American Cinematographer - November 2008 - (Page 18)

Production Slate 2 Tales of Missing Kids through the lens of a photojournalist,” says Stern. “There is a directness to these images, an ‘in-your-face’ quality, but the story is not large-scale; it’s really about one woman’s agony and journey. The objective was to give the artists room to act. That’s why we’re there: to record a performance. “It’s well known that Clint really likes getting it on the first take,” he continues. “After the actors settle in, they begin to feel empowered or liberated by this. If you take it to its logical conclusion, it means you don’t get to fiddle; you’d better do your fiddling before we roll because there’s a good chance that will be it!” Gaffer Ross Dunkerley, who has made 13 movies with Stern, eight of them with Eastwood, notes, “Honestly, we don’t discuss things very much. Often, we don’t even see a rehearsal. We get an idea of what the scene is, and we have to come up with a plan very quickly. Chances are we’ll talk about it for a minute or two, and then we’re executing it.” Simplicity is the watchword. “Changeling was like Mystic River in that it was a struggle to make it as simple as possible,” says Stern. “When you have an actor like Angelina, it’s really about the performance. You put the light somewhere, and she goes into it. You don’t have to give her a mark; she finds it. She can feel and play with it. That makes it great for me, because I tend not to use fill light. I’ve been extremely fortunate because it’s almost always the case that I have a cast that can do that.” Stern shot Changeling in anamorphic 2.40:1 using Panavision’s CSeries lenses, and he used only one stock, Kodak Vision 500T 5279. When necessary, ND filters were mounted Christine (Angelina Jolie) monitors the growth of her son (Gattlin Griffith) in a scene from Changeling. Lost and Seemingly Found by David Heuring Thirty-six hours after finishing principal photography on Faubourg 36, a French film set in Paris in 1936, cinematographer Tom Stern, ASC, AFC began shooting Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, a film set in Los Angeles in 1928. Upon completing Changeling, he began a shoot in Russia on the 16th-century story Ivan the Terrible and Metropolitan Philip. When asked if such a schedule made his head spin, Stern replies dryly, “I did find that 36 hours was a little tight.” But, he adds, it was in tune with his current philosophy. “Maybe Clint has finally gotten to me,” he says of his longtime collaborator. “He talks about the paralysis of analysis, and lately, I try not to think too much about what I’ve done; I just like to see what I feel like doing at any given moment, reacting to the material. At times, it feels like performing without a net, and it’s invigorating. I’m very fortunate to have great crews and all the tools we need.” Changeling is the sixth film Stern has photographed for Eastwood, follow- ing Blood Work, Mystic River (AC Dec. ’03), Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers (AC Nov. ’06) and Letters From Iwo Jima (AC March ’07). Set in Los Angeles and based on actual events, Changeling chronicles the disappearance of a 9-year-old boy, Walter Collins, who seems to reappear six months later, except that his mother, Christine (Angelina Jolie), believes he is not her son. After turning the boy in at the police station, she is briefly institutionalized, and the facts of the case soon emerge. Stern describes the look he envisioned as “sort of a cool jazz version of The Day of the Locust — not that I have the talent of Conrad Hall [ASC], but that’s what I was attempting. We also tried to achieve the leanness of Mystic River. This film has a little more color than some of our recent films — it’s a rich yet muted palette — and the art department did a spectacular job. On a period film like this, they have to work very hard to pull a world out of thin air. Our task is to not screw it up.” During prep, a fat book of reference images was gathered and studied. “It was a little like seeing these events 18 November 2008 Changeling photos by Tony Rivetti Jr., courtesy of Universal Pictures.

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

American Cinematographer - November 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Letters Short Takes Production Slate Forging a Bond The Making of a President Thunder Down Under Habitat for Inhumanity Saluting Television’s Top Talents Post Focus New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up

American Cinematographer - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.