American Cinematographer - May 2018 - 10

Danger lurks in all of this month's spotlighted features.
In A Quiet Place, the perils of parenting are
addressed metaphorically in a tense horror thriller. Cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen collaborated
with actor, screenwriter and director John Krasinski -
who cast his real-life spouse, actor Emily Blunt, as his
onscreen wife - to craft a chilling tale about a family
that must stay silent to elude terrifying creatures who
hunt their prey via sound.
Much of the movie's action plays out with very little
dialogue. "We created images that sound designers
could give a proper sound to, so viewers feel they are
right there." Christensen tells Jean Oppenheimer
("Don't Speak," page 26). "If you are far away on a
long lens, it wouldn't be realistic to hear subtle sounds;
if you get physically close to a character or object, even faint noises would become audible.
It became our way of 'photographing sound.' It was also the impetus behind mixing anamorphic and spherical lenses."
Chappaquiddick and Beirut both base their drama on true stories. The former, shot
by Maryse Alberti, revisits the 1969 tragedy involving Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy,
who caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne when he drove his car off a bridge and into a
pond. In an article by Iain Marcks ("Truth and Consequences," page 38), Alberti explains how
she visualizes a story: "When I start to read a script, my process is very intuitive. It's like seeing
through a fog, and as I get into the story, the fog parts slowly, bit by bit."
In Beirut, former U.S. diplomat Mason Skiles (played by Jon Hamm) must emerge
from the haze of alcoholism after he's summoned back to Lebanon to negotiate the release
of an American hostage. Shooting in Tangier, director Brad Anderson sought a look that was
raw and real, combining documentary and cinema aesthetics. Björn Charpentier, SBC,
profiled as one of our "Rising Stars of Cinematography" in 2017, was tapped for his speed
on set, his ability to capture handheld shots on the fly, and what Anderson describes as his
"gung-ho" attitude. "We had a general idea of what the action would be, but we didn't
really determine camera angles or pans, so [my camera movement] was very intuitive," Charpentier tells Patricia Thomson ("Friend in Need," page 48). "Sometimes it was a fraction too
early or late, but it made it real, more documentary style."
The television series Riverdale presents a highly stylized view of the fictional town
made famous in the Archie Comics saga, which is given a very dark spin in the show. Brendan
Uegama, CSC, who shot all 22 episodes of the second season, was tasked with creating the
ominous ambience mandated by series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. "I had used a lot of
atmosphere in some of my previous work, including [the series] Van Helsing, and Roberto
loved that," Uegama tells Rachael Bosley ("High-School Horrors," page 58). "He said, 'I want
atmosphere in every shot all the time, inside and outside. I want it to be a character in the
show; I want texture in every frame.'"
This issue's special focus on optics is brought into sharp relief in Shot Craft (page 14)
as well as in sidebars for all of the main features. "Optics" from our annual ASC Awards
events are provided in a pictorial ("A Night to Remember," page 72) that revisits the
highlights.

Stephen Pizzello
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2018