American Cinematographer - September 2007 - (Page 67)

Westerns; cheesy, metaphysical kung-fu flicks of the 1970s; and scifi influences like Buck Rogers, Planet of the Apes and Star Wars. In short, the video is basically a trailer for the kind of schlocky Seventies lowbudget movie ostensibly shot in a Soviet-bloc country and funded by shady, arms-dealing producers with misguided ambitions to be movie moguls. When Joseph and I began discussing how the visual design could support that idea, I was quick to pull out my DVD of Once Upon a Time in the West, mindful of its bold, widescreen compositions and hard, three-point lighting style. Kahn emphatically agreed, and that film became the launching point for our look. Once in Romania, we scouted our backlot, as well as an odd geoPhotos and frame grabs courtesy of HSI London. logical mud-volcano formation a few hours south of Bucharest that provided a few hundred yards of cracked clay and mud — an ideal desert location. The local crews were experienced not only because of the influx of U.S. features shooting there to save a buck or two, but also because of Romania’s lucrative commercials market. However, the production imported an excellent English gaffer, Mark Taylor, and production designer, Morgan Kennedy. Our 21⁄2-day schedule began with a half-day load-in and skeleton-crew shoot, which we used to get a running start on our extensive ambitions. This half-day’s work comprised the video’s opening montage/dressing sequence inside the hero’s log cabin. With our hard three-point lighting philosophy firmly in hand, we established a game plan: we would use large HMI units blasting unsoftened light at the characters for exteriors, and more old-school key/fill/kicker lighting for interiors. The cabin set had two small, boarded-up windows that provided source-lighting motivation, and we placed a 6K HMI outside each, sending shafts of slightly cooler daylight through the smoked interior. Inside, several 2K and 5K tungsten Fresnels were used to create warm, hard sidelight on the set, where Russell Bain, the actor portraying our nameless “hero,” performed some corny kung-fu-style moves for the opening-credit montage. On the first day of the main shoot, the company moved to the Director Joseph Kahn’s treatment for Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia” video called for Barbarella-style warrior women, a Spaghetti Western look and feel, and references to classic kung fu and sci-fi films of the 1970s. Below: The production prepares to film in the Western town backlot constructed outside Bucharest, Romania, using set pieces originally built for Cold Mountain. American Cinematographer 67

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2007

Contents Editor’s Note Global Village DVD Playback Production Slate Bourne Again Cultural Immersion Baroque Visions Once Upon a Time in Bucharest Short Takes Post Focus Filmmakers’ Forum New Products & Services Points East International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News Wrap Shot

American Cinematographer - September 2007

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