American Cinematographer - June 2007 - 47

we could go was 12 feet off the ground. The platform would selflevel at any position. We used it down in The Bahamas mounted on a barge and on land to get above the masts of the ships. When we moved to Palmdale, we cut it into pieces, shipped it and put it out onto another crane there. It was a very useful tool for filming around the ships.” One of the most challenging shots in At World’s End features the demise of Lord Cutler Beckett aboard his ship, the Endeavour. The Black Pearl attacks with fusillades of cannon fire, culminating in a slowmotion dolly shot into Beckett’s close-up as the ship disintegrates around him. The scene was filmed with Photo-Sonics high-speed 35mm cameras. “That was a complicated motion-control shot photographed by Ben Seresin, and it was done in two passes,” says Wolski. “One pass had Beckett walking at 70 fps, and then there was a motion-controlled repeat of the same move at 360 fps with all the debris and pieces of the ship blowing up. The camera is pushing in at full speed. To repeat this move and match it at 360 fps, the motioncontrol rig had to go extremely fast and then stop. On the first take, the rig broke. Then they decided to go with a simpler rig that didn’t have a pan head. That was a big challenge.” The high-speed shots were lit with 3 million watts of SoftSun lighting. (See diagram on page 45.) “We were lighting to a T221⁄2,” says Sanchez. “We had 16 SoftSuns, five 100Ks, 10 50Ks, and one 25K in overhead trusses aimed through a diffusion frame along with 18K HMIs. That was such a hot set we incorporated more than 100 tons of air conditioning to keep the cabling and the entire area cool.” At World’s End was finished with a digital intermediate (DI), which Wolski carried out with colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3. “Stefan has graded all three Pirates movies,” notes the cinematographer. “Any time we had a hiatus [during this two-year shoot], we’d go see him, check the looks and do some test outputs. The biggest challenge for me was the night material. I like to use lighting balloons, and when you’re shooting nights on such a big scale, you use HMI balloons because they’re more efficient. Then, for interiors and people, we were simulating candles and firelight. The color-temperature difference between the HMIs and the firelight is huge. If this were printed without a DI, the night would be candy blue and faces would be red, and there would be nothing we could do about it. DI technology is what makes these techniques possible; I can take the 12x ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Optimo HD Cine Style Lens Superior ﬁlm optics for video production Higher resolution than typical HD video lenses across the focal range Fast aperture speed of T1.6, no ramping Impressive contrast and color reproduction No breathing 327° focus rotation with over 25 witness marks Rugged mechanical design for precise tracking and focus The same proven optics as the famous “Optimo” ﬁlm lenses ■ 12x images 973.812.3858 • angenieux .com 47

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American Cinematographer - June 2007

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