American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 16

Top: The babybuyers (Michael
Ironside, left, and
Chris Coy) in a
diner scene
captured at the
Four Aces film set
in Palmdale, Calif.
Bottom: The diner
exterior is prepped
for shooting.

- in Palmdale, Calif., approximately an
hour northeast of Los Angeles. Rinaldi
describes the location as "a little jewel.
Shooting there helped us make the desert a
character. We wanted to have this deepbrown, sandy palette and really make the
audience feel how hot and dirty the place
is."
The prospective baby-buyers make
their first appearance at the Four Aces'
diner set. The scene begins with an overhead shot peering down at a booth table.
Key grip Tommy Donald helped achieve the
shot by adding risers and a long offset to a
Fisher 10 dolly and employing a Cartoni
Lambda head. "The Lamdba is usually used
for low-angle shots, but if you rig it on top
of the Fisher with the risers and then tilt 90
degrees, you have a perfect overhead
shot," says Rinaldi. "You can also spin the
16

October 2015

camera and boom down, which we did in a
shot where Kevin J. O'Connor signs the
[guest register] in the motel office."
To keep the diner windows from
blowing out, Donald placed Gam adhesive
.9 ND gel on the glass. For the key light on
Coy and Ironside, an 18K HMI Fresnel with
¼ CTO was aimed into the diner through a
12'x12' frame of Half Soft Frost. A 1.2K
HMI with 1⁄8 and ¼ CTO was bounced off a
4'x8' beadboard for a backlight. To give the
scene the warm glow that exists throughout Chimeras, Rinaldi set the Alexa's color
temperature to 6,500K.
Rinaldi captured Chimeras in 2K
ProRes 4:4:4:4 onto SxS cards. He operated
the camera and used an onboard TV Logic
5.6" LCD monitor rather than trekking to
video village. "We didn't use any LUTs for
monitoring on the set," he adds. "I would
American Cinematographer

switch between Rec 709 and Log C on my
onboard monitor just to check the contrast
ratio." Digital-imaging technician Shiblon
Wixom then adjusted the color and contrast
to generate ProRes 4:2:2 HQ 1080p dailies
in Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve,
which Rinaldi and Minucci viewed on an
iPad during the following day's lunch or
after wrap.
Rinaldi did get a break from operating when he turned the camera over to
Steadicam operator Damian Church, who
flew his rig for Chimeras' bravura fourminute tracking shot. The shot finds Coy
and Ironside traversing the length of the
Four Aces to reach O'Connor's room, where
they expect to exchange cash for the infant.
Despite help from the Four Aces' neon sign
and colorful practicals, the night exterior still
necessitated emptying out the electric
truck. "Everything I had was on set," Rinaldi
recalls. Laughing, he adds, "I remember the
gaffer, Jeremy Kerr, telling me we were out
of stingers!"
Even with every light working,
Rinaldi rated the Alexa at 1,600 ASA to get
to a wide-open T2 on the 25mm lens. For
the shot's conclusion - which finds Coy
and Ironside in front of O'Connor's room -
Kerr taped a Kino Flo tube above the motelroom door. Just before the 13th take, the
tube broke. "I was a little desperate, but
Gianluca said, 'Let's shoot it anyway,'"
Rinaldi recalls. "And of course, as is always
the case, that take happened to be the best
one, and it's the take that's in the short.
Sometimes mistakes or randomness make
the movie better."
O'Connor flees the Four Aces and
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2015
