American Cinematographer - June 2017 - 37

James doesn't leave it there. He likes to go
on a journey with the actors, capturing the
spontaneity while filming. As the cast
develops their performances, the shots
develop through the takes. These are
opposing ideas: [we had] a complex visual
design for large-screen [venues], yet we
wanted to shoot it like a documentary.
James is exploratory with the text and
performances, and wants the camera to be
exploratory, too."
Gunn wanted a more mobile and
fluid camera. "This is my natural
tendency," he says, "but I held back on the
last film because of the 3D. But progress
in 3D allows for more movement."
The quest for a high-resolution yet
lightweight camera ultimately brought
Braham to ASC associate Jarred Land,
president of Red Digital Cinema; the
cinematographer had had a favorable
experience capturing The Legend of Tarzan
on the company's Epic Dragon camera in
6K.
"Jarred put on the table this blackbox prototype 8K VistaVision camera and
said, 'What about this?'" the cinematographer recalls. The Weapon 8K VV features
a 40.96mm x 21.60mm Red Dragon
35.4-megapixel CMOS sensor, which
yields an image with a maximum of
8,192x4,320 effective pixels.
"There was an intensive process of
comparing formats," Braham says. "I
looked at the Arri Alexa 65 and again at
the Red Epic Dragon 6K, both of which
provide a spectacular picture. Resolution
was very significant [for this project], and
although the resolution of the projected
picture will be far less than what it's originated in, [it's optimal to] start with something incredibly detailed and rich.
"We shot a lot of tests and projected
them for key studio people," he continues.
"[Marvel Studios was] supportive and
engaged, and accepted my wish to go the
8K route, but it was a lot of work for Red
to make it into a production camera. That
was particularly important on this movie,
where there are many visual-effects houses
and you need a robust system. The visualeffects team [headed by Christopher
Townsend], the color team and I worked
with Red to get to a point where they

Quill meets his long-lost father, Ego (Kurt Russell).

developed a fabulous final camera."
Then there was the question of
how to move the camera with the freedom the filmmakers wanted. "Steadicam
has its own style and voice," Braham
says. "And handheld is great when it's
appropriate to the storytelling, but for
long periods of time it's too much,
particularly in Imax. And sometimes the
difficulty with a dolly or crane is that
their very physicality means they
respond in a particular way."
Taking advantage of the small size
and weight of the Red Weapon 8K VV,
whose brain and media bay collectively
weigh 3.4 pounds - "12 pounds when
built with a lens," Braham notes - the
cinematographer suggested using the
Stabileye miniature stabilized head,
designed by David Freeth. Braham
relates that he "understood the groundbreaking potential for its use as the principal camera platform, and I had been
working with Freeth in developing the
way it could be used as such." The
Stabileye enables the camera to be
mounted to a U-shaped bar with
handles on both ends for grips to hold,
while the operator controls the camera
remotely and wirelessly.
"The Stabileye is like a handheld
dolly," Braham explains. "It makes it
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easier to move the camera than by stripping down the set and putting big cranes
around. It has a tiny footprint. You can
fly it on wires. You can bring the camera
from the floor to eye level as fast as your
hand can take it. No other stabilization
device can do that. I showed James a clip
of the camera moving and he could see
how he could design shots and how flexible the camera could be. You can stand
still for 10 minutes and it would be rocksolid, and then you could move very
fast."
Around 90 days of principal
photography began in February 2016.
Although the production was based at
Pinewood Atlanta Studios, the everexpanding facility couldn't accommodate all of the show's needs because some
spaces were occupied with prep for
Spider-Man: Homecoming. A half-dozen
additional sets were thus constructed at
the Georgia International Convention
Center, including interiors for the
Eclector - the Ravagers' main ship and
aircraft carrier - such as flight decks,
bars, jail cells and hallways.
The Stabileye was a workhorse for
the crew, and no Steadicam was used.
The camera was placed on an Oculus
remote head on a 50' Technocrane in
some circumstances, including a scene at
June 2017

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