American Cinematographer - May 2007 - 99

the values you had to have. Now, as long as you have a ‘garbage matte’ — as long as there’s enough green around the subject — it doesn’t matter if the background isn’t clean.” Greenscreen was also critical to a second element of the film: the dioramas Annie imagines in the American Museum of Natural History that show New York sub-species, such as “Park Slope Lawyer,” “TriBeCa Fashionista” and “Central Park Bag Lady.” These fantasy dioramas required the seamless blending of multiple motion-control passes done first on Manhattan’s streets, then at Steiner Studios. In one such sequence, Annie walks down the street, daydreaming about job prospects, then spots a professional fashion designer; as Annie wonders whether she could become that person, the designer freezes mid-stride, and then the camera pulls back to reveal the designer as a wax figure in a museum diorama, “TriBeCa Fashionista.” The camera pulls farther back for an overthe-shoulder shot of Annie reading her museum guidebook. From the guidebook, the scene either transitions to the real world, or the camera follows Annie to a second diorama, pushes in, and the wax-and-paint scene comes to life. Beginning on location, Stacey used a compact Mo-Sys motion-control unit manufactured in England. “Motioncontrol work usually necessitates a huge behemoth of a crane, and that’s really hard to work with on location,” he notes. “The Mo-Sys is a much smaller track system that is basically recorded and programmed by a laptop.” Though easily transportable, the Mo-Sys is fairly delicate and can get thrown off-kilter when bumped. “It was hard, especially because disgruntled bike messengers kept running over the track,” says Stacey. Shooting the “Park Slope Lawyer” sequence in midtown at rush hour proved even harder. “With each pass, the sun was going lower and lower. Even the wide shots didn’t really match. But luckily, [visual-effects company] RhinoFX was giving the diorama such a treated look their team just needed the buildings as a kind of “This shows me [at left] looking dubious about a diorama effects shot in TriBeCa,” notes director of photography Terry Stacey. “In the background is the Mo-Sys motioncontrol rig, with excellent operator Joe Collins at the wheels.” reference.” Stacey utilized an Arri 435ES for the motion-control work and used the entire 35mm negative; he shot the rest of the picture in 3-perf Super 35mm, using Panaflex Millennium XLs. “We shot the motion-control work at 120 fps, which meant we could do our dolly move and Rhino would have the frames it needed to ‘freeze’ the subject,” he notes. A dramatic lighting change also occurred in these sequences, taking the scene from naturalistic exterior lighting to interior museum lighting. “As the person freezes, a stronger backlight would come up and the softer frontlight would die down,” says Stacey. On location, the lighting comprised a 6K HMI bounced into a frame of diffusion and an 18K HMI backlight. At the transitional moment, the day light was shuttered down, and the warm back-/toplight would come up to create the museumdisplay look. “The tricky part was the timing, as we were running in such slow motion it had to happen very quickly!” Although the production shot some scenes inside the American Museum of Natural History, the film’s dioramas were constructed at Steiner Studios. Three empty diorama frames were built side by side and backed by a 100'x40' greenscreen. Bill Taylor, ASC, whom Stacey calls “one of those oldschool geniuses,” was the cinematographer on the diorama component. The mo-co camera replicated the axis, angle and motion of the location shot, “then they would key all those elements into the greenscreen,” says Stacey. “As we pulled out, we’d be on Scarlett’s shoul- der in the museum. We had all that roughed in even on location, so we knew exactly where the diorama frame would be as we pulled back. We just marked [those points] with C-stands.” The final step was done at RhinoFX, whose artists made the diorama background appear two-dimensional and curved. A glass-like sheen was added to the front to complete the diorama illusion. Stacey worked closely with RhinoFX visual-effects supervisor Stephan Scammell from preproduction on, and Scammell was on set for all motion-control work. “They wanted as much depth of field as possible,” says Stacey, “so we used wide lenses. The trick was, we were shooting 120 frames, so we needed 21⁄2 times more light. For most of the dioramas, we switched to a fast daylight film, Fuji Reala [500D 8592].” (He shot the rest of the picture on Fuji Eterna 500T 8573.) Though Annie’s fantasies provide a bit of magic, capturing the magic inherent in New York City was equally important to the filmmakers. “I remember reading the script and thinking, ‘Wow, we’re going to get to shoot on the steps of the Met!” says Stacey, who makes his home in New York but hails from England. He was also able to film such landmarks as Bergdorf Goodman, the Empire State Building and Central Park, as well as the extremes of New York apartments, ranging from an East Village flat to luxury penthouses on Park Avenue. “This film was just a dream for any cinematographer who loves New York,” he says. s American Cinematographer 99

American Cinematographer - May 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2007