American Cinematographer - August 2011 - 50

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An All-American Hero
way to manage the technical side of the job, and you can then be free to focus on the creative side of things.” Johnson and Johnston’s collaborations have been diverse — Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo (AC April ’04) and The Wolfman (AC Feb. ’10) are among them — but the director maintains that his visual style has a certain consistency. “I love letting the camera help tell the story, but I hate fatuous camera moves,” he says. “In terms of my visual approach, most critics would probably consider me a traditionalist, or even, God forbid, oldfashioned. The camera is more mobile in Captain America than in any film I’ve made, and the shots are designed to continuously reveal new information, to shift focus from one character to another, to change dramatic emphasis.” Johnson maintained maximum flexibility by keeping the A camera on a 30' Technocrane (operated by Gary and Paul Hymns) as often as possible, but “we used it more as a moving platform or a dolly, not as a crane,” he notes. “Joe would watch a scene play out and ask for changes while we were rolling, and we could make adjustments on the fly, sometimes without even cutting.” Shooting digitally was another stage in Johnston’s metamorphosis. The director became fascinated with digital cinema after seeing George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, but Captain America marked his first opportunity to explore it. “When Joe started talking to me about Captain America , [the format] wasn’t even a question,” says Johnson. “He asked me to shoot it, and I don’t think he even took a breath before adding, ‘And we’re shooting digital.’” “I find the flexibility of digital technology really liberating,” says the director. “The time the camera is rolling is less precious, so I don’t have to cut in order to discuss changes with the actors. But the real advantage is in post, where I can recompose or enlarge shots without degrading the image. Sometimes we’ll reframe a shot to look like it’s from another camera. We can even make close-ups out of two-shots or threeshots if we have to.”

Top: Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) prepares to administer the experimental treatment to Rogers. Bottom: Director of photography Shelly Johnson, ASC adjusts a source for the scene.

All told, Captain America was filmed on more than 115 sets and locations. Principal photography took place in the United Kingdom, with various locations standing in for sites in the United States, Iceland and Europe. Stage work was shot at Shepperton Studios. The schedule was so packed that as many as seven sets were up and running at any time, according to Johnson. “This shoot was like a giant freight train: when it leaves the station, there’s a lot of momentum behind it!” he says. Seven months before the shoot commenced, Johnston and production designer Rick Heinrichs began sketching out every scene in great detail. “Preparation is the one ingredient you can’t have too much of,” says the direc50 August 2011

tor. “I think of prep as having two phases. In the first, anything is possible. In the second, which I call ‘the wake-up call,’ you have to compromise, to reinterpret your ideal version of the film as something you can actually put on the screen.” While the director concentrated on building his world, Johnson concentrated on giving it light. The cinematographer starts every production by making a reference book containing camera lists, lighting lists, orders, inventories, diagrams, photos and production art. The book is a constant presence on set, and it’s an evolving record, with Johnson updating it almost daily. “On these types of films, a large part of the cinematographer’s job is being organized,” he notes. “It’s the best
American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - August 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2011