American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 36

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Funk Soul Brother

The crew prepares to shoot a "last man standing" boxing match at the North Augusta Country Club.

production design with visual effects
completed the illusion. Ricker dressed
the stores, the door to the theater and
the sidewalk in front of it, parked a few
cars in the street, and built the Apollo
marquee, complete with neon and
incandescent globes. Visual-effects
supervisor Aaron Weintraub and his
team at Mr. X, a visual-effects studio in
Toronto, then extended the practical set
above the first floor and created a long
stretch of New York's 125th Street. (At
press time, Technicolor had reached an
agreement to acquire Mr. X.) "We
extended the street off into the background and around the corner in the
foreground," recalls Weintraub. "We
created the entire street across the road
from the theater, adding 3-D moving
cars and digital extras to bring the street
to life. The actual street in Jackson was
in such a state of disrepair that we had to
digitally replace the pavement." Falling
snow was also added to complete the
seasonal ambience.
Goldblatt notes that associate
producer and unit production manager
Robin Fisichella was a great ally in
trying to secure gear. Due to the tight
budget, the camera department initially
had to do without some of its desired
equipment, including a stabilized head
36

August 2014

for use with the Technocrane. Its
absence became especially apparent
while shooting a scene of Brown, as a
child, soliciting customers for a whorehouse. He stands at a bus stop in the
pouring rain, approaching soldiers who
are home on leave.
Ricker and his team had created
two city blocks complete with dirt roads
and horse-drawn carts. The Alexa was
on a 30' Technocrane, protected by
heavy concertina rain covers, "which
added a lot of weight to the crane,"
Arnot reports. "That, combined with
the fact we didn't have a stabilized head,
led to a lot of unwanted camera vibration, which then had to be dealt with in
post." Witnessing the problem,
Fisichella was able to get a Scorpio
stabilized head for the second half of the
shoot.
The most shocking scene in the
movie reveals the casual racism that
marked Southern society for so much of
its history. An 8-year-old Brown, along
with some 15 other black youngsters, is
forced to engage in a boxing match
known as "last man standing." The
boxing ring, with strings of bare bulbs
crisscrossed above it, sits on the lawn of
a Southern plantation. A Dixieland
band is positioned between the mansion
American Cinematographer

and the ring. The blindfolded boys have
one arm tied behind their backs and
numbers painted on their stomachs. As
wealthy white observers in fancy dress
stand on the upper balcony and lower
porch of the house, drinking cocktails
and laying bets, the boys swing blindly
at one another until only one remains
upright.
The night exterior was captured
from a number of vantage points,
including a Technocrane looking
straight down into the ring. Above the
crane, a Condor supported an 8'x8' light
box containing eight Mole-Richardson
1K nook lights, double-diffused
through Light Grid Cloth. Dimmed
way down, the soft box gave the impression that the ring was lit by the practical
string lights.
As the boys began throwing
punches, Arnot cradled one of the
C500s in his hands to get shots from
inside the ring, where a stunt coordinator carefully choreographed the fighting. "The C500s are compact and can
really handle night exteriors," Arnot
enthuses. For other shots, key grip Jim
Shelton and his crew built a 270-degree
circular track around the ring so Arnot
and B-camera operator Michael
Applebaum could shoot the action with



American Cinematographer - August 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2014

Contents
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 1
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 2
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - Contents
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 4
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 5
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 6
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 7
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 8
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 9
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 10
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 11
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 12
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 13
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 14
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 15
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 16
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 17
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 18
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 19
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 20
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 21
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 22
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 23
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 24
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 25
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 26
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 27
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 28
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 29
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 30
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American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 33
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 34
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 35
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 36
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 37
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 38
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 39
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 40
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 41
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 42
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 43
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 44
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 45
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 46
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 47
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 48
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 49
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 50
American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 51
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American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 53
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