American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 87

A mobile camera
follows O'Brien
as he runs
alongside a
bluescreen for an
action sequence.

Twiford, who did the dailies grade with
Colorfront On-Set Dailies. The dailies
were delivered to production via the Pix
cloud-based review system and were
screened in the producers' trailer.
EFilm's proprietary eVue system was
implemented to ensure that all the
image information and metadata
displayed correctly on the 50" plasma
monitor used for viewing.
In contrast with the Glade, the
Maze was shot mostly onstage in the
former Sam's Club warehouse. To simulate the structure's massive stone slabs,
production designer Marc Fisichella
devised a modular system of lightweight
Styrofoam set pieces, which were placed
on rollers so they could be rearranged
quickly to create different Maze configurations as called for in the script. "Marc
also built a small-scale model with all
the blocks we had to play with," says
Chediak. "Toward the end of a shoot
day, I'd go with Wes into Marc's office
and we'd arrange the set pieces into the
configuration we wanted for the next
day's shoot. Overnight, the crew would
change the set to match the new layout
we'd chosen."
Measuring approximately 200'x
300', the warehouse offered plenty of

floor space for the Maze sets, but its
relatively low ceilings posed a challenge
for Chediak. The walls inside the Maze
were supposed to be more than 100'
high, yet they only had an estimated 24'
to 26' clearance on the stage, with only
8'-10' from the tops of the 16' set walls
to the ceiling of the warehouse. "We
covered the entire ceiling in [Kino Flo]
Image 80s," Chediak says. "We had
maybe 350 of them, all running to a
dimmer board, and they stayed up for
the whole shoot. We also used 10Ks and
20Ks, either with Chimeras or directly,
to give a little edge light to the characters." Additionally, the cinematographer
regularly used smoke in the Maze set.
In a few sequences, the characters
try to navigate the Maze as the walls are
moving and nearly crushing them in the
process; Chediak used the SI-2K
camera to capture point-of-view shots
as the characters run through the gaps
between the encroaching walls. "I'd used
the SI-2K on 127 Hours," he recalls.
"We had the wall pieces preset at safe
start and stop positions, so I could run
right along with Thomas into the closing walls as he goes like crazy through
the Maze."
Among the greatest dangers of
www.theasc.com

the Maze are the Grievers, described in
the novel as dark, bulbous creatures with
threatening appendages such as spikes,
shears and rods. These terrifying
sentinels come out after dark to attack
any Gladers who remain within the
Maze. The Grievers were realized
primarily with CGI created by EFilm
sister company Method Studios, and
supplemented with practical on-set spot
effects. The Griever animation effort
was led by Method's Erik-Jan de Boer,
who won an Oscar for his work on the
tiger in Life of Pi.
In one especially intense
sequence, the Grievers attack the
Council Hall where the Gladers meet to
plan their strategies. The interior of the
hall was built out of wooden slats on an
old choir stage in Baton Rouge. The
crew placed 12-light Maxis on Condors
around the stage to create hard shafts of
light through the loosely spaced wood
pieces. "We had to break up the ceilings
and the wall as the Grievers cause
mayhem," explains Chediak, "so we
built the set onstage and surrounded it
with black velvet and greenery for the
surrounding area. We shot the dialogue
scenes with the Gladers' Council first
and then broke the set apart during the
October 2014

87
http://www.theasc.com
American Cinematographer - October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2014
