American Cinematographer - November 2015 - 22

Top: Open to meeting new people, Victoria befriends Sonne (Frederick Lau), a roguish local.
Bottom: Victoria soon finds herself in a predicament.

Grøvlen also wandered the neighborhood with his camera, getting to know
the lighting conditions and the ergonomics
of the Canon EOS C300 PL. "I did test the
Sony F3 and some sort of modified GoPro,
where you could have interchangeable
lenses," he says. "But I was pretty confident
from the beginning that I would choose the
Canon C300 [because of the camera's]
ergonomics and light sensitivity - and I like
the texture and image quality."
Eschewing cables of any kind,
Grøvlen recorded onto a 32GB CF memory
card, which could hold two hours and 40
minutes using the MPEG-2 50 Mbps 4:2:2
codec. The C300 was outfitted with a Zeiss
Standard Speed 24mm T2.1 prime lens, and
a small matte box held a 1⁄8 Tiffen Black ProMist filter. The ISO was set to 2,000. The
camera sat inside a Redrock Micro
UltraCage, which held a monitor, microphone, top handle, side handle and lightweight Arri follow-focus. "That was basi22

November 2015

cally it," says Grøvlen. "It weighed about
5.5 kilos."
Handholding 12 pounds for 138
minutes is a challenge you have to experience to understand, and Grøvlen got a taste
during rehearsals. For the police chase -
which occurs well past the one-hour mark
- he was expected to run flat-out with the
actors. "The first time we rehearsed that, I
hadn't warmed up, and after the first take,
I couldn't move," Grøvlen recalls with a
laugh. After that, his prep included physical
training: He took up running with a 5-kilo
weight, core strengthening, and half-hour
warm-ups before the full takes. "It was like
training for a marathon," he says. The
fitness paid off. "Surprisingly, while I was
shooting [the full takes], I never thought,
'I'm tired now. It's not going to work.' You
just focus on being there. But afterwards, I
was totally gone! I would get my massage
and sleep for 12 hours."
For the several scenes inside a car,
American Cinematographer

they strapped a bungee to the roof, which
would allow the camera to dangle and give
Grøvlen a moment's rest. "But I don't think I
ended up using it," he says. "I wouldn't risk
anything getting caught in the roof of the
car when stepping in and out." That caution
also extended to his own wardrobe, which
included shoes without laces and slim-fit
pants without pockets, so nothing could
snag.
When space permitted, focus puller
Boye Klüver dealt with aperture adjustments, steered Grøvlen, and reminded him
to flip the internal ND filter as he passed
from interiors to exteriors. When space was
too cramped, like in the cars, elevator, apartment and hotel room, Grøvlen had to fend
for himself.
All locations had to be lit for 360
degrees and, to lower the chances of crew
getting in frame, Grøvlen decided against
any kind of handheld lights or bounce
boards. "Some scenes are only with available light," says gaffer Mirko Fricke. "We
[also] did some little things while the shot
was in progress. For instance, haze in the
garage, some adjustments in the hotel and
bank, and we had one lamp that was set
and removed within the take because otherwise it would have been in the frame."
The film's biggest units were
deployed for the club exterior and subsequent walk-and-talk, when Victoria and the
boys get to know each other. For ambient
light, a 6K Par with spot lens was positioned
on a roof and bounced against the opposite
building, while a 5K sodium-vapor Fresnel
was hidden around the corner and directly lit

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