American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 103

Frame grabs courtesy of Game Changers Film LLC. Additional photos courtesy of John Hunter Nolan and John Behrens.

The documentary had its world
premiere earlier this year at the
Sundance Film Festival, and has since
screened at the Berlin International
Film Festival and the Hot Docs
Canadian International Documentary
Festival. AC caught up with the movie's
cinematographers via conference call,
with Behrens dialing in from his home
in Oakland, Calif., and Nolan connecting from Brooklyn, N.Y.
American Cinematographer:
How did each of you come to be
involved in this project?
John Behrens: I worked with
Louie Psihoyos for around two years on
Racing Extinction, and as we were
finishing, he said, 'I want to bring you
on for the next film. This one's really
going to change people's minds. And
we've got James Cameron on as the
executive producer.'
I remember Louie had just had a
meeting with James Cameron; basically,
they said, 'The sky's the limit. We want
it to be visually indulgent. We want to
show how sexy and awesome these
athletes are. It's not just a vérité documentary; we want to take the gloves off
and use every cinematic tool that we can
bring to the table to make this look
amazing.' I was really excited to hear
that. My goal has been to bring
commercial and cinematic tools and
techniques to give documentaries a rich
look. We have so much gorgeous narrative content to compete with; it's not
enough to have a great story told
entirely with a single handheld camera
anymore.
John Hunter Nolan: As John
said, we wanted to make this dynamic,
we wanted to make this engaging - we
wanted to shoot an action movie in a
way. The first assignment that Louie
sent me on was to go chase Scott Jurek
on the Appalachian Trail. It started out
as a three-day shoot; we were going to
film the beginning, the end and maybe
something in between. So we had
Louie and a small crew down there, and
after we shot those initial couple days,
Louie said, 'Hey, Hunt, can you stay out

Opposite: The
documentary The
Game Changers
illuminates the
benefits of a plantbased diet by focusing
on vegan athletes,
including ultrarunner
Scott Jurek, who set a
new speed record for
the 2,200-mile
Appalachian Trail. This
page, top: Strongman
Patrik Baboumian
performs a yoke-walk,
taking crewmembers
- including director
Louie Psihoyos
(second from left) and
producer-narrator
James Wilks (right) -
along for the ride.
Above:
Cinematographer
John Behrens. Left:
Cinematographer
John Hunter Nolan.

www.ascmag.com

June 2018

103



http://www.ascmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2018

Contents
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - Intro
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 1
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 2
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - Contents
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 4
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 5
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 6
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 7
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 8
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 9
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 10
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 11
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 12
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 13
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 14
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 15
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 16
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 17
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 18
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 19
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 20
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 21
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 22
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 23
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 24
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 25
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 26
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 27
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 28
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 29
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 30
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 31
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 32
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 33
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 34
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 35
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 36
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 37
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 38
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 39
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 40
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 41
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 42
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 43
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 44
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 45
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 47
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 48
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 49
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 50
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 51
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 53
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 54
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 55
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 56
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 57
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 58
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 59
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 60
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 61
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 62
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 63
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 64
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 65
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 66
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 67
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 70
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 71
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 73
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 81
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 83
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 84
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 85
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 86
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 88
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 98
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 99
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 100
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 101
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 102
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 103
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 104
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 105
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 106
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 107
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 108
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 110
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 111
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 112
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 113
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 114
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 115
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 116
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 118
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 119
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 120
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 132
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 133
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American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 135
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - 136
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - June 2018 - Cover4
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