American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50

◗

A Pitiless Peak

The climbers,
including Beck
Weathers (Josh
Brolin, bottom,
center), begin
their journey up
the mountain.

side at 17,700' - 3.35 miles up. At that
altitude, it takes the body several weeks
to acclimate to the environment; the
body has to produce twice as many red
blood cells to compensate for the lack of
oxygen in the atmosphere.
The first leg of the climb goes
over the Khumbu Glacier, dubbed the
Icefall. The glacier moves as much as 4'
per day, which results in a constantly
changing topography. The only way to
traverse the terrain is with the aid of
aluminum ladders, which are used as
50

October 2015

temporary bridges to cross over the
ever-shifting abyssal crevasses. Above
the Icefall is Camp I at 19,900', after
which is Advanced Base Camp - or
Camp II - at 21,300', followed by an
ascent up the Lhotse face via fixed ropes
to Camp III at 24,500'. Camp IV sits at
an even 26,000'. Climbers often need to
ascend to one camp and then descend
to the previous camp multiple times to
acclimate. From Camp IV, climbers
enter the "death zone," where they
cannot physically endure more than two
American Cinematographer

or three days in the oxygen-deprived air.
Before reaching the summit, they must
face sheer rock walls, heavy avalanche
zones, and a multitude of life-threatening and near-impossible obstacles.
No insurance company would
allow the production to film in this kind
of environment, but Kormákur was
insistent on shooting in actual locations.
"One of the things that was quite
important to me was to feel the
immenseness of the mountain - to feel
the volume of it throughout the film,"
attests the director. "It's not just a case of
showing big shots of Everest, but
getting closer to it and really feeling
every aspect of it, and how small you are
and how overwhelmingly powerful
nature is. That was our plan. It couldn't
be done entirely in-camera, but we
needed to find a way to shoot as much
as possible in the real world and deal
with the limitations that we were given.
You can't just go into space to shoot a
space movie, and it's the same with a
film like this. We had to make concessions to reality."
Totino agrees, noting, "Baltasar
wanted to put the audience in the
moment, and I like to do that with all my
films - to put the camera and the audi-



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

Contents
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Intro
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 1
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 2
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Contents
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 4
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 5
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 6
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 7
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 8
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 9
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 10
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 11
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 12
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 13
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 14
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 15
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 16
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 17
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 18
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 19
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 20
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 21
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 22
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 23
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 24
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 25
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 26
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 27
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 28
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 29
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 30
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 31
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 32
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 33
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 34
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 35
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 36
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 37
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 38
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 39
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 40
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 41
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 42
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 43
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 44
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 45
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 46
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 47
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 48
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 49
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50a
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50b
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 51
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 52
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 53
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 54
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 55
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 56
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 57
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 58
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 59
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 60
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 61
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 62
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 63
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 64
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 65
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 66
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 67
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 68
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 69
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 70
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 71
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 72
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 73
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 74
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 75
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 76
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 77
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 78
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 79
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 80
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 81
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 82
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 83
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 84
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 85
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 86
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 87
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 88
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 89
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 90
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 91
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 92
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 93
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 94
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 95
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 96
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Cover4
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