American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 42

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Weekly Wonders
like going from shooting a really bright anamorphic picture, where you’re trying to shoot a T4 or T5.6 to make the lenses work, to working with almost no light in the room. For the first couple weeks with the Alexa, every time I walked from my monitor to the set, I’d think someone had turned the lights down after I left my monitor; the image on the monitor was bright, crisp and clean, and the set would be downright gloomy. This is even more pronounced in night exteriors. Unlit, distant buildings at ISO 1,240 become visible, while the blacks stay solid and clean.” “I think our HMI package will be scaled back considerably, and we’ve already reduced what we carry to locations and use in the studio,” says Kolafa. “We still haul around a couple of VistaBeams, a couple of Image 80s and eight 5Ks, but next season those will be replaced by much smaller fixtures. It used to be a given that we’d use lighting balloons and lifts with 18Ks on night exteriors, but with the Alexa, we use them less, and in some locations we don’t need them at all.” McLachlan is using the same lenses he used with the D-21, mainly Angenieux Optimo 15-40mm, 2575mm and 24-290mm zooms and a full set of Cooke Primes. “The only real difference is that we don’t have to work close to wide open all the time any more,” he says. “I’m a dyed-in-the-wool film lover, and given any choice, I probably would have shot this show on Kodak 5219,” he continues, “but TV seems to be all digital capture now, and I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t choose the Alexa. I would definitely use it for any theatrical feature or TV show that involves night or low-light work, assuming the onboard recording issue can be resolved. I think the only material film handles better now is day exteriors, but my opinion could be based on the fact that we don’t have proper dayexterior LUTs yet!” — Michael Goldman

In a scene from The Killing, police detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) makes a grim discovery.

shooting the pilot for The Killing, I realized that if there was ever a series that could sustain my interest, this was it. By the time we reach the end of the season, As the network behind the series we’re only 13 days into the investigaMad Men (AC Oct. ’09), Breaking Bad, tion. This allows us to stay with our Rubicon and The Walking Dead , characters in real time.” American Movie Classics is quickly Although most prime-time TV building a reputation for original series are now captured digitally, AMC programming that stretches the bound- isn’t following that trend. “During my aries of television. The network’s latest initial interview with [executive series, The Killing, is a police drama that producer/writer] Veena Sud and [direcventures far beyond the cliché procetor] Patty Jenkins, I was informed that dural into a powerful study of secrets AMC were ‘film snobs,’” Wunstorf and emotions. recalls with a laugh. “Of course, I had no Adapted from the Danish televi- problem with that!” sion series Forbrydelsen (Crime) , The Shooting 3-perf Super 35mm, Killing chronicles the investigation of a the production uses two Panaflex young girl’s murder in Seattle. The pilot Millennium XLs and a Platinum, and each of the 12 subsequent episodes “although it’s generally a single-camera encompass only one day in the investishow,” he continues. “We’re shooting gation, dividing story time among three low-con [Kodak] Vision2 [500T] perspectives: that of the victim’s grieving Expression 5229, which works beautifamily, that of the Seattle politician who fully for the look we’re after.” Wunstorf is the prime suspect, and that of the rates the 5229 at the suggested ISO of police detective trying to solve the case. 500, but he often underexposes by one Behind the camera is Peter or two stops. “I’m not afraid of that,” he Wunstorf, ASC, who is photographing asserts. “I’m often playing the bottom of a TV series for the first time. Though he the negative, and that’s one of the has shot 11 TV pilots, 10 of which were reasons I chose 5229. It’s a much softer picked up, he had vowed not to take on stock, and it handles that underexposure an entire series. “I said I never would,” really well. We’re frequently working he acknowledges, “but when I was with very low light levels. An example is The Killing Cinematographer: Peter Wunstorf, ASC
American Cinematographer

42

March 2011

Frame grabs courtesy of AMC.



American Cinematographer - March 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2011

American Cinematographer - March 2011
Contents
Editor’s Note
President’s Desk
Short Takes: Nowhere Near Here
Production Slate: Image Interchange Framework • The Imperialists Are Still Alive!
Master Plans
Weekly Wonders
Lessons Well Learned
Photographing Movie History
Filmmakers’ Forum: Lisa Wiegand
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
In Memoriam: Gene Polito, ASC
ASC Membership Roster
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Crescenzo Notarile
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - American Cinematographer - March 2011
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 1
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 2
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Contents
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 4
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 5
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 6
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 7
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 9
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - President’s Desk
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 11
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Short Takes: Nowhere Near Here
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 13
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 14
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 15
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Production Slate: Image Interchange Framework • The Imperialists Are Still Alive!
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 17
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 18
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 19
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 20
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 21
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 22
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 23
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 24
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 25
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Master Plans
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 27
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 28
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 29
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 30
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 31
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 32
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 33
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 34
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 35
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 36
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 37
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Weekly Wonders
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 39
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 40
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 41
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 42
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 43
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 44
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 45
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 46
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 47
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 48
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 49
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Lessons Well Learned
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 51
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 52
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 53
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 54
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 55
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 56
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 57
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Photographing Movie History
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 59
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 60
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 61
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 62
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 63
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 64
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 65
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Filmmakers’ Forum: Lisa Wiegand
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 67
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 69
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 70
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 71
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 72
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 73
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 77
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - In Memoriam: Gene Polito, ASC
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 79
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - ASC Membership Roster
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 81
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - 83
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - ASC Close-Up: Crescenzo Notarile
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - March 2011 - Cover4
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