American Cinematographer - January 2016 - 64g

"At the end of every shooting day we'd head to the Mason's
Hall to screen the material shot two days earlier," he relates.
"Everyone from the cast and crew was invited to watch. One of
our producers would announce at the beginning of every screening,
'Welcome back to the Greatest Show in Telluride!' It was a nice way
for everyone to end their day.
"Back in Los Angeles while we were working on the director's cut,
the editorial team would prepare a weekly screening of recently
completed scenes at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) to get a
sense of how it played in 70mm.
"Quentin and I would sit in the fourth row of Theater 1 at the DGA
with huge grins on our faces, immersed in the grandeur of the 70mm
images," recalls Raskin. "The color of the film was generally richer
than that of our Avid dailies, and the detail was astonishing. Sitting
that close created the greatest difference in the viewing experience
between screening on the Avid and screening in a theater. If we could
follow the action sitting that close, we knew the sequences hadn't
been cut too quickly."

Quentin wants to keep as much of the movie as untouched, original
negative as possible. Quentin is not into digital trickery. Instead the
goal becomes to make the best version of the movie using the footage
as it was shot, as opposed to using visual effects to 'Frankenstein' the
movie together."
With the picture complete and in cinemas, Raskin recalls viewing
it for the first time with an excited yet unsuspecting crowd. "At that
point it is no longer about watching the movie, it's about seeing how
the audience reacts to it," he says. "With a good crowd, it's a blast.
Hearing them laugh, shout, applaud - knowing that they're with the
film and enjoying it - it makes all of the hard work and the long hours
worth it."

The shoot required certain sequences to be filmed while snow was
falling. Therefore the cast (including Kurt Russell, Channing Tatum,
Samuel L Jackson and Jennifer Jason Leigh), had to have the entire
script memorized from day one. If they got snow they'd be shooting
one scene, and if they didn't, they'd be shooting another.
"Since everyone knew the script so well it gave Quentin the ability
to shoot 11-minute-long takes if he wanted to, which ended up being
great for the performances," says Raskin. "I was watching some
terrific theater on a daily basis. This also informed some of the editing
choices; there are a handful of shots in the movie that are a couple of
minutes long thanks to this, and of course, the trick has been to find
an appropriate and effective time to return to the coverage.
Raskin continues, "In other, digitally-shot projects, I might want
to take performances from two separate takes and fuse them, but

Photos: Left page: Fred Raskin, ACE. Photo by Andrew Eisen.
This page: (Top) Samuel L. Jackson stars as Major Marquis
Warren. (Bottom) Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and
Bruce Dern. The Hateful Eight photos by Andrew Cooper
(SMPSP/©2015 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.)

KODAK INCAMERA
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2016
