American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 96

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6 Sundance Standouts

Top: Desolate
settings
underscore
Trunschka’s
discomfort. Right:
Kotschi sets up a
car shot.

shoot with a process trailer, so we
wound up shooting a lot of those scenes
with a hostess tray attached to the car in
various configurations. It was always
difficult to find ways to rig things safely
and stably because the Lomos were very
heavy, especially in combination with a
camera and a big magazine.”
After testing the Lomos with
film and digital cameras, the filmmakers
decided to shoot 35mm with an Arri
package: a Lite, a Studio and a 235.
“The digital cameras couldn’t really
create the dreamy ambience we were
seeking,” Kotschi explains. “On digital
cameras, the Lomos’ defects looked
more like real defects instead of desired
defects. The flares didn’t look as nice,
either. Film’s softness and grain brought
out the look we wanted much, much
better. In fact, it was so beautiful I didn’t
use any filtration other than NDs. We
owe a big debt to our producer at
Lichtblick Media Berlin, Martin
Heisler, who totally supported our
96

April 2013

creative choices.”
Kotschi employed two Kodak
Vision3 stocks, 250D 5207 for day
scenes and 500T 5219 for night footage.
“I really would have liked to use a
50-ASA daylight stock, but it wasn’t
available in the Vision3 line at the time,”
he notes. “The stocks we chose gave us
everything we needed, though. Even
when we had hot sunlight pouring into
an interior, we were able to get a reading
outside the windows.”
Trunschka finally sets up a meeting with Ringer at an isolated railroad
crossing, where he waits for hours before
a group of thugs pulls up and beats him
senseless. “For the start of the sequence,
we managed to execute a 320-degree
pan that ends with a train passing
behind Trunschka. We had to use about
80 feet of dolly track, but that single
shot contains everything we were trying
to achieve look wise, including some
great flares. We got very lucky, because
we hadn’t seen a train go by for two
American Cinematographer

days! While I was operating the shot, I
could hear a train approaching, and so
could Ulrich. He knew it would make a
great shot, and he started moving very
slowly and deliberately so I could catch
the train passing behind him.”
In a later shot, as Trunschka
regains consciousness, the camera begins
on a POV shot of the sky before tilting
90 degrees into a close-up of Trunschka’s
face. Kotschi recalls, “We initially did
that shot off a tripod on a dolly, but it
looked too clean, so I asked the dolly
grip to put a chair on the dolly so I could
sit down and do the shot handheld. I
wanted to bring the audience very close
to the character.”
The filmmakers’ old-school
approach extended to another evocative
shot in which Trunschka peers out his
hotel-room window at the strange sight
of a man’s shirt falling from the sky and
twisting in the wind as it sails toward the
ground. “That shot was very complicated
to do,” Kotschi recalls. “The first time we
tried it, the shirt just flew miles away in
the wind that was gusting between the
buildings. It probably ended up in
Arizona! To get the shot, we had some
crew stand on top of this 80-story high
rise with a fishing line, and others stand
down on the street with another fishing
line. I shot at 48 fps, and they pulled on
the fishing lines to position the shirt
where it needed to be. I could then pan
over to Ulrich as he watched the falling
shirt with this dreamy expression on his
face, like he was looking into the future.”
For the final grade, Kotschi
worked with colorist Goran Mikic at
CinePostproduction in Berlin. Most of
their work involved bringing the film’s
bright highlights back into the desired
range and matching shots achieved with
different focal lengths. “Each of the
lenses created different kinds of dark
spots in the corners of the frame, so
when we cut from one lens to another,
we had to adjust the look of those
defects,” says the cinematographer. “It
became quite complicated because the
lenses were matched color wise, but not
contrast wise.”
— Stephen Pizzello



American Cinematographer - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2013

American Cinematographer - April 2013
Table of Contents
Editor's Note
President's Desk
Short Takes: 7x6x2
Production Slate: War Witch • The Darkest Day
Hello, Yellow Brick Road
Hell on Wheels
All In
6 Sundance Standouts
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Christopher Baffa
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - American Cinematographer - April 2013
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Table of Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 4
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 5
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 6
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 7
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 8
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 9
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Editor's Note
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 11
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - President's Desk
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 13
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Short Takes: 7x6x2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 15
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 16
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 17
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 18
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 19
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Production Slate: War Witch • The Darkest Day
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 21
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 22
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 23
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 24
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 25
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 26
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 27
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 28
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 29
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 30
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 31
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 32
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 33
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 34
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 35
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Hello, Yellow Brick Road
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 37
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 38
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 39
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 40
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 41
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 42
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 43
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 44
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 45
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 46
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 47
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 48
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 49
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 50
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 51
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Hell on Wheels
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 53
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 54
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 55
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 56
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 57
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 58
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 59
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 60
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 61
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 62
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 63
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - All In
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 65
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 66
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 67
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 68
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 69
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 70
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American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 76
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 77
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 78
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 79
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 6 Sundance Standouts
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K1
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K2
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K3
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K4
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K5
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K6
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K7
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K8
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K9
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K10
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K11
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - K12
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 81
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 82
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 83
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American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 99
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 100
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 101
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 102
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 103
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 105
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 106
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 107
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 108
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 109
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 110
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 111
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 112
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 113
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 117
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 119
American Cinematographer - April 2013 - ASC Close-Up: Christopher Baffa
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