American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 20
TECHNICAL SPECS
1.85:1 Digital Capture Red One Zeiss Super Speed, Angenieux Optimo
20 June 2011
American Cinematographer
Last Man Standing photos by Wallace M. Chrouch and Adam Beason, courtesy of Lifetime Entertainment.
and then we would experiment some more with colors, different kinds of fog, dirt and smoked glass. Creating an organic unity for each scene was indeed very hard work, and many, many scenes involved this process.” The finished DPX 10-bit logarithmic files went to the Warsaw Film Studio lab for final color correction, which was handled by colorist Ewa Chudzik. The festival print was made on Kodak Vision Premier 2393. As for that living tableau at the heart of the film, “the most challenging part was dealing with the length of the sequence,” say Tybora. Running about 4 1⁄ 2 minutes, it comprised 147 elements. At its foundation were three Red shots: one with the tableau vivant in the Jura, a second with Hauer and York in bluebox, and a third with the crowd moving. These were combined with a CG rock, mill and miller. It took Tybora nine months to build and texturize the rock, using images of rock surfaces, cracks, and slabs he’d gathered with his Canon EOS 450D. He and Majewski also struggled to find the right speed for the CG camera movement. Astute observers will notice that this sequence contains two conflicting light sources. The crowd walks through a raking, golden light, but the virtual camera move tilts up to a mill backlit by the sun, with CG rays of light slicing past the windmill’s blades. “That was to ‘spiritify’ the light,” Majewski explains. “It might seem like a mistake, but in painting at those times, there was often a different usage of sunlight [in the same image]. There’s real sunlight and holy sunlight. When Van Eyck painted the angel visiting Mary, Gabriel is lit from the left, or north, wall. Anybody who sees that knows this is not the real sun; this is the light of the Creator.” In addition to the feature’s upcoming theatrical release, a video installation called The Bruegel Suite, which incorporates extensive footage and drawings from the film, will be featured in the Venice Biennale this month.
In Last Man Standing, Catherine Bell (right) stars as Abby, a soccer mom and former black-ops soldier who uses her military training to rescue her kidnapped husband.
I
Last Man Standing Brings Alexa to Detroit By Jean Oppenheimer
The first obstacle Steven Bernstein, ASC faced on Lifetime Movie Network’s Last ManStanding was convincing the powersthat-be at Sony Television to let him use an Arri Alexa instead of Sony’s F35, Panavision’s Genesis or Red’s One. “I pushed hard for the Alexa,” says the cinematographer. “I was able to show that the camera would probably end up saving us money and a whole lot of time, if used correctly.” The second obstacle proved to be finding an Alexa, which has been extremely popular since its introduction in April 2010. “Fletcher Camera came to our rescue,” says Bernstein. “[ASC associate] Thomas Fletcher had one [brought to us] from the company’s headquarters in Chicago, and he actually purchased a second one from Arri so we’d have two.” Last Man Standing , Bernstein’s third collaboration with director and fellow ASC member Ernest Dickerson (following the feature Bulletproof and the telefilm Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie ), stars Catherine Bell as Abby, a soccer mom with a black-ops background who uses her military training to rescue her kidnapped husband (Anthony Michael Hall). The cinematographer had tested the Alexa shortly after it hit the market but had not yet used it on a project. “It’s incredible in
its simplicity,” he observes. “It has dials on the side for shutter angle, frame rate, ASA and color temperature, which makes it incredibly easy to operate. It’s small, handles like a film camera and has an enormous dynamic range.” Although Dickerson hadn’t used the Alexa, either, he had been following its development. Faced with an 18-day shooting schedule on Last Man Standing , he knew “the only way we could pull it off was with a digital camera that had the flexibility of a 16mm film camera. That’s the Alexa.” More than half of the movie’s action takes place at night, and the Alexa’s latitude enabled the filmmakers to shoot in downtown Detroit with just available light. When Bernstein needed additional illumination, he used small sources such as LED ribbon lights. He chose T1.3 Arri Master Primes because “they can be used in very low light without any reduction in quality,” and for their ability to combine sharpness with softness. “I know that sounds like a contradiction, but one has to do with contrast and the other has to do with acutance; it’s a lovely combination that makes the image look three-dimensional.” (He also used two Angenieux Optimo zooms, a 24-290mm and a 17-80mm.) The Alexa’s ability to record to solidstate cards was also very appealing. “You don’t have that bulky cable going to the back of the camera, so it’s faster to use, and we could also eliminate the traditional DIT
American Cinematographer - June 2011
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2011
American Cinematographer - June 2011
Contents
Editor’s Note
President’s Desk
Short Takes: TV on the Radio’s “Will Do”
Production Slate: The Mill & The Cross • Last Man Standing
Scalawags in Stereo
Hammer of the Gods
Tortured Souls
Decoding Digital Imagers: Part 2
Post Focus: Highlights from NAB
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
ASC Membership Roster
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Dean Semler
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - American Cinematographer - June 2011
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 1
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 2
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Contents
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 4
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 5
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 6
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 7
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 9
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - President’s Desk
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 11
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Short Takes: TV on the Radio’s “Will Do”
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 13
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 14
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 15
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Production Slate: The Mill & The Cross • Last Man Standing
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 17
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 18
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 19
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 20
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 21
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 22
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 23
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 24
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 25
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Scalawags in Stereo
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 27
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 28
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 29
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 30
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 31
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 32
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 33
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 34
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 35
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 36
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 37
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 38
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 39
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Hammer of the Gods
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 41
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 42
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 43
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 44
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 45
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 46
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 47
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 48
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 49
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 50
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 51
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 52
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 53
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 54
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 55
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Tortured Souls
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 57
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 58
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 59
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 60
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 61
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 62
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 63
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 64
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 65
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 66
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 67
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Decoding Digital Imagers: Part 2
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 69
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 70
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 71
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 72
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 73
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 74
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 75
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 76
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 77
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 78
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 79
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Post Focus: Highlights from NAB
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 81
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 82
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 83
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 84
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 85
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 86
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 87
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 89
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 90
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 91
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 92
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 93
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 94
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 95
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 96
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 97
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 98
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 99
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 103
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - ASC Membership Roster
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 105
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - 107
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - ASC Close-Up: Dean Semler
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - June 2011 - Cover4
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