American Cinematographer - August 2010 - 20

in the opposite direction, upping the ante by capturing images with unparalleled resolution and clarity,” said Pfister (AC July ’08). The entire crew was new to large-format filmmaking, but, as Pfister noted, “You face new technical and creative challenges on every film, and eventually you find a way to overcome them. We were so determined to make this a success that we had to keep reminding ourselves no one had done this before on this scale.” He earned ASC and Oscar nominations for his efforts. Anamorphic 35mm and 15-perf 65mm.
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8) Road to Perdition (2002): Conrad L. Hall, ASC. “Soft noir” was how Hall described the look he was after on this Depression-era drama, his second collaboration with director Sam Mendes. The film follows a hit man (Tom Hanks) who takes to the road with his young son (Tyler Hoechlin) in an attempt to protect the boy from criminal elements, including his own boss (Paul Newman). “I felt a less colorful palette was best suited to the story,” Hall told AC (Aug. ’02). “It’s a stark story set in the Depression, and it has a serious message.” He underexAmerican Cinematographer

The anamorphic 35mm/15-perf 65mm hybrid The Dark Knight (top), shot by Wally Pfister, ASC, landed in seventh place, while the Depression-era drama Road to Perdition, shot by Conrad L. Hall, ASC, placed eighth.

posed the negative and shot at the bottom of the aperture, and the team undertook a particularly grueling winter shoot in Illinois that also contributed much to the “cold period look.” This proved to be Hall’s last film; he died in 2003. He was posthumously honored with ASC and Academy awards for the picture. Super 35mm. 9) City of God (2002): César Charlone, ABC. Offering a look at life in Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious slum in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Fernando Meirelles’ drama presented Charlone with a new challenge: “I’ve shot eight other features, and this is the first one in which the main concern was being real, being believable,” he told AC (Feb. ’03). To tell the story of an aspiring photographer (Alexandre Rodrigues) who watches his friends’ lives go in troubling directions, the filmmakers shot on location in two favelas that were deemed safer than the titular one, working with a cast of non-professionals who actually lived in the slums. Charlone kept his lighting to a minimum, in part to facilitate the cast’s improvisation. “Our entire approach was dictated by whom we were dealing with — most of these kids had never even seen a camera before,” he noted. He earned an Oscar nomination for his efforts. Super 35mm and Super 16mm. 10) American Beauty (1999): Conrad L. Hall, ASC. An affluent but miserable suburban family (Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch) is the focus of Hall’s first collaboration with Sam Mendes, and the cinematographer, who was always most

American Cinematographer - August 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2010