American Cinematographer - August 2008 - (Page 48) Strikes Back Simon Duggan, ACS films the effects-laden adventure The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. by Noah Kadner Unit photography by Jasin Boland 48 August 2008 The Emperor n the latest installment of the Mummy series, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, we find wisecracking adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife, Evelyn (Maria Bello), enjoying a life of semi-retirement while their son, Alex (Luke Ford), handles the archaeological expeditions. Naturally, the peaceful times don’t last for long. A malicious Chinese mummy known as the Emperor (played by Jet Li) emerges, and the entire O’Connell clan soon swings back into action. Like the first two Mummy films (AC Aug. ’99, June ’01), Tomb I of the Dragon Emperor features extensive visual-effects work. The film’s cinematographer, Simon Duggan, ACS, has notched numerous credits on CGI-heavy productions such as I, Robot (July ’04) and Live Free or Die Hard (AC July ’07), and he says the careful planning necessary for such endeavors “is really second nature to me. Eventually, you tend not to think about the complexity of the shots. To rehearse the CG characters, we always have proxies, like stuntmen in green suits; and as far as the actors, the director and the operator are concerned, we have a visual ref-
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