American Cinematographer - September 2007 - (Page 8)

Dale Brooks, ABC-TV / Walt Disney Co Editor’s Note ames Bond is newly resurgent after last year’s worldwide hit Casino Royale, but Jason Bourne strikes back with The Bourne Ultimatum, a non-stop thrill ride that ups the ante in the international superspies’ box-office showdown. Cinematographer Oliver Wood, who has shot all three Bourne films, notes that he and director Paul Greengrass sought to maintain the series’ tradition of “unscripted, spontaneous” camerawork, capturing the action in an almost documentary style that would give Greengrass and the editors endless options in the cutting room. The production’s global reach — scenes were shot in the U.S., England, Germany, France, Morocco and Latvia — required Wood to coordinate closely with his second-unit collaborators, chiefly director/stunt coordinator Dan Bradley and cinematographers Mark Moriarty and Igor Meglic. He also gave considerable creative freedom to his A- and B-camera operators, Klemens Becker and Florian Emmerich, who often found themselves capturing handheld images on the fly. As Wood notes in his interview with Jon Silberg (“Bourne Again,” page 32), this strategy creates the illusion that the filmmakers were “lucky the cameras happened to be rolling at the right moment.” Although the independent film Outsourced didn’t visit as many countries as Bourne and co., cinematographer Teodoro Maniaci found that India provided plenty of visual stimulation. To prepare for the challenge of shooting a low-budget feature in a foreign land, Maniaci spent several weeks traveling from one end of India to the other. “I wanted to get a sense of the country’s rhythms and logic,” he tells AC senior editor Rachael K. Bosley (“Cultural Immersion,” page 44). “India really is its own universe. It’s a beehive, a whirling maelstrom of activity. It’s all experiences all at once all the time. By the time production came around I was able to stay incredibly calm in the midst of huge crises; all the intricacies and sound and fury of production seemed mellow in comparison to what I’d been through on my travels!” An international flavor also permeates Caravaggio, shot by master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC. Slated for broadcast on Italian television and future theatrical release, the production was mounted by entities in Italy, France, Spain and Germany, with scenes shot in Rome, Naples, Sicily, Malta and at Belgrade Studios in Serbia. In a wide-ranging interview with fellow Italian Giose Gallotti (“Baroque Visions,” page 54), Storaro says he leaped at the chance to trace the life of a monumental artist who had significantly influenced his own work: “I knew it would be an opportunity to study in depth the trajectory and work of this visionary protagonist of figurative art. Moreover, it would allow me to explore further the mystery of light and shadow, a theme that has always been at the center of my cinematographic journey.” Cinematographer and longtime AC technical editor Christopher Probst indulged in more whimsical forms of homage while shooting the music video “Knights of Cydonia” for the rock band Muse. Describing the song as “a cross between Ennio Morricone’s Spaghetti Western scores and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’” Probst notes that the offbeat music “stumped many music-video directors” but proved a font of inspiration for director Joseph Kahn, who submitted a treatment that featured “Barbarella-style warrior women, robots, unicorns, holograms, motorcycles, and a mysterious hero who appears in the guises of a rogue cowboy and masked avenger.” After assimilating this crazy quilt of influences on location in Romania, Probst was rewarded with the Music Video Production Association’s Best Cinematography Award. With abundant familial pride, we asked Chris to pen his own account of the unique shoot (“Once Upon a Time in Bucharest,” page 66). J 1. The Cinesaddle is easy to use; to set it up just put it down. 2. Available in five different sizes. Works with all video, film and still cameras. 3. Small - Compact - Portable. Weighs less than two pounds. 4. Super versatile camera mount. Get shots not possible with any other camera support. 5. Cinesaddle absorbs vibration. Use it on a car, bike, boat, helicopter, anything. Mounting kit included with all professional models. and view streamed video clips of the Cinesaddle in action. Cinekinetic USA 345 W. 85th Street New York, NY 10024 Telephone: (212) 202-0675 Email: info@cinekinetic.com 8 Stephen Pizzello Executive Editor Photo by Douglas Kirkland. www.cinekinetic.com Visit Cinekinetic’s website: http://www.cinekinetic.com http://www.cinekinetic.com

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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