American Cinematographer - October 2008 - (Page 36)

Middle East Intrigue sunlight might mean “rush, rush, rush, somehow Ridley doesn’t get bothered,” he adds. “The difficult part of balancing interior and exterior when the sun is going down is the color temperature, but with the DI, that’s becoming easy to correct later. Ridley understands a great deal about lighting, but he also knows a lot about the DI and understands what can be done [in post]. I believe that’s why he doesn’t worry about it so much.” Another scene in the embassy office was lit with three 18Ks pumping light through the windows. With three actors and three cameras on hand, it was inevitable the 18Ks would come into view. “Ridley never said, ‘I see the light! Take it out!’” recalls Witt. “He knows what piece he’s going to use.” The biggest build and trickiest lighting situation was the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. The practical location was a National Geographic office in Gaithersburg, Md. “The building was set in the woodlands, just like Langley, and it was designed by Edward Durell Stone, who designed a lot of embassies overseas during the time Langley headquarters was built,” notes Max. “It was eerily similar in terms of the architectural style, which is one of the reasons we went there. We were given several empty floors.” One of the key sets there was the Predator Control Room, where agents monitor real-time images from cameras aboard unmanned aircraft flying over Iraq and other areas of interest. When building this set, says Max, “we were advised by a retired U.S. Army technician responsible for those types of operations. The hardware was based on the latest technology; those machines and monitors are all available, so we could get all that information. We built our own based on those references.” The aerial footage was shot by John Marzano with gear provided by Top: Ferris is captured and then tortured by Al Qaeda operatives in a windowless room deep within an ancient prison. The scene was lit with two flashlights carried by the actors portraying the terrorists. “We didn’t try to hide [the flashlights],” says Witt. “It was a small room, and we were running three cameras, so depending on where we were shooting, we just changed the angle a little. The only additional thing we did was use bounce cards to give some of the actors a little frontlight.” Bottom: Director Ridley Scott serves as prison warden. we might age a place down so it wouldn’t be too bright and blow out.” Witt notes, “Arthur is a very good collaborator, very good about keeping close contact. I often wanted to make walls darker so we could just light the actor in the middle of the room without getting a lot of reflections from the walls.” When choosing locations, Scott often favored places that combined interior and exterior — where a character might look out a window or exit onto a balcony. Such was the case with a basketball stadium near Rabat, a location that served as the U.S. Embassy in Jordan. The outer perimeter, where concessions normally stood, faced massive plate-glass windows and an interesting metal armature. Here, the team built the CIA office housed within the embassy. “We wanted to see outside because we had tanks going by and people walking around,” says Witt. One scene used only the sun, coming through ungelled windows, as a source. “It’s a long scene, but we knew the sun wouldn’t change for four to five hours,” says the cinematographer. But even when disappearing 36 October 2008

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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