American Cinematographer - January 2016 - 46

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Left for Dead
Production
designer Jack Fisk
created sets that
allowed natural
light to stream in
through windows
and doorways.
Interior scenes
were staged near
or adjacent to
these entryways,
as evidenced in
these photos of
Poulter (top) and
Domhnall
Gleeson
(bottom).

much as 15 to 20 degrees."
"When that happens," Connor
adds, "the lenses contract and/or
expand. The [Master Prime] lens
elements are affected and focus marks
can shift, making the marks incorrect to
the point where infinity can't be
reached."
Connor consulted with ASC
associate Dan Sasaki, Panavision's vice
president of optical engineering and
lens strategy, to conduct tests, during
which they bracketed different focus
distances on the lenses versus actual
object distances. "We saw a pattern in
which everything was focusing disproportionately close - more than could
be explained by a depth error or miscalibration," Sasaki relates. "That pointed
to a thermal shift. The finding made
sense due to some of the exotic types of
46

January 2016

glass that were inside the lenses in question. Unfortunately, the shifts were not
linear, so the best solution was to set
different lenses of the same focal length
to work within their best [respective]
temperature zones."
"Dan set the back focus on each
wide lens for specific temperature
ranges: minus 15 degrees [Celsius],
minus 5 degrees and plus 5 degrees,"
Connor explains. "Then we had a laser
temperature gauge, and we would
measure the temperature of the back of
the lens - near the camera, which puts
off heat - so we could determine a
common ground to establish our table
of temperature, so it wouldn't be
random, and we could transfer that to
our daily shooting. We then had our
warmer lenses and our colder lenses. We
ended up with three different sets of
American Cinematographer

lenses for 12mm, 14mm, 16mm and
18mm; we colored them as our 'yellow'
lenses, our 'blue' lenses and our 'red'
lenses."
As to the Alexa 65's Prime 65
lenses - which utilize optics from
Hasselblad HCs - the 24mm was the
main lens, and a 28mm was used occasionally.
In terms of pulling focus, Connor
attests that The Revenant was "the single
most difficult movie I have ever done."
Noting that he uses a combination of
classic and modern focus-pulling techniques, he says, "I still like to be close to
the camera, with a wireless focus and
monitor in hand. About 20 years ago, I
took the Preston wireless focus system
off the Steadicam and used it on ground
cameras to give me an advantage with
ever-challenging styles of shooting and
extremely long lenses. It's comprised of
a small 8-inch HD monitor with builtin LUTs and real peaking. Chivo only
has Log C coming out of the camera,
and doesn't like to see peaking on his
monitor or the director's. The small HD
monitor allows me to apply any LUT, as
well as its own peaking. Along with a
Paralinx wireless transmitter mounted
on the focus unit, [the rig] gives me
complete mobility to move through the
set terrain and see the scene develop or
change.
"Chivo uses wireless headsets so
that the timing of focus racks can be
called out," Connor says, "or [so] I can
let him know when we are at minimum
focus, which is where we were a lot on
this show. [To] also pulls the iris live, so
these styles allow Chivo to move wherever and whenever he wants - organically throughout the scene, without any
limitations. There was a lot of pressure
to get each take all the way through -
and at last light, it had to come together.
There had to be synergy."
Connor is keen to add that working alongside Lubezki made "a difficult
situation enjoyable." He also notes that
both he and Lubezki are grateful for the
hard work of their crew, "specifically
how amazing the crew from Canada
➣
was."

American Cinematographer - January 2016

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