American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 28

Top: The crew
films a scene with
Sir Ben Kingsley
(left, portraying
Ay) and Jogia.
Bottom: Ay serves
as the Grand
Vizier to King
Tutankhamun.

'Scope Westerns that let the picture tell the
story. If I could have shot this in 2.35:1, I
would have - but [the network] won't let
you!"
Tut's camera and lens package was
rented from Panavision in London and also
included a full set of Primo primes; a Primo
11:1 24-275mm (T2.8); and Angenieux
Optimo 15-40mm (T2.6), 28-76mm (T2.6)
and 45-120mm (T2.8) zooms. "I really liked
the 45-120mm Angenieux, but most of the
time in the palace we stayed on the 11:1,"
28

August 2015

notes LaVasseur. "Outside in the desert, one
camera [typically] had the 15-40mm and
one the 28-76mm. This helped in the
extreme working conditions, as it was often
challenging to make lens changes."
The Alexas recorded internally in
ProRes 4:4:4:4 and the Blackmagic camera
recorded 10-bit ProRes 4:2:2 (HQ) files. The
pace of the production necessitated a
straightforward approach to the on-set
workflow. "We had a colorist, Trevor White,
at the hotel," says LaVasseur, "so at night,
American Cinematographer

after we'd finished shooting, I'd go to his
hotel room, he'd put a couple of frames up
for me, and we would color-correct accordingly."
The show's expansive desert exteriors
were shot around Ouarzazate in Morocco,
often some distance from the crew's hotel.
"Some of them were a two-hour drive,"
remembers LaVasseur. "Most of them were
an hour plus." These scenes employed as
many as 800 extras (duplicated in postproduction to look like 5,000). "And the production's expansive sets, which were built on the
famous back lots of Atlas Studios where
Lawrence of Arabia and Kingdom of Heaven
were shot, also took a lot of filling," the cinematographer says. As an example, he notes,
"The courtyard was 600-by-300 feet. We
took full advantage of showing [production
designer] Michael Hanan's work."
LaVasseur says his visual references
came from a variety of sources on ancient
Egypt, in particular the painter "David
Roberts, who was there in the 1830s and
started painting these oils of what ancient
Egypt would have looked like. I printed them,
and when I walked into Michael Hanan's
office, they were all over his walls. It was nice
to see that we had come to share the same
points of inspiration for the show's vision.
"David, Spike and [production



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2015

Contents
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 1
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 2
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - Contents
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 4
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 5
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 6
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 7
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 8
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 9
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 10
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 11
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 12
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 13
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 14
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 15
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 16
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 17
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 18
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 19
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 20
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 21
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 22
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 23
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 24
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 25
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 26
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 27
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 28
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 29
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 30
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 31
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 32
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 33
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 34
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 35
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 36
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 37
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 38
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 39
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 40
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 41
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 42
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 43
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 44
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 45
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 46
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 47
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 48
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 49
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 50
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 51
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 52
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 53
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 54
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 55
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 56
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 57
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 58
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American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 60
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 61
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 62
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 63
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 64
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 65
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 66
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 67
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 68
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 69
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 70
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 71
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 72
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 73
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 74
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American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 76
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 77
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 78
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 79
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American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 84
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 85
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 86
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 87
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 88
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - August 2015 - Cover4
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