American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 50

◗ Home-Screen Hits Near right: Torrential downpours were created throughout the 10-month shoot. Far right: Sgt. John Basilone (Jon Seda), one of the miniseries’ main characters, leads his fellow soldiers into battle. five shots that followed Sledge as he landed on shore, scrambled up the beach amid constant mortar attacks, and finally dove into the safety of a bunker. They wanted the five shots to play as one extended shot (with the smoke from the explosions masking the cuts), and they wanted to make the sequence as experiential as possible for the audience. “In a case like that, you really have to work out how to join those five shots before you start shooting,” notes Adefarasin. The plan called for a series of camera hand-offs among the camera operators, Simon Finney (A camera), Ben Fox-Wilson (B camera) and Adefarasin (C camera). The first operator starts the shot right behind Sledge as he tumbles out of the Amtrac and starts to run up the beach. At a certain point, that operator hands off the camera to the next operator, who continues running behind Sledge and then hands off the camera to a third operator, who is sitting on a crane. The crane swoops around a patch of impossible-to-navigate terrain, at which point the camera is handed off one more time to the operator who follows Sledge into the bunker. “Simon preferred looking through the 50 March 2010 lens, but Ben and I used an LCD screen [as a viewfinder],” recalls Adefarasin. “Simon kept the camera on his shoulder and turned into a goat, running like hell and keeping his eye glued to the eyepiece.” A strong believer in the “accidental errors of filmmaking,” the minor mistakes that can add authenticity to a scene, Adefarasin confesses that he “deliberately makes accidents happen.” In one instance, a Japanese soldier is shot at close range, and Adefarasin wanted the experiential feeling of his blood hitting the lens. The specialeffects department devised a rig to accomplish that. “You feel the death more,” says Adefarasin. Episode 8 is devoted almost entirely to Sgt. John Basilone ( Jon Seda), the third main character, who becomes the hero of Guadalcanal and eventually dies on Iwo Jima. The battle of Iwo Jima starts with an establishing shot of the Marines already on the beach. “We put three cameras on Basilone, each with a different lens,” recounts Windon, whose team included A-camera operator Marc Spicer, ACS, and B-camera operator Leigh McKenzie. (The cinematographer American Cinematographer manned the C camera himself.) “[Episode director] David Nutter planned the sequence carefully, staging certain little pieces of action as practical explosions were going off. We literally held the cameras at knee level and ran with them, using these great little LCD monitors made by Transvideo. Holding the cameras low not only made them steadier, but also afforded an interesting perspective, because they’re catching the action from just above the ground.” As Basilone is shot and falls to the ground, the camera speed increases to 96 fps — the only time slow motion was employed on the shoot. The final shot of Basilone, which shows him lying dead in the dirt, starts just above him and pulls up higher and higher until a large swath of the battlefield is seen. “A couple of weeks before we shot that, I saw a small construction crane driving around, and I thought of that sequence,” recalls Windon. “I told David Nutter my idea, and he loved it, so Warren Grieff, my key grip, made a cradle for our Scorpio Head, and we sent it 100 feet into the air. We had to rig support cables to it so the camera wouldn’t twist around.” Windon cites the battle on Okinawa as his favorite episode.

American Cinematographer - March 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2010

American Cinematographer - March 2010
Contents
Editor’s Note
President’s Desk
Short Takes: La Première
Production Slate: A Prophet • NY Export: Opus Jazz
Mind Games
Home-Screen Hits
A Passion for His Craft
Saluting an Industry Stalwart
Post Focus: EFilm’s Cinemascan System
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
ASC Membership Roster
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Salvatore Totino
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - American Cinematographer - March 2010
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 1
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 2
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Contents
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 4
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 5
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 6
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 7
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 9
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - President’s Desk
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 11
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Short Takes: La Première
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 13
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 14
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 15
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 16
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 17
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Production Slate: A Prophet • NY Export: Opus Jazz
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 19
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 20
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 21
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 22
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 23
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 24
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 25
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 26
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 27
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 28
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 29
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Mind Games
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 31
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 32
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 33
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 34
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 35
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 36
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 37
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 38
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 39
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 40
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 41
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 42
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 43
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 44
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 45
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Home-Screen Hits
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 47
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 48
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 49
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 50
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 51
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 52
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 53
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 54
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 55
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 56
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 57
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 58
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 59
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 60
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 61
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - A Passion for His Craft
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 63
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 64
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 65
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 66
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 67
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 68
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 69
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 70
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 71
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Saluting an Industry Stalwart
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 73
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 74
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 75
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 76
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 77
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Post Focus: EFilm’s Cinemascan System
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 79
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 80
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 81
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 83
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 84
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 85
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 86
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 87
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 91
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - ASC Membership Roster
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 93
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 95
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - ASC Close-Up: Salvatore Totino
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - March 2010 - Cover4
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