American Cinematographer - July 2014 - 47

Unit Photography by Alan Markfield, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
Additional photos courtesy of Newton Thomas Sigel. Lighting diagram courtesy of Tony Nakonechnyj.

I

n X-Men: Days of Future Past, the
mutant heroes plot to circumvent an
apocalyptic future by sending
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in
time to partner with his teammates'
younger selves and alter the course of
history. Shaking up the X-Men films via
this time-traveling tale particularly
appealed to director of photography
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC - who,
along with director Bryan Singer,
returned to the franchise for the first
time since shooting X-Men (AC July
'00) and its first sequel, X2 (AC April
'03). (Singer had maintained a producing role on subsequent films.) Beyond
the narrative, though, Sigel was also
inspired by Singer's insistence that Days
of Future Past be shot in native 3-D.
The decision to shoot in 3-D
came on the heels of the stereoscopic
work Sigel and Singer had done on
their previous collaboration, 2013's Jack
the Giant Slayer. After that experience,
Sigel says the director was confident
that native 3-D capture would offer the
best results. Singer eventually got

Opposite: Magneto
(Ian McKellen) and
Prof. Xavier (Patrick
Stewart) reunite to
save the mutant race
in X-Men: Days of
Future Past. This
page, top: Wolverine
(Hugh Jackman, left)
travels back in time
to join the younger
Magneto (Michael
Fassbender, center)
and Prof. X (James
McAvoy) in a fight to
save their future.
Bottom:
Cinematographer
Newton Thomas
Sigel, ASC.

Twentieth Century Fox to agree - with
the financially driven caveat that about
20 minutes of complex second-unit
work would be shot in 2-D and then
converted.
"I think Jack had a big influence
on Bryan's thinking," says Sigel. "We
learned a lot about lens choices, cutting,
the whole choreography for 3-D. [Days
www.theasc.com

of Future Past] was certainly a very different film and a different style, and we
pushed the 3-D a lot more; we went for
more stereo depth on this film than on
Jack, where we were a lot more conservative. But it gave us a certain comfort level
in that we knew how to do it, and so the
studio agreed to Bryan's approach."
For the production, which was
July 2014

47



http://www.theasc.com

American Cinematographer - July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2014

Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - 1
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - 2
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - 4
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - 5
American Cinematographer - July 2014 - 6
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