a day — but it was never 10 simple shots!” Like many of Jeunet’s films, Micmacs is dense, peppered with short shots and laced with complex camera moves. On top of its fast-paced schedule, the production encountered bad weather throughout the shoot, which called for many exterior locations. “Of course, all the storyboards called for sun, and we had mostly rotten weather,” says Nagata. In fact, exteriors, with changing weather, posed the greatest challenge to Nagata. “It was often a race against time, so I went for simplicity,” he says.
June 2010 53


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American Cinematographer - June 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2010

The International Journal of Motion Imaging - June 2010 Vol. 91 No. 6
Features
Slings and Arrows (Robin Hood)
Desert Storm (Prince of Persia)
Very French Revenge (Micmacs)
Painting Towns White (The White Stripes)
Departments
Editor’s Note
President’s Desk
Short Takes: Land and Bread
Production Slate: Winter’s Bone • Harry Brown
Post Focus: Enhancing Frozen
Tricks of the Trade: Using Red’s False Color
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads/Ad Index
ASC Membership Roster
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: John Schwartzman
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - The International Journal of Motion Imaging - June 2010 Vol. 91 No. 6
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 2
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 3
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 4
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 5
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 6
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 7
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 9
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - President’s Desk
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 11
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Short Takes: Land and Bread
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 13
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 14
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 15
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Production Slate: Winter’s Bone • Harry Brown
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 17
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 18
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 19
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 20
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 21
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 22
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 23
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 24
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 25
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 26
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 27
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 28
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 29
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Slings and Arrows (Robin Hood)
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 31
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 32
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 33
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 34
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 35
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 36
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 37
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 38
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 39
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 40
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 41
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Desert Storm (Prince of Persia)
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 43
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 44
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 45
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 46
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 47
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 48
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 49
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 50
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 51
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Very French Revenge (Micmacs)
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 53
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 54
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 55
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 56
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 57
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 58
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 59
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 60
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 61
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 62
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 63
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Painting Towns White (The White Stripes)
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 65
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 66
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 67
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 68
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 69
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 70
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 71
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Post Focus: Enhancing Frozen
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 73
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 74
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 75
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 76
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 77
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Tricks of the Trade: Using Red’s False Color
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 79
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 81
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 82
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 83
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 84
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 85
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 86
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 87
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 88
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 89
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 90
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 91
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 93
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Classified Ads/Ad Index
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 95
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - ASC Membership Roster
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 97
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - 99
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - ASC Close-Up: John Schwartzman
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - June 2010 - Cover4
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