American Cinematographer - June 2014 - S11

"With underexposing [7213 Film], I could work
in the toe of the curve a little more, which
made the grain a bit more apparent and the
color a little stronger," Anderson reveals.
you haven't fi ltered out any
wavelength."
Anderson underexposed
the 7213 Film by two-thirds
of a stop while maintaining
a T2.8 to T2.8/4 split. "With
underexposing, I could work
in the toe of the curve a little
more, which made the grain
a bit more apparent and the
color a little stronger," he
reveals.
Armed with a camera
package from Arri CSC
consisting of an ARRI 416,
COOKE S4 Mini prime
lenses, and an ANGENIEUX
OPTIMO 12:1 24-290mm,
Anderson and Renzi drew
on painterly, Western-style
compositions. "Our approach
was to design the shot
ahead of time in scouting
and compose our image,"
Anderson says. "Then from
there, we adapted to what
our characters were doing."
Adds Renzi, "We went
around with the ranchers
for several days prior
to shooting to see what
their activities were, then
developed our shot list based
on that. The one wildcard
was capturing a live birth on
camera. We posted up on
a bale of hay for fi ve hours
trying not to run too much
fi lm. We had this moment
where we ran out of fi lm
right when the calf came
out, so there is a burn mark
in the movie that we kept
in there so that there is no
jump cut or appearance that
we contrived the moment. It
worked out perfectly."
Anderson notes that the
birthing scene is a good
example of the long lens
work employed in the fi lm,
staying a good distance away
because of the uncertainty of
animal behavior.
The fi lm in general was all
practical and available light.
Anderson did opt for some
KODAK VISION3 500T Color
Negative Film 7219 for night
shots. "Shooting 7219 gave
us the ability to work just
with the cowboys' own fl ood
lamps and get an exposure,"
he says.
A landscape shot of the
cattle being driven out to
pasture stood out most
for Anderson. The shot
had Abbott cresting a hill
on horseback with a large
herd of cattle before him,
snowcapped mountains in
the background, and trees
at the base of the hill in the
foreground. "That was the
signature shot of the movie
that had this amazing color
palette," he says. "We wanted
color to be a very strong
element. In addition to NDs,
I had a Polarizer with us at all
times so I could pull the blue
out of that Montana sky."
Colorist Jaime Obradovich
graded the movie at
Company 3 in New York and
a DCP master was created.
"We used a Kodak print
stock look-up table that
limits the color to a fi lm color
space," Anderson reports.
"We wanted an authenticlooking
movie. Shooting on
fi lm certainly helped us make
images that were really rich
and had depth, and we didn't
have to use a lot of digital
post manipulation to make
them."
Featuring a lyrical
voiceover by Harry Dean
Stanton reciting cowboy
poetry and writings, Fishtail
premiered at the Tribeca
Film Festival in New York.
Photos: Top spread and bottom: Scenes
from Fishtail. Left page middle: Joe
Anderson readies for a shot. Inset this
page: The ARRI 416 ready to roll. (Photos
courtesy of Joe Anderson.)
American Cinematographer - June 2014

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