American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 20

Production Slate

The Greatest Landscape
By Neil Matsumoto

Having grown a tad too comfortable in his later years,
well-known travel writer Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) decides to
hike the Appalachian Trail - 2,200 miles of stunning, rugged
countryside stretching from Georgia to Maine. Joining him on
the grueling trek is his estranged friend and former traveling
companion, the down-on-his-luck Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte).
Although Bryson and Katz are both in their 70s, this is no
Grumpy Old Men. Instead, A Walk in the Woods follows the two
as they experience both the harshness and beauty of the great
outdoors.
According to director Ken Kwapis, A Walk in the Woods -
which is based on Bryson's best-selling 1998 book - had been in
some form of development for more than a decade, with Redford
originally seeing it as a vehicle for himself and Paul Newman.
When Kwapis came on board, he brought along cinematographer John Bailey, ASC, with whom he had previously collaborated
on five features, including The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,
He's Just Not That Into You (AC Feb. '09) and Big Miracle (AC Feb.
'12). For Bailey, A Walk in the Woods also marked a reunion with
Redford, as the cinematographer had shot Redford's 1980 directorial debut, Ordinary People (AC June '81).
Bailey had only three weeks of preproduction, during
which he and Kwapis referenced an unlikely source for visual
inspiration: YouTube. According to the cinematographer, they
were hoping to find a middle ground between professional-looking cinematography and the amateur videos shot by hikers with
small digital-video cameras. "There are a few sequences where
we wanted to experience the beauty of the trail, but most of the
time it's just two guys putting one foot in front of the other, slogging over a rocky and difficult path," explains Bailey. "The diffi20

October 2015

culty was how to photograph a life-changing experience in
nature without making it an overwhelming or metaphysical
experience."
By the time Bailey joined the production, the film's
producers had decided they wanted to shoot digitally, but for a
number of reasons he was able to convince them that the
project would benefit from being shot on 35mm film as well.
"The current default position of most producers is, 'We have to
shoot on digital; we can't afford film,' which is the Big Lie," the
cinematographer explains. "If you turn the camera on and you
never turn it off, obviously film is more expensive. But if you're
responsible and you shoot with discipline, it's a wash."
Bailey also saw a need to maintain a small footprint while
shooting on regional park trails, almost always within an hour's
drive from the production's base of operations in Atlanta, Ga.,
as well as on the actual Appalachian Trail. With film, he explains,
"I wouldn't have to have video village strung behind me. We
could just have a couple of handheld 5- or 7-inch monitors for
the director and me, wireless on Steadicam, and carry a couple
mags of film - that's it."
The bright sunlight and high contrast that would be
encountered on the trail were also significant factors that went
into his decision. "The bright sunlight area, which will be 2½ to
3 stops overexposed on film when exposing for shadow detail,
is then built into the density of the negative," explains Bailey.
"On digital, if it's much above 100 IRE, there's no information
left, much like clear film leader, so when I get to the DI, it doesn't
matter what I do with power windows to bring the bright areas
into balance - it's already burned out."
The production's camera and lens package, rented from
Panavision Atlanta, included Panaflex Millennium XL cameras,
Primo prime lenses and two Primo zooms: a 17.5-75mm (T2.3)
and a 24-275mm (T2.8). For day exteriors on the trail, the

American Cinematographer

A Walk in the Woods photos by Frank Masi, SMPSP, courtesy of Broad Green Pictures.

Travel writer Bill
Bryson (Robert
Redford, left)
hikes the
2,200-mile
Appalachian
Trail with his
previously
estranged friend
and traveling
companion
Stephen Katz
(Nick Nolte) in
the feature A
Walk in the
Woods.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2015