American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 26

Re-Creating the
Boy King's Reign
By Phil Rhodes

"My father was a carpenter, and my
mother worked as a stenographer," reflects
cinematographer Chris LaVasseur. "When I
told them I wanted to go into the film business, my father said, 'You'll be a carpenter.'
Nobody believed it." LaVasseur pauses for a
moment, and then adds, "My second job,
as a second AC, was on Malcolm X." From
such auspicious beginnings, LaVasseur was
well-placed to begin a career that has led
most recently to Tut, a three-part, six-hour
miniseries for the television network Spike
that tells the story of King Tutankhamun
(Avan Jogia), the Egyptian pharaoh who
ruled circa 1330 B.C.
Having chosen to overlook his
parents' cautious career advice, LaVasseur
studied film production at Brooklyn College.
"I worked at Camera Service Center in New
York for about a year, scrubbing out cases.
While I was there, I got into the union." On
leaving CSC, LaVasseur's first job was as a
loader on Single White Female under director of photography Luciano Tovoli, ASC,
AIC, after which he quickly moved on to
Malcolm X with Ernest Dickerson, ASC, and
up the ladder of the camera department.
LaVasseur first met Tut director David
Von Ancken on the series The Following, on
26

August 2015

which LaVasseur shot pickups on the ninth
day of ostensibly eight-day episodes. "We
kind of clicked," LaVasseur recalls. "I'm a
high-energy guy, and we picked up very
quickly. Then I did the TV show Hostages,
and again he came on to direct, and we shot
a really good episode ['Sister's Keeper']."
Eventually, LaVasseur discovered Tut
via his agent. "I texted David that I knew he
was doing Tut and that I'd love to do it."
After becoming aware of LaVasseur's interest, Von Ancken "pushed for me real hard,"
LaVasseur continues. "If it wasn't for David,
I wouldn't have been on Tut. When he
called and told me, I was like, 'Wow, this is
our Lawrence of Arabia.'"
Given such lofty ambitions and the
high demands of modern television production, Tut's shooting schedule could generously be described as modest. To emphasize, LaVasseur points to Ridley Scott's
historical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings (AC
Jan. '15). Photographed by Dariusz Wolski,
ASC, Exodus had a 74-day schedule and
produced a two-hour movie. "We had 74
days to produce a six-hour movie," muses
LaVasseur. "It was intense, but we were
able to stay on schedule by using multiple
cameras."
The production enjoyed the constant
availability of two units, with three Arri Alexa
Pluses - one built for Steadicam and two
for studio or handheld work - carried by
American Cinematographer

Tut photos by Jan Thijs, courtesy of Muse Entertainment and Spike TV.

King Tutankhamun (Avan Jogia, right) struggles to lead Egypt to glory while his closest
advisors, friends and lovers scheme for their own nefarious interests in the miniseries Tut.

each unit. LaVasseur confirms his keenness
to shoot simultaneous coverage of the
production's larger-scale scenes: "Anything
with action or battle sequences, we'd go five
or sometimes six [cameras]." Mark Vargo,
ASC served as both director and cinematographer on the second unit, and would attend
with the sixth camera at key times.
During a three-week prep period,
LaVasseur and Von Ancken "spent many
days on location in the desert working with
stunt coordinator [Cedric Proust] on the
battle-scene choreography and putting
together shot lists," the cinematographer
notes. LaVasseur credits the director with an
efficient style: "We'd do [a shot] once or
twice and he'd say, 'Moving on.' David, first
AD Carl Ludwig and I worked very well
together, which allowed us to keep
moving."
Even a brief conversation with Von
Ancken reveals that the director holds his
cinematographer in similarly high regard. "I
liked Chris' aggressive style," he says. "He
got involved with operating and handheld
- he wasn't sitting back at all."
That "aggressive style" was especially on display for Tut's battle scenes.
According to LaVasseur, Von Ancken
"wanted the audience to be right smack in
the middle of the action and feel what it
was like to be on the battlefield 3,000 years
ago." To help achieve such a perspective,
both first and second units employed Blackmagic Design's Pocket Cinema Cameras
with Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm
(f2.8) zoom lenses. The cinematographer
continues, "We placed the Pocket Cinema
Cameras very close to the action to get the
best angles possible. In one particular shot,
an Egyptian soldier actually jumped on top
of me from a ledge while I was holding the
camera." He adds that Vargo "designed
very specific shots with the Pocket Cinema
Cameras, such as attaching one to a bow
and arrow."
Committed to making Tut as visual
an experience as possible, Von Ancken
notes that he "cut 65 pages of dialogue
from the script. The writer, Michael Vickerman, isn't precious at all. I wanted to tell the
story through pictures as much as possible."
The director is quick to associate this ambition with his choice of LaVasseur. "Chris has
an affection for classic, larger cinema. Big

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