American Cinematographer - May 2018 - 42

Optics Spotlight
The 40mm

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Truth and Consequences

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or Chappaquiddick, cinematographer
Maryse Alberti elected to work with
a set of Panavision G Series anamorphic
primes, ranging from 30mm to 100mm,
as well as 135mm and 180mm E Series
anamorphic primes, and an ALZ11 48550mm (T4.5) Primo Anamorphic
Zoom.
Addressing her decision to go
with the G Series optics, Alberti offers,
"I wanted the lenses to be a bit imperfect. The corners of the G Series lenses
aren't as sharp as the center. The lines
aren't as straight. But it treats the skin in
a very gentle way. I like the way the practical lamps blow out. It's not a nuclear
overexposure; there's a softness to it."
The filmmakers chose to shoot
much of the movie on the 40mm prime,
"which, in anamorphic, is a much wider
aesthetic than I'm used to," says director
John Curran. "At the same time, working with one lens forces you to think
outside the box. Your close-up lens is
also your wide-shot lens, so it creates a
consistent language. We wouldn't have
time for conventional coverage anyway,
so I wanted to see how elemental I could
be and still cover myself in the edit." He
concedes to a couple of wider shots and
some 50mm portraits, "and hopefully
you feel those, because otherwise it's a
pretty reductive approach to the camerawork."
For scenes depicting Ted
Kennedy ( Jason Clarke) interacting
with the group of advisers that his father,
Joe Kennedy Sr. (Bruce Dern), has
brought to the family compound,
Alberti kept Ted isolated with a
medium-wide 40mm prime close to the
actor, while treating the group as a single
character. "The 40mm was for Ted,"
Alberti notes. "With medium-wide
lenses you feel that you are close to the
subject. It gives you a certain intimacy.
It's not a voyeuristic lens. It's not a
portrait lens. I just wanted to look at
Ted, and for the audience to be in the
room with him."
- IM

May 2018

A crane is employed to maneuver the camera into position over the water for a scene in which
Kopechne's body is found. Seated in the water, wearing a white t-shirt, is John Fiore, who
portrays Police Chief James Arena.

cutting script, we designed a simple
approach to the scenes."
A
mix
of
Steadicam,
Chapman/Leonard Hybrid IV dolly
and Panther Foxy crane were frequently
used for camera support, with Afton
Grant operating the A camera and
Steadicam. For a regatta sequence early
in the movie, handheld camerawork on
Kennedy's yacht is intercut with
footage from a Libra-mounted camera
on a crane carried on a rigid inflatable
boat.
In one of Chappaquiddick's tensest moments, the camera follows
Kennedy's footsteps as he walks from
his hotel to a nearby payphone; the
camera then slowly booms up and
around the booth as Kennedy describes
the car accident to his father. The move
ends with a creeping, almost imperceptible push in on Ted's face as he awaits
instruction. After a drawn-out moment
of silence, the stroke-disabled Joe Sr.
replies with a watery gasp, "Alibi."
Curran's view is that Ted's decision to finally make a phone call is such
a pivotal moment, and Clarke's performance is so emotional and nuanced,
that there was no reason to cut away or
abbreviate the shot. "It's also our first
introduction to Joe Sr.," the director
American Cinematographer

notes, "and it captures their entire
dynamic: Ted's fear of his father, and his
father's disgust."
In working to tell an authentic
story, Alberti, Curran and production
designer John Goldsmith strove for
accuracy with the historical details, and
to that end they wanted to shoot on
location at the actual ferry landing, road
and bridge in Chappaquiddick. Gaffer
Dan Riffel recalls some reluctance,
however, on the part of Edgartown's
residents to revisit this particular
moment in history. "They let a very
small crew onto the island," he says. "It
was a busy day and a half before we had
to get on up out of there." Nearly everything else was shot between
Massachusetts' North Shore and Boston
proper, primarily on location, with very
little work on stage.
While maintaining their close
attention to detail, the filmmakers
simultaneously strove to make sure
Chappaquiddick would not simply be a
pat regurgitation of known facts. "Every
creative decision we made came from
questioning Ted's state of mind that
summer," Curran explains. "He was still
reeling from his brother's assassination
the year before, and the party at the
cabin was, if nothing else, a reunion to

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