American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 60
◗
Magic Acts
down and dirty. I wanted a cinematographer who could accomplish all that,
and still shoot [the complicated magic
tricks, stunts] and effects that we had to
do. I had never worked with Peter
Deming, but was a fan of his work. We
met several times and realized we had
the same vision for how to do this."
That shared vision, both men
agreed, largely revolved around "using
camera movement as part of storytelling," as Chu puts it. "That was
important, since the whole theme of
this movie is perspective - seeing how
tricks are executed from different points
of view."
As Deming elaborates, that
meant laboring to make the magicrelated scenes in the movie "as true to
real magicians as possible. Doing things
in one take, using as little visual effects
as necessary for the tricks, having card
tricks presented like you would see
them in a live show, and so on. We liked
a lot of the kinetic things about [the
camera movement] from the first
movie, but some of it was a bit too much
for us, and we wanted to tone some of
that down. We tried to adhere to the
principle [of authenticity] and make
things a bit more realistic.
"For us," Deming continues,
"camera movement was about adding to
the style of the experience, rather than
distracting from it. When it reinforced
the action or the magic or the drama -
and did not make the audience think
about the camera itself, or take you out
of the flow of the film - that was when
we knew we were on the right track
with it." As the camera was moving for
the majority of the show, the filmmakers relied heavily on Steadicam, various
cranes - the 30' and 50' Technocrane,
in particular - and dollies in various
permutations.
The production was shot primarily on stages and locations in London,
before finishing up with two weeks in
Macau, China, where crucial segments
of the story take place. The filmmakers
primarily utilized the Arri Alexa XT
Plus camera system - usually running
two cameras but occasionally three -
Top and middle: The
Horsemen re-emerge
for a comeback
show at the Octa
performance venue.
Bottom: The crew
prepares to roll
camera.
60
July 2016
American Cinematographer
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2016
Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - Intro
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 3
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 4
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 6
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 7
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 8
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 9
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 10
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 11
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 12
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 13
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 14
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 15
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 16
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 17
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 18
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 19
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 20
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 21
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 22
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 23
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 24
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 25
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 26
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 27
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American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 33
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 34
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 35
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 36
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 37
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 38
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 39
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 40
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 41
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 42
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 43
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American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 45
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American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 47
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 48
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 49
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 50
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American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 60
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 61
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American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 88
American Cinematographer - July 2016 - Cover3
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