American Cinematographer - March 2017 - 68

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Shooting on Location

For years Zeitlinger used his own
16mm Aaton film camera, Zeiss High
Speed primes and two Canon zooms.
Eventually, he made the switch to digital. Both he and Bergfelder, who met in
1997 on Herzog's My Best Fiend, have
worked with numerous other directors.
"On some films, you are often preparing
things that don't end up in the final
product," remarks Bergfelder. "That
costs a lot of time and energy. Peter
knows what is important and what is
not; he [shoots] only what he needs."
Rocky Mountain High
Cast and crew safety is of paramount importance on any production.
Part of a location manager's job is anticipating and weighing a wide variety of
potential hazards: dangerous weather
conditions, political unrest, the unpredictability of wild animals. Mandy
Walker, ASC, ACS was in the middle of
shooting the forthcoming feature The
Mountain Between Us when AC recently
caught up with her. The movie concerns
the only two survivors (played by Kate
Winslet and Idris Elba) of a plane crash
high in the mountains. One of them is
badly injured. With rescue unlikely, they
68

March 2017

realize they must make their own way
down the mountain.
"We are shooting at an altitude of
around 10,000 feet; that's above the tree
line," reports Walker excitedly over the
phone. "I love doing a film that has challenges like this, because I have never
been in this situation before. It is quite a
logistical exercise. You can only get up
there by helicopter, and we are having to
sling up some grip equipment days
before to be ready."
Eight days will be spent on the
mountaintop in British Columbia; the
rest of the exteriors - three weeks'
worth - will be shot at an elevation of
3,000', after which stage and location
work will be completed in Vancouver.
"Sets have already been constructed on
top of the mountain, as well as emergency shelters," says Walker. "If the
weather turns while we are up there, the
helicopters have to evacuate us quickly
so we don't have to spend the night
there. It has been between minus-10 to
minus-38-degrees Celsius during the
day! We have an incredible location
manager, Robin Mounsey, who [specializes in] extreme conditions."
Mounsey, who served as supervisAmerican Cinematographer

ing location manager on The Revenant
(AC Jan. '16), acquired his love of the
outdoors at an early age, excelling at
rock- and mountain-climbing and
whitewater kayaking. At the age of 15,
he landed a job as a props helper and
night watchman on McCabe & Mrs.
Miller, which the late Vilmos
Zsigmond, ASC, HSC was shooting in
British Columbia. Since then,
Mounsey's expanded knowledge and
expertise in mountain safety, including
his reputation for gauging the threat of
avalanches, have brought him continuous work on features including The Clan
of the Cave Bear, Alive, Seven Years in
Tibet, Kundun, Whiteout, The Thing
(1982 and 2011) and The Hateful Eight.
"The Mountain Between Us is
filming in the Purcell Mountains near
the small town of Invermere," says
Mounsey via e-mail. "One location is on
the edge of the Delphine Glacier which,
like everything else shot above the tree
line, is accessible only by helicopter from
a staging area we built along the
Horsethief Creek Forest Service Road."
Scenes shot at lower elevations are
accessed by road.
"Robin is very safety-conscious,"

Photo courtesy of Mandy Walker, ASC, ACS.

Cinematographer
Mandy Walker,
ASC, ACS on
location in
Australia with 1st
AC Larry Nielsen
for the feature
Tracks.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2017
