American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 24

Top: A safety rig
was employed
for a jump during
a motorcyclechase sequence.
Bottom: Sergey
Valyaev (left)
dons the helmet
under the
direction of
cinematographer
Vsevolod Kaptur.

Epic with Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses was
also used to capture three slow-motion
inserts as well as an opening scene that stars
Tim Roth.
Although the filmmakers went out
of their way to capture as much in-camera
as possible, the completed movie contains
approximately 1,800 visual-effects shots.
Among the 12 visual-effects vendors, Zero
VFX handled the massive bike-chase
sequence. Visual-effects software packages
used on the film included Mocha, Maya
with V-Ray, Nuke and FumeFX.
"It was primarily cleanup work with
some muzzle flashes and squibs, [and]
mostly because of time as most everything
was done practically," Naishuller notes.
"We did no greenscreen whatsoever, but
there was a ton of rotoscoping on the
soundstage for the Moscow skyline. It was
a huge challenge, requiring a lot of handrotoscoping, for the CGI team to integrate
CGI into the GoPro footage."
24

May 2016

Lyass adds, "We also did the typical
rig removals and scene augmentations, such
as inserting monitors, enhancing explosions,
and environment extensions. Stitching and
morphing shots together to ensure a seamless flow was particularly important. Since
it's a POV film, there is no b-roll to cut away
to.
"For the final reel, which mostly
takes place on a skyscraper rooftop at night,
we used a black background instead of
greenscreen," he continues. "It's better not
to light the background at all and avoid the
reflections, especially when you go 360
degrees." These rooftop scenes were shot
on a Moscow-area soundstage called
Glavkino, and were handled by two visualeffects companies: Texas-based Mighty
Coconut and Russia-based CGF.
"We certainly learned a few things
along the way that we would do differently
next time," says Lyass, "but that comes with
the territory. Most of the visual effects on
American Cinematographer

Hardcore Henry are to enhance strong stunt
work and practical effects. Lots of mechanical devices were also produced specifically
for the film, and our stunt coordinator,
Alexander Stetsenko, utilized plenty of his
engineering knowledge."
Footage was edited in Adobe
Premiere throughout production on set,
and continued for eight months after the
final phase of principal photography
wrapped. Editor Steve Mirkovich re-created
the final assembly in Avid Media Composer
in preparation for the film's theatrical
release. As Mirkovich had to leave for
another project, editor William Yeh
performed the final pass.
Colorist Kostas Theodosiou
performed the final grading at FotoKem
using Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve
12 in collaboration with Naishuller and
Lyass. Theodosiou created custom LUTs and
curves to achieve a cinematic look with vivid
color and special styles for flashback scenes.
Final deliverables included a 2K DCP and
video deliverables for home-distribution
formats.
Looking back at the finished film,
Naishuller feels that the narrative results rise
beyond the aesthetics. "At the end of each
day I had a rough cut on my laptop," he
says. "The first assembly cut was two-anda-half hours, and I then realized the magical
moment where we transcended the
gimmick and had a film. As I watched, I
thought, 'I'm enjoying the hell out of this,
and it's a really cinematic experience.' The
three [cinematographers] did such a great
job of making it seamless."
Naishuller looks forward to more
projects. "Even though I'm interested in
first-person POV and even virtual reality, the
next film I do will likely be much more
conventional," he says. "I love film and I
love traditional perspectives. I feel like
there's still so much to be done in conventional cinema."

TECHNICAL SPECS
1.85:1
Digital Capture
GoPro Hero3 Black Edition, Red Epic,
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime

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American Cinematographer - May 2016

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