American Cinematographer - June 2014 - 26

Top: Bernstein's Indian protégé, Amit (Pitobash, left), tries to inspire Dinesh (Madhur Mittal,
center) and Rinku at a critical moment. Bottom: With the Indians' encouragement, romance
blossoms between Bernstein and his guesthouse tenant, Brenda (Lake Bell).

able to help beam lights into the third-story
windows as planned. Pados recalls, "We
found out two days ahead of time that the
Condors probably wouldn't get there, so
we had to figure out another way to do it.
Jim Plannette suggested having warm light
coming in through the windows to suggest
sodium-vapor streetlight, and cooler tones
in the background. The room had really
deep windows on one side and a corridor
on the other. We put a couple of 10Ks on
the ground outside and gelled them with
26

June 2014

Full CTO; that gave us a strong orange light
that hit the ceiling, suggesting a streetlight
feel. In the background, we used greenishblue fluorescent practicals and augmented
with a few lights that matched them. And
out in the corridor, we rigged seven or eight
1Ks to suggest light from a corridor practical coming into the room. That gave us a
nice, moody scene. Fortunately, that was
the only big night interior we had in India."
When production moved to Atlanta,
the team continued to work almost excluAmerican Cinematographer

sively on location. Key sites included a baseball field that could double for the one at
the University of Southern California,
where Rinku and Dinesh are trained, and a
chic neighborhood that could pass for
Brentwood, where Bernstein lives.
With the changeover to the Alexa,
the production asked digital-imaging technician Paul Maletich to devise an on-set
workflow. The cameras were used both
tethered and wireless during the shoot;
when wireless, the images were monitored
with the Teradek Bolt wireless transmission
system. Footage was recorded in ArriRaw
using the Alexa XT's onboard XR Capture
Drive technology, with Maletich applying
predesigned viewing LUTs and doing basic
color correction on set according to Pados'
specs. He used a Sony BVM E250 monitor
for coloring work and live critical viewing
on set. The production's data manager, Cait
Rockwell, downloaded data immediately
after capture using the Codex Vault system,
and then sent that data, camera reports
and Militech's LUT report to Company 3's
Atlanta facility, which created dailies and
distributed them to the filmmakers via iPads
within a day or two.
The final grade was carried out at
Company 3 in Santa Monica, where the
filmmakers worked with colorist/ASC associate member Stefan Sonnenfeld. This work
was primarily about "finding the right look
for the India material," says Pados, because
it had to look like it had been shot in many
different parts of the country, not only in
Mumbai, Lucknow and Agra. "In reality,
[the Million Dollar Arm contest] literally
traveled the whole country, so we tweaked
that footage here and there to make it look
like different locations and environments,"
adds Gillespie. "With Stefan's help, we
were able to emphasize the differences a
little more."

TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm and Digital Capture
Arricam Studio, Lite; Arri 235, 435;
Arri Alexa XT, Studio XT
Cooke S4, Angenieux Optimo
Kodak Vision3 50D 5203, 250D 5207,
500T 5219
Digital Intermediate
➣

American Cinematographer - June 2014

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