American Cinematographer - October 2007 - 74

Unsafe Passage good thing about New Mexico in winter is that the sun is almost always low. There were usually too many characters to block the scene to the sun, and we were usually using multiple cameras. We used Daylight Blue 12-by bounces to redirect and shape light. “Often we weren’t designing shots carefully, but rather being flexible with the camera and just trying to get in there. You think you can control horses, but you can’t — they just don’t stand still. So Dave Luckenbach, my A-camera/ Steadicam operator, was constantly reacting [to their movements].” Day interiors in the saloon or hotel rooms were lit through windows. “Most of the third act takes place in a second-floor hotel room that was extremely small, for example, and sometimes we had eight actors in there,” says Papamichael. “The way it’s blocked, combined with our shooting style, which often involves someone turning into a tight close-up followed by a focus rack, meant that all the space was used up. Once you make the decision to bring all the light through the window, it becomes a matter of planning and shooting when the light is appropriate.” The windows were covered with layers of hard ND gel that could be removed in stages to adapt to changing light levels outside. The ND was also used to create a dusk or dawn feel outside, even in broad daylight; the crew went as heavy as ND.27 to achieve that effect. “I also used negative fill on interiors, bringing blacks as close as possible to the action to model,” adds Papamichael. “Instead of adding light, I was removing ambience. I did that when I was losing the sunlight and the contrast was disappearing.” Often Papamichael removed weather from the equation with a large, complex rigging job outside that was made more difficult by winter winds. The main day interi- Above: Evans and his son, Will (Logan Lerman), disagree over how to respond to moneylenders who have set fire to their barn. Below: Will races to empty the barn of valuables. stay away from very high- and lowspeed stocks,” he notes. “I could have gone with a slower daylight film, but I don’t like the grain structure to change so much during the movie. I’m usually shooting at around a T2.81⁄2, but if I really need the extra stop I’d rather just open up.” His Panavision camera package comprised a Panaflex Platinum, two Millennium XLs, and Primo prime and zoom lenses. Most scenes in 3:10 to Yuma fall into one of four situations: moonlit or firelit night exteriors, sunlit day exteriors, daylight interiors, and night interiors lit with oil lamps. As is typical of Westerns, day exteriors were predominant. Exteriors often included actors on horseback, which provided the crew with some rigging challenges. Papamichael’s instinct was to eschew electric sources whenever possible. “For day exteriors, we often weren’t even silking,” he says. “The 74 October 2007

American Cinematographer - October 2007

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