American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 22

Top left: The crew films the long walk-and-talk on the beach. Top right and bottom: Matt and his daughters view their family property on Kauai.

spend a lot of time cooking pasta, drinking wine and watching movies! How did you arrive at a visual style for The Descendants? Papamichael: We saw a unique opportunity to show Honolulu as it is rarely, if ever, shown in cinema: not glamorized or idealized. It’s a modern American city with traffic jams and skyscrapers, and a few miles away, there’s an almost absurdly bizarre and beautiful tropical paradise. There’s an extreme contrast in wealth and poverty. Go up the coast 30 miles, and you’ll see native people living in tent cities. We didn’t want to be too obvious about it, but these contrasts are some of the themes we wanted to represent visually. The look of the movie is pretty straightforward. It’s all about the performances and the intimacy of the charac22 January 2012

ters, and the photography was designed in part to be unobtrusive. Alexander has a very particular visual style that reflects his point of view. I suggested that we go widescreen because I thought it was very important to feel the power of the land, and to make the power of nature very present visually. The landscapes are juxtaposed with tight, claustrophobic interiors. So you shot Super 35mm? Papamichael: We shot 3-perf Super 35mm with the Panaflex Platinum and Primo prime and 4:1 and 11:1 zoom lenses.I used a ½ [Tiffen] Black Pro-Mist on the lens throughout to take a little of the sharpness off. Alexander likes the image to have a bit of texture; he always wants it to look a little like an older film. We used Kodak Vision3 [500T] 5219 for night scenes and [200T] 5213 for day
American Cinematographer

interiors and day exteriors.I used polarizers and definitely went for the lushness, the color and saturation of the land. Our second-unit cinematographer, Radan Popovic, traveled around collecting a huge amount of images — graphic shots of buildings, traffic, people on the streets and at the beach, and landscapes in Kauai — and quite a few of them ended up in the film. Did you go with natural light on all the exteriors? Papamichael: Yes. I almost never light electrically on exteriors, and it was challenging on this film because the light and the weather change so rapidly in Hawaii. It would very often go from dark skies to rain to full sun within minutes. That affected the interiors as well. There were a lot of fluctuations that presented challenges for me, and also for our DI colorist at Modern VideoFilm, Joe Finley, and the dailies timer at FotoKem, Kay Sievert. Alexander had never done a DI before, and it was fun to show him the capabilities. What was your approach to interiors? Papamichael: Inside I stuck to my usual approach: all big sources, very



American Cinematographer - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2012

American Cinematographer - January 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
President’s Desk
Short Takes: String Theory
Production Slate: The Descendants • ASC Awards Preview • HPA Awards
Cold Case
Animal Instincts
Lord of War
Go with the Flow
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Rodrigo Prieto
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - American Cinematographer - January 2012
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 1
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 2
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Contents
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 4
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 5
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 6
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 7
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 9
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - President’s Desk
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 11
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Short Takes: String Theory
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 13
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 14
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 15
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 16
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 17
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 18
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 19
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Production Slate: The Descendants • ASC Awards Preview • HPA Awards
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 21
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 22
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 23
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 24
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 25
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 26
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 27
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 28
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 29
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 30
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 31
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Cold Case
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 33
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 34
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 35
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 36
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 37
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 38
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American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 40
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 41
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 42
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 43
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 44
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 45
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 46
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 47
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Animal Instincts
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 49
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 50
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 51
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 52
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 53
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American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 57
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 58
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 59
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 60
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 61
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Lord of War
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 63
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 64
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 65
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 66
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 67
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 68
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 69
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 70
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 71
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 72
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 73
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Go with the Flow
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 75
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 76
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 77
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 78
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 79
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 80
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American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 84
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 85
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 86
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 87
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 89
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 90
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 91
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 92
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 93
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 94
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 95
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 96
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 97
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 101
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 103
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - ASC Close-Up: Rodrigo Prieto
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - January 2012 - Cover4
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