American Cinematographer - March 2014 - 46

◗

A Fight to the Death

Top: The SEALs navigate after being dropped by helicopter in the mountains
of Afghanistan. Middle: Dietz keeps a watchful eye in the trees. Bottom: Lt. Cmdr. Erik
Kristensen (Eric Bana, standing) monitors the mission from the Bagram Air Base.

46

March 2014

American Cinematographer

director, one became a sort of visual bible
for the various production departments:
Tim Hetherington's book Infidel.
Hetherington was a photojournalist
embedded with a U.S. platoon in
Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. (He later
died while on assignment in Libya.)
During prep, Schliessler headed
to the mountains outside Los Angeles to
shoot tests of the quality of rock features,
wardrobe and even blood color. The test
footage and a copy of Infidel were
handed over to Schliessler's regular
colorist, ASC associate member Stefan
Sonnenfeld, at Company 3. "We wanted
Stefan to see the contrast, color and
quality of light in Hetherington's shots,"
says Schliessler. "It wasn't re-created
exactly, but a nice look was set."
After testing Arri Alexa and Red
Epic cameras, Schliessler chose the
Epic, but he notes that it was "ultimately
a financial choice because we needed so
many cameras." Ninety percent of the
movie was shot handheld or with
Steadicam in rough terrain, and
Schliessler wanted to outfit his operators
with cameras that were as small and
lightweight as possible.
The main unit was armed with
four Epics, while the second unit carried
three. (A Vision Research Phantom
Flex was used for one high-speed shot.)
Capturing in 5K at 5:1 compression, "we
shot everything on the main unit with
three cameras at all times, while some



American Cinematographer - March 2014

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American Cinematographer - March 2014 - 1
American Cinematographer - March 2014 - 2
American Cinematographer - March 2014 - Table of Contents
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