American Cinematographer - December 2016 - 66

◗

Universal Translator

Top: Banks searches for a communications breakthrough as the extraterrestrial vessel hangs in the
background. Bottom: Practical lights sit in position on location in Quebec.

necessarily stick to boards on the day,
but value them as a visualization exercise. "I had not done that before, but I
was willing to subject myself to the
process, and it became an important
pillar for us," Young explains. "Sam
Hudecki, our storyboard artist, had
worked with Denis and Roger, so he was
an integral part of the process. It took a
couple of weeks to [familiarize] myself
with their way of working in order to
feel I could contribute."
Another way Young contributed
was by introducing Villeneuve and
production designer Patrice Vermette to
66

December 2016

the work of Swedish photographer
Martina Hoogland Ivanow - particularly her 2013 collection Speedway,
notable for its dark, mysterious images.
Outlining the movie's central narrative
challenge, Young muses, "How do you
create this film that's about grief, and
then [introduce] extraterrestrials who
bring enlightenment? Ivanow's images
had that quality - deeply haunting but
substantially hopeful. Then it was about
making the science fiction seem normal
and everyday - as though you're washing dishes on a humid, cloudy day with
soft, atmospheric light, and you look out
American Cinematographer

your window and there's a spaceship
behind the trees. We called it 'dirty scifi.'"
Young adheres to a "less is more"
lighting philosophy partly inspired by
the work of the late Harris Savides,
ASC. "Gaffer Eames Gagnon and I
often looked at a handbook of Harris'
quotes from all his movies, and we went
back to Birth, which is in the canon of
movies I always reference," he says.
"There's a rumor that in his later films,
Harris would only use lamps he could
put his hands on. That's really rigid, but
that mantra stayed in my head on this
film. So if you see a lamp in the frame,
then it's the only light in the room. And
if Amy is standing next to a window,
then it's the window lighting her."
Nearly 60 days of principal
photography got underway in and
around Villeneuve's hometown of
Montreal, Canada, in June 2015. Young
shot mostly with Arri's Alexa XT, his
go-to digital camera. He captured in
ArriRaw, using Open Gate mode, at a
2.39:1 aspect ratio, and recorded to
onboard Codex XR Capture Drives.
"Using the full width of the sensor
allowed us to get a nice, wide frame
without anamorphics, and opened up
Bradford's choice of lenses," offers digital-imaging technician Leon RiversMoore. "We shot at ISO 1,280, which is
fairly unusual, especially for a visualeffects-heavy film. This let Bradford
work with less light and lent some
texture to the image." Rivers-Moore,
who performed dailies coloring, evaluated images on Flanders Scientific
CM250 OLED monitors.
GoPro Hero4 Black cameras
were employed for imagery visible on
video screens ostensibly used for
communication between the landing
sites in various nations, while news
reports within the movie were shot with
Sony's CineAlta PMW-F55.
On Arrival, Young reunited with
Harbor Picture Co.'s Joe Gawler, his
regular digital-intermediate colorist.
The two are particularly fond of the
show LUT they created for A Most
Violent Year, so they used that approach

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2016