American Cinematographer - August 2014 - 43

Unit photography by Keith Bernstein. Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and RatPac Entertainment. Lighting diagram courtesy of Ross Dunkerley.

Jersey Boys charts the trials and tribulations of singing sensations The Four
Seasons, from their early days in 1950s
New Jersey to their 1990 induction in
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
However, instead of replicating a stage
play with spontaneous eruptions of
song and dance, the film weaves the
title characters' musical performances
- which were performed live during
principal photography - into an otherwise dramatic biography that follows
the Broadway show's narrative more
than its form.
According to his collaborators,
Eastwood's transition to an all-digital
workflow - at the age of 84, on his
33rd directorial outing in 43 years -
was seamless. The switch from film to
digital was prompted by the increasing
scarcity of film labs and the discontinuation of the director's preferred Fuji film
stocks. During prep on Jersey Boys,
Eastwood asked Stern which digital
system would allow them to continue
working with their particular methodology while capturing filmic imagery
with rich, deep blacks. Having tested
digital cameras at Eastwood's behest for
years, and having used digital systems
with other directors in Europe, Stern
was well prepared for the question; he
proposed shooting Jersey Boys with an
Arri Alexa XT camera, using the 4:3
sensor to shoot in the anamorphic
2.40:1 aspect ratio while recording in
ArriRaw to onboard 512GB Codex XR
modules.
Speaking with AC during
production of American Sniper,
Eastwood's next film and second to be
shot digitally, Stern says he opted for
the Alexa after determining that the
technology was "sufficiently robust for
the demanding environment we work
in. We shoot fast, and if the tools aren't
robust, we won't make our schedule. It
was pretty straightforward; our goal was
to go down the list of everything that
could screw us up, and make sure it
didn't. After all, no one wants to walk
up to the Man with No Name and
explain things like latency, bandwidth
and gigaflops! He knows a lot more

Opposite (from left):
Frankie Valli (John
Lloyd Young), Bob
Gaudio (Erich Bergen),
Tommy DeVito
(Vincent Piazza) and
Nick Massi (Michael
Lomenda) put on a
show in Jersey Boys.
This page, top:
Director Clint
Eastwood works out
the scene with Bergen
and Young. Bottom:
Eastwood and
cinematographer Tom
Stern, ASC, AFC
discuss a setup.

about it than you might think, but he
doesn't want to have to think about
those things."
In particular, the cinematographer says he responded to "the evolution
of the Alexa software, the integration of
the Codex [recorder in the camera
body], plus being able to shoot anamorphic on the full [4:3] sensor. The
dynamic range of the Alexa is also very
filmic - although I know that is a
hackneyed word these days - and basically responds as a film emulsion would.
Taken together, these things satisfied
me that it was a sleek camera that was
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going to drive nails. For this project, it
was the most robust, straightforward,
simplest choice, and for the most part, it
allowed us to work in our normal way
- except instead of flipping mags every
eight minutes, we'd flip mags every 26
minutes, which for Clint is like
Christmas seven days a week!"
The digital infrastructure
required on set was structured to be as
subtle as possible. Throughout production, digital-imaging technician Glenn
Derry was stationed at a small, unassuming cart, where he used a calibrated
HP DreamColor LP2480zx monitor to
August 2014

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American Cinematographer - August 2014

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