American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 56
◗
A Pitiless Peak
turned to his trusty Arrimax 18s, M90s
and M40s to light through the tents for
daylight interiors, and for the most part
opted for practical fixtures fitted with
standard household 40-watt bulbs for
the night-interior work. Although the
production would move to England's
famous Pinewood Studios, Cinecittà
was a better match for the exterior set of
base camp, as the natural light had more
of a resemblance to the light at Everest.
"Exteriors in London are too unpredictable and mostly overcast and raining,
which just wouldn't work for us," Totino
explains.
At Pinewood, working on the
famous 007 Stage - one of the largest
soundstages in the world - the production built Camp IV, the Khumbu Ice
Falls, the Hillary Step (a vertical 39'
climb just before the summit, named for
the first climber to reach it, Edmund
Hillary), and the summit of the mountain.
Among the many challenges on
stage was the re-creating of Everest
snow. "It's not like regular snow that
most people know," explains the cinematographer. "It's a very dry snow and
extremely fine. If you pick it up, it falls
through your hands like sand. The
special-effects department turned to a
highly dehydrated salt as the closest
facsimile, and that caused more problems than shooting at 10,000 feet in
sub-zero temperatures on the actual
sides of mountains!"
Although the fine salt re-created
the look and feel of the Everest snow,
blowing it around stage was a serious
irritant to the actors and crew - and to
the equipment as well.
"In all the time shooting in the
mountains and in sub-zero temperatures, we had no problems with the
equipment whatsoever," Totino notes.
"We had one small accident where an
actor slipped, slid and fell into the
camera and broke the filter, and that was
it. Then we moved onstage, and the salt
being blown around by big wind
machines killed six Alexa cameras. It
killed a Hybrid dolly, it nearly killed the
Technocrane and it required the assis-
Top: The
production
makes use of a
Panther Foxy
crane to capture
segments of the
laborious climb.
Middle:
Kormákur
discusses a scene
with Phula
Sherpa. Bottom:
The crew readies
the camera to
capture the
mountain
landscape.
56
October 2015
American Cinematographer
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2015
Contents
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Intro
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 1
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 2
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - Contents
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 4
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 5
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 6
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 7
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 8
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 9
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 10
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 11
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 12
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 13
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 14
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 15
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 16
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 17
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 18
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 19
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 20
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 21
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 22
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 23
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 24
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 25
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 26
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 27
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 28
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 29
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 30
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 31
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 32
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 33
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 34
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 35
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 36
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 37
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 38
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 39
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 40
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 41
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 42
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 43
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 44
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 45
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 46
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 47
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 48
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 49
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50a
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 50b
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 51
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 52
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 53
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 54
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 55
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 56
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 57
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 58
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 59
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 60
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 61
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 62
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 63
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 64
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 65
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 66
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 67
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 68
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 69
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 70
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 71
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 72
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 73
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 74
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 75
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 76
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 77
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 78
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 79
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 80
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 81
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 82
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 83
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 84
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 85
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 86
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 87
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 88
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 89
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 90
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 91
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American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 93
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American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 95
American Cinematographer - October 2015 - 96
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