American Cinematographer - October 2011 - 74

Filmmakers’ Forum
A young boy (Nathan Gamble) bonds with a rudderless sea creature in Dolphin Tale, shot by Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK.

Boyd, ASC. I wanted to operate one camera myself, and for the second camera we were lucky to get Michael St. Hilaire, who had also recently Last summer I had packed for a six-month, once-in-a-lifetime moved to Florida. The underwater photography would be operated by adventure in India — shooting a movie about the life of Buddha — Pete Zuccarini, one of the most experienced underwater cameramen when the producer called with the bad news that the financing had in the country. collapsed. Since the plane tickets had already been purchased, I took Paradise offered an underwater rig that used Silicon Imaging’s my family for a short trip to Germany, but I still really needed a job! SI-2K cameras, but I wasn’t happy about the prospect of shooting the Luckily, when I got back to Los Angeles, my agent arranged for very important underwater sequences at a lower resolution than the me to interview for a movie about a boy and a dolphin without a tail. above-water scenes. In prep Pete suggested he could build a new The director, Charles Martin Smith, had helmed some nice indepenhousing for the 4K Red 3-D rig, and he and his engineer designed a dent films and had also starred in Carroll Ballard’s Never Cry Wolf, a shiny, silver housing that we called the Volkswagen. It could work as fabulous picture about men and nature. I felt that if we could an underwater housing and as a splash box at water level. approach that movie’s quality on Dolphin Tale, we would be just fine. I decided not to use the Steadicam, which I usually like to use, Then Charles said, “We’ll be shooting in 3-D.” I was a little and instead shoot everything from cranes and dollies. The 3-D camera shocked. The project involved child actors, a dolphin who had no rig was so big it reminded me of my early days in film school, when double, a location-based shoot in Florida during hurricane season and the only way for us students to shoot sound was to use an old Arri lots of underwater work. Capturing in 3-D would add to an already blimp that had to be carried by two people. This was progress? tall order. The production had also struck a deal with Scott Howell at However, I also felt Dolphin Tale might be a great opportunity Cinemoves, which provided various Technocranes with image-stabito use 3-D differently. The technology was being used mostly for big, lized heads for the entire shoot. These gave us great freedom to move action-packed blockbusters, and our story was a family-oriented the camera a lot, which helps bring the 3-D space to life. We were able drama. to reach almost everywhere over the dolphin pools, and for the final I would have liked to compare various 3-D systems, but the scene in the lagoon we used a 50' Technocrane on a pontoon boat. production worked out a deal with Paradise FX before I was hired. So My biggest concern was how to deal with all of the day-exteI began learning what I could about the format. After a great introrior shots. Going digital means less highlight retention, and the expoductory 3-D seminar conducted by Sony and arranged through our sure curves just don’t roll off as nicely as film does, especially when union, Local 600, I asked for a camera test. The Paradise system, scenes involve harsh contrast and bright skies in backlight situations. designed by Max Penner, uses Preston motors for all of the focus, lens- Most of the story takes place at a marine hospital and aquarium that conversion and interaxial adjustments. Max also works as the stereoserves as home to our dolphin, Winter, but the main location wasn’t grapher on his movies, and he brings with him a lot of knowledge and exactly pretty. It was a former sewage plant that had been converted, confidence. so everything was built out of concrete and painted toilet blue! Arri’s Alexa was not available at the time, and I wasn’t too The production designer, Michael Corenblith, had designed an happy about shooting on the Red One, which came with the Paradise additional outdoor pool area, but there was no sun cover for the
74 October 2011 American Cinematographer

system. I was concerned about the Red’s reliability and ergonomics, and at that time it still had a lot of trouble in low-light tungsten situations — I felt the skin tones never looked real. On the plus side, Max had some very nice Zeiss Master Primes and short Angenieux zoom lenses that I knew would help. Camera weight was another concern. The Paradise rig weighed almost 100 pounds in studio mode, and we also needed an underwater housing. I was able to hire several of my longtime Los Angeles crewmembers, including 1st AC Tommy Klines, 2nd AC Miki Janicin and key grip Loren Corl. The gaffer, Pat Murray, had just moved to our location in Clearwater, Fla., and came highly recommended by Russell Shooting Dolphin Tale in 3-D By Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK

Photos by Jon Farmer, courtesy of Warner Bros.

American Cinematographer - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2011