American Cinematographer - August 2012 - 59

a Ledge when he got the call from
Wiseman to join him on Total Recall.
“Three weeks later, we were in prep,”
says the cinematographer.
The production was shot at
Pinewood Studios in Canada, and on
location in and around Toronto. “The
architecture in Toronto is very interesting
visually,”
says Cameron.
“The
University of Toronto has a formidable
futuristic structure that we used judiciously.
Len was adamant that we use as
many real locations as possible to give
the story a grounded feeling. We also
built several sets on six stages at
Pinewood and used the property for
greenscreen work and some action
sequences as well.”
When the filmmakers began
prep, they were planning to shoot
35mm anamorphic, but eight days
before principal photography commenced,
production decided to capture
digitally with the Red Epic instead, and
use 35mm only for some crash cams
involved in stunt work. “At that time,
the Epic had only been used on a couple
of 3-D features,” Cameron recalls.
“Production was convinced there would
be a significant savings for us because of
all the visual-effects work we required,
but it was a big trade-off. I’ve shot a lot
of projects digitally, but this was a
brand-new camera I’d never used, and
we had to start shooting in eight days. It
was a challenging situation.”
He put the Epic through its paces
very quickly. “I did as much testing as I
could, but there was a lot I had to take
on faith because we didn’t have the time
for thorough tests. I had to assume its
ISO was really 800, and that it had 14
stops of latitude. It looked a little closer
to 12 stops in my quick tests, but our
tests were 2K, not 4K.
“We developed a workflow with
Light Iron, but there were a lot of
unknowns,” he continues. “What will
happen when we strap the Epic to a car
and put several g-forces and vibration
on it during a chase? If we hit the lens
with a Xenon, is the sensor going to
overload, or will it take the flare like a
film camera would? You try to listen to
Opposite: Doug Quaid
(Colin Farrell) prepares
to take a mind trip in
Total Recall. This page,
top and middle: When
his mind-altering
experience leads him
to believe he may in
fact be a double agent
named Hauser, Quaid
goes on the run with
Melina (Jessica Biel) as
Lori (Kate Beckinsale)
and federal police
take up pursuit.
Bottom:
Cinematographer Paul
Cameron, ASC lines up
a shot with the Red
Epic camera.
what other users are saying, but in the
end, you’ve got to figure it out for yourself.
It’s like buying a new car: you can
read all about its performance and
handling, but you don’t really know
until you take it around the block a few
times — and chances are you won’t
really know until you’ve put some serious
miles on it.”
One of the first real challenges
Cameron confronted with the Epic was
the size of its sensor compared to the
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anamorphic film gate. In “full frame”
5.1K 1.89:1 mode, the Epic’s sensor is
actually slightly larger than a traditional
Super 35mm gate, but in anamorphic
mode, the camera crops the sides of the
sensor off, using only 17.79mm of its
width. This creates a 23mm diagonal,
which is decidedly smaller than 31.11 of
the 35mm anamorphic diagonal. The
sensor creates a “crop factor,” or lens
magnification, of 1.35x, an increase of
18 percent on the apparent focal length
August 2012
59
Unit photography by Michael Gibson. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

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American Cinematographer - August 2012

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