American Cinematographer - August 2013 - 62

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Rapturous Action

Wolverine becomes the unsuspecting victim of Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), a mutant who
works for Yashida and means to both harness Wolverine’s powers and kill him.

parking lot at Homebush in Western
Sydney, and these scenes were captured
during the short nights of the Southern
Hemisphere’s summer.
The filmmakers eschewed frantic, erratic camerawork, concentrating
instead on showing stunts, martial-arts
action and weapons play in the best
light. “The poise and movement of the
62

August 2013

fighting and swordplay throughout The
Wolverine is quite beautiful,” says
Mangold. “So many of the classic
martial-arts sword pictures are more
than 25 years old, which means they
were made before people became
obsessed with hyperactive camerawork
and editing. In many films today, physical action is rendered so piecemeal that
American Cinematographer

it almost becomes a cacophony of
images that prevent us from seeing the
beauty of this kind of fighting.”
While conducting research for
the design of the Ice Village, Audouy
was surprised to learn of the existence of
several well-preserved Edo-period
villages deep in the mountains of
Nagano Prefecture on Honshu Island.
He recalls, “When I visited the village of
Narai-Juku, I was delighted to be loaned
a one-of-a-kind architectural survey by
the mayor of that village, and that
became our rulebook for the Ice Village
set.”
To create moonlight ambience, a
40'x80' truss supporting 96 Kino Flo
Image 80s in “night mode” (5,600°K
tubes, some clean and some wrapped
with ½ CTB) was suspended 100' above
the set by a crane. The moon ambience
usually sat around a T2, 2 stops under
Emery’s shooting stop. Given the
exposed location, the rig was designed
to be able to handle inclement weather,
with gaps between the Kino heads
allowing rain and wind to pass through.
To define the shape of the set and act as
a general backlight, eight 18Ks covered
with a combination of Brushed Silk and
½ CTB were placed on two 120' crane
rigs, one at each end of the street.
The large set presented Emery
with an inherently strong contrast. “The
buildings were quite dark, but the roofs
were white with fake snow, and the
ninjas running across the roofs were
black set against the black night sky,” he
says. However, the special-effects team’s
constant spraying of snow mist provided
an opportunity to hide six 80' Condors,
each supporting a mix of Par cans,
slightly below roof level to rimlight the
ninjas. “The Par cans were gelled ½
Blue to save burnouts and keep a
slightly warmer edge, as if the light was
coming from streetlights or other practicals,” adds Johnstone.
The village was punctuated with
color by practical streetlights using
multiple DWE 650-watt bulbs
designed by rigging gaffer Mark
Jefferies. Audouy added some lit street
signs and also dressed in Chouchin
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