American Cinematographer - September 2013 - 10

Editor’s Note

Stephen Pizzello
Executive Editor

Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC.

This month’s focus on international production ranges far
and wide to cover movies that were made all over the globe
for a variety of budget levels. Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi thriller
Elysium, shot in Canada and Mexico, details a future in
which Earth’s wealthiest citizens have disembarked to an
orbiting space station, leaving behind a working class that
struggles to survive on terra firma. The production’s offworld scenes were completed on stages in Vancouver, while
most of the location work was captured in Mexico City.
“My approach to filmmaking is to drop a viewer into the
middle of an environment and try to convey what that feels
like,” cinematographer Trent Opaloch tells Douglas
Bankston (“Worlds Apart,” page 34). “On this film, it came
down to a strong handheld feel on Earth, a very active, dynamic camera using C Series lenses
for their old-school contrast and flare characteristics; and more controlled camerawork,
including Steadicam and Technocrane, on Elysium, which we shot entirely with the E Series
for the higher contrast and better blacks.”
Bangkok, Thailand, is the backdrop for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, a
revenge drama that has divided viewers and critics while earning kudos for Larry Smith, BSC,
who brought a colorful palette to the seductively lurid settings, many of which were located
in red-light districts. “[Most] of the wheeling and dealing takes place in locations that were
actually sex clubs,” Smith told me in a Skype chat from Thailand (“Bangkok Dangerous,”
page 50). “We went to all of these really seedy places — gay clubs, heterosexual clubs, bars.
Most of them are actually very depressing, especially the hetero clubs. The gay clubs are a bit
more fun because they’re more theatrical.”
Bill Pope, ASC and director Edgar Wright sought a much lighter tone for the opening
scenes of The World’s End, which begins with a jaunty pub crawl but veers off toward an
apocalypse. “What starts as a film about old friends in a small town suddenly becomes a
story about aliens taking over the town and replacing everyone with robots,” Pope tells Iain
Stasukevich (“Pounding More Than Pints,” page 64). Helping to achieve this transition was
the project’s second unit, whose action is detailed in a sidebar by cinematographer Jake
Polonsky (“A 2nd-Unit Shooting Gallery,” page 66).
Our international theme continues in Production Slate (page 20), which offers coverage of The Patience Stone (shot in Morocco and Afghanistan), and a preview of the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibit Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa, Art and
Film, which will open Sept. 22.
Back in the States, the distinctly American drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints brought its
cinematographer, Bradford Young, the Excellence in Cinematography Award in the U.S.
Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Young details his work in an
extensive Q&A with associate editor Jon Witmer (“American Mythology,” page 80).

American Cinematographer - September 2013

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