American Cinematographer - November 2008 - (Page 56)

Thunder Down Under trast on location exteriors, we cut sunlight with solid scrims overhead, creating the shadow of a building, or used lots of fill,” she explains. “There was no such thing as a small lighting setup!” Gaffer Shaun Conway frequently used a 60'x40' Ultrabounce to create consistent shade that lasted all day. Two 100K SoftSuns regularly shone through two 20'x12' frames of 1⁄2 or full grid to provide fill. Walker continues, “If the exterior scene grew in scope, we added 18K HMIs to that arrangement. When possible, I also bounced sunlight off Ultrabounce for fill; after only a day in the ‘outback,’ the material was covered in dust, which gave the [bounced] light a beautiful, warm look.” Sequences such as Sarah’s arrival in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, involved both location and studio work. She arrives via flying boat, and the beginning of the sequence was filmed on location under the 50'-high Stokes Hill Wharf to take advantage of the setting’s 30' tides and unusual water color. “When Sarah steps off the boat, she is then on the 300'-longby-60'-wide wharf set [constructed on Stage 1 at Fox]. Apart from having control over the lighting, the studio gave us the freedom to shoot in any direction against bluescreen or black.” The Faraway Downs homestead was built on location at Carlton Hill Station, near the town of Kununurra in northern Western Australia. Walker notes that for many interiors, Luhrmann staged the action in depth to take complete advantage of the expansive vistas or important action visible through doorways and windows; this meant lighting the interiors to a stop comparable with the exteriors. “If it was T22 outside, then we needed to build the interior level up to around T5.6 or T8 to be able to see detail outside,” she recalls. To raise the ambient level inside, the crew pushed 18Ks and a Above: One of the local estates is transformed into a war hospital. Below: Sarah tends to a wounded soldier as the ranch manager (David Wenham) looks on. phy took place in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. With a population of only 41,000, the region is the size of California. The production was on location off and on from May to September 2007, during the region’s “dry season,” when the average daily temperature is above 91°F. Shooting throughout the day, the filmmakers used natural changes in the quality of light to depict the harsh reality of life in the open savannah. Walker explains, “In preproduction, Baz and I had worked out ‘white-light scenes’ that we could shoot in the middle of the day. Emotionally, they worked with a toppy, unfriendly-sun look. During particular scenes, we really wanted the audience to feel it’s a harsh, rugged environment.” Travel time to locations precluded shooting sequences at dawn, but Walker took full advantage of the extended twilight to imbue the film with a sense of romance. “Dawn is very short in that part of the country, whereas dusk lasts about 45 minutes,” notes the cinematographer. “We had beautiful skies at that time of day, with the most beautiful quality of light, and we shot very fast until the last of the light had disappeared. We also shot a lot of interiorto-exterior or exterior-to-interior transitions at that time of day.” To achieve a rich look without too much contrast, Walker depended on controlled soft light on location and in the studio. “To control con- 56 November 2008

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.