American Cinematographer - February 2020 - 40

Saga's End

The production carried three full Panaflex packages, and an Arriflex 435 for
high-speed work up to 150 fps, 1st AC Sergius Nafa reports. "For optics," he says, "in
addition to the Retro C set, we had E Series, T Series, G Series and Primo
Anamorphic Prime lenses, and as a rule, we used the older glass to photograph the
Resistance and the newer for the Imperial environments. We also had the T Series
Anamorphic Zoom [ALZ10 42-425mm T4.5] and the Panavision Primo [ALZ11] 11:1
48-550mm [T4.5], as well as the ALZ3 3:1 270-840mm [T4.5 Primo Anamorphic]
zoom lens - nicknamed 'the Hubble' - with a doubler that Dan created for Tom
Stern [ASC, AFC] on American Sniper; its maximum focal length is 1,680mm."
woods! We had a few sets in the
woods, which covered many acres."
Although most of the film was
shot in England, the production also
spent about a month on location in
Wadi Rum, Jordan, which stood in for
the planet Pasaana. Hymns helped
oversee the massive logistical effort,
which included shipping an enormous amount of equipment from the
U.K. to the remote desert. Sequences
captured in Jordan include an acrobatic clash between Rey and Kylo
Ren's TIE Whisper fighter; a chase

featuring Jet Troopers, treadspeeders
and landspeeders; and a crowded
outdoor festival.
"We first set up three large
generators at the main location in
Wadi," recalls Evans. "Then we sent
in our rigging gang for a week to
cable the whole place. Within a few
days, the sand completely buried the
cables, which worked in our favor!"
"The Jordanian military built the
infrastructure, the roads and the
access," Mindel adds. "Shooting a
day-exterior movie in the desert takes

Rey confronts Palpatine.

a tremendous amount of organization
because the light is very harsh, and J.J.
didn't want to shoot in bad light. That
immediately cut down the number of
hours per day we could work. But it's
great to have a crew ready to absorb
that momentum. We also had a helicopter unit under Roger Guyett's
supervision capturing large-format
plates for flying shots."
To capture the speeder and Jet
Trooper chase, the crew erected a
motion-base gimbal - overseen by
special-effects supervisor Chris
Corbould - and massive, inflatable
greenscreens on location. "It was a
very interesting way of working,"
Mindel opines. "Greenscreen cinematography has evolved in such a
way that [we no longer have to be]
hyper-careful about the amount of
light touching the screens, and it's
much easier for the visual-effects
companies to make it work." Gaffer

"Dan probably uses a standby painter better than anyone in the business," says camera operator Colin Anderson. "We're
always doing something to the surfaces, whether we're grinding them up, shining them up, adding texture or taking down a
wall that's too bright instead of flagging it." Mindel adds, "I love using the standby painter on set. It's an old-school method
of controlling the highlights and shadows, and also aging and dulling down surfaces that are 'annoying' the lens."
40

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