American Cinematographer - October 2008 - (Page 31)

flexibility on interiors and nights [than anamorphic lenses],” notes Witt. “It also makes it easier for the focus puller because there’s a little more depth of field.” Although Scott has made extensive use of grad filters in the past, no filtration was used on the lens apart from 85 and neutraldensity filters. “Ridley used to like to have a lot of grads,” says Witt, who adds that on at least one occasion in the past, the team lost the light because of the time spent choosing the right filter. On Body of Lies, the filmmakers decided to save that kind of finessing for the digital intermediate (DI). “I think lens filtration is a thing of the past,” observes Witt. “You can work faster on set without it, and you can do it better in the DI.” Most of the picture was shot on Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, which Witt rated normally. During prep, he tested Technicolor’s OZ process, which Scott and Harris Savides, ASC used on American Gangster (AC Nov. ’07), but the team ultimately decided against it. “It worked on American Gangster because there were so many African-Americans in the cast — OZ works really well on darkskinned actors,” says Witt. “But on our tests in the Morocco desert, it just didn’t look right, so we decided to do the processing conventionally.” Technicolor in Rome handled the production’s front-end lab work. The film’s visual effects were also straightforward. Most explosions were executed by the specialeffects department with minimal CG enhancement. Digital effects were most often used to tweak some locations — dropping a Dubai skyline into a Morocco location, for instance — and for composites in a scene involving drone surveillance monitors. Scott carried out the digital color-correction at Company 3 with colorist Stephen Nakamura, and although Witt was unable to participate because of a prior commitment, “the negative was so even they did very little work on it,” says the cinematographer. Nakamura confirms, “Ridley didn’t stray too far from the negative. He just said, ‘I want it to look gnarly.’ He didn’t want prettylooking images; he wanted something gritty and dirty-looking.” (The filmout was handled at Technicolor Digital Intermediates.) Throughout the production, the filmmakers strove for authenticity in depicting the story’s two worlds: the cool, high-tech world of Washington, and the warm desert world of the Arab countries. “We wanted there to be a clear distinction when we cut back and forth between Washington and the Arab countries,” says Witt. Naturally, many of those distinctions were inherent to the locations. “CIA headquarters is a world of bureaucracy, and it’s full of blues and grays, black and white,” notes Max. “By contrast, the desert cities and towns feature burnt tones and a warmer palette.” Practical locations were a constant, but in order to facilitate a 65-day shoot, the filmmakers used “two countries to represent about 10 countries,” says Max. “That was the Above: In a flashback sequence, Ferris witnesses a brutal interrogation in Yemen. Director of photography Alexander Witt notes, “We lit that scene mainly with one fluorescent hanging in the middle of the room, and we had a small fluorescent practical off to the side lighting Leonardo. We left things on the green side to make it uglier.” Left: Witt mans a video camera while blocking out a scene with a group of actors portraying S.A.S. soldiers. Behind Witt is cameraman Larry McConkey, SOC. American Cinematographer 31

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2008

American Cinematographer - October 2008 Contents Editor's Note Short Takes: DirecTV's "Fourth Wall" Campaign Production Slate: Prison Break Production Slate: Need for Speed: Undercover Middle East Intrigue Kingdom of Light Memoirs of a Spook Landmark Gains Post Focus: An Overview of the ASC CDL Filmmakers' Forum: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Ross Berryman

American Cinematographer - October 2008

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