American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 58

◗

Outside the Box
Top: King
Ecbert (Linus
Roache) talks
strategy.
Bottom:
Ecbert
welcomes
Princess
Kwenthrith of
Mercia (Amy
Bailey) to
his court.

Working with the Alexa XT and
its 4:3 sensor, Dillon also incorporated
the use of Panavision Primo anamorphic lenses, using them for standalone
scenes, such as dream sequences and
"moments of great import, just to add a
different sort of texture," he points out.
"We'd maintain a 1.78:1 aspect ratio
and crop left and right."
After working with the Alexa
Plus for season two, the production
carried four Alexa XT camera packages
for season three. The main unit gener58

March 2015

ally shoots with two cameras, though
days with crowd scenes may call for
three, and battle sequences tend to
shoot with all four.
Production for an entire season is
divided into five 20-day blocks, and
each episode shoots for 10 days, with
some crossover days in each block for
second-unit cinematographer James
Mather. Depending on the content of
each episode, this can bring the total
number of shooting days up to 22-25
days per block.
American Cinematographer

Dillon calls special attention to
the show's daily schedule: a strict 10hour continuous day, with no lunch
break, that rarely goes into overtime.
"Many of our directors who are used to
working in the U.S. and Canada find
this a bit of a culture shock given the
extended shooting days they're accustomed to, but most come to really like
the system," Dillon muses. "In practical
terms, it means the production crew
gets to have a life outside of work, and
that has a huge knock-on benefit in
terms of morale over the course of an
extended shoot."
Vikings also adheres to the
European crew structure. "Electrics do
all the flagging and bouncing, and grips
are concerned with camera placement
and support only," says Dillon. "Our key
grip, Phillip Murphy, regularly puts a
GF-8 crane with a remote head onto a
boat so we can do crane shots of longboats on the water. Or we'll rig them to
the sides of mountains. On a television
budget, these are serious undertakings
that Phillip accepts without batting
an eye."
The first season of Vikings was
set mostly in Scandinavia with the occa-



American Cinematographer - March 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2015

Contents
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 1
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 2
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - Contents
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 4
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 5
American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 6
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American Cinematographer - March 2015 - 58
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