American Cinematographer - November 2007 - 28

Robert Yeoman, ASC frames Cusack and Coleman as they stock a cart with breakfast cereal. matographer avoided hard light in favor of soft, often bounced sources. “We tried to keep the look as natural as possible and have the light come from the side, just to build a little contrast.” Explaining the book lights he used regularly, Yeoman elaborates, “We’d bounce a light into a white card and then put up a frame of some sort of diffusion in front of it, usually 216. Sometimes we used Opal if we needed a little more light, and if we had space for a large light and I really wanted to soften it, I used gridcloth.” When shooting inside with tungsten units, the cinematographer would often warm the lights with gels. “There’s a Christmas scene where John and Joan Cusack are walking around the diningroom table at her house. We had a number of practicals in the scene, and we tried to keep everything really warm. We filled the actors with a moving China ball that was dimmed way down to keep the color temperature consistent with our other tungsten lights, which were gelled with 1⁄2 CTO.” Many of the challenges posed by Gordon’s home resurfaced in a large atrium chosen as the location for one of his book signings. One wall was all glass and the others were white. “It was a day scene, and the interior was heav- ily affected by what was going on outside,” recalls Yeoman. “If the sun came out, we softened its rays with silks, and if it was cloudy, we bounced large HMIs to raise the light levels. The major difficulty [throughout the shoot] really was the weather, because it was just so varied. We were shooting in the late spring, and we were often dealing with days that alternated between sun and clouds; we were always trying to balance the two.” For exterior scenes, “we usually tried to use an 18K or a 6K, either bouncing or through a diffusion frame. It’s always nice to get something in actors’ eyes. We also used a lot of white cards.” Those white cards ably proved their worth during a scene on a golf course that would not allow the production to use a generator on the premises. “We were lucky that it was overcast that day. We used white cards below the camera to fill whenever possible.” Framing for 1.85:1 and shooting with two Kodak stocks — Vision 250D 5246 and Vision2 500T 5218 — Yeoman typically maintained a shooting stop of T4 for interiors and T5.6 or T8 for exteriors. “I like to get a fair amount of depth of field, but I don’t usually shoot at T16 or T11. Also, sometimes when you’re in an interior and you’re looking out windows, you have to bump [the interior light level] up if it’s bright outside. I don’t typically use a lot of ND gels on the windows.” Yeoman rated the 5218 at ISO 400, using it for interior and night scenes, and reveals that for the 5246, used for day exteriors, “I typically set my meter at 250 and then opened up about half a stop. I like to overexpose just a bit if I can.” Film dailies were provided by Technicolor in Vancouver, and during postproduction Yeoman was given two weeks for a digital intermediate (DI) at FotoKem under the guiding hands of colorist Walter Volpatto. “Our plan with the DI was to keep the early part of the film, when Dennis is still in the orphanage, slightly cooler with less color saturation. Gradually, as the relationship between Dennis and David develops, we timed it to be a little warmer overall, with greater color saturation.” The digital grade also proved invaluable in smoothing out Vancouver’s fickle exteriors. “The DI’s always great for that, because you can cut the contrast on the sunny shots to better match to the part of the scene that was overcast. The baseball scene, which was shot in one day, started in pouring rain and ended in a gloriously sunny afternoon. The DI was essential in keeping that scene consistent.” Furthermore, John Cusack’s wardrobe had a lot of black, and “it took some work in the DI to get any detail [in it].” Remembering Cusack’s on-set antics with a smile, Yeoman leans back and recounts a scene that takes place in the hallway outside of Dennis’ room. In the scene, Cusack walks down the stairs and stands in the hallway. “Every time John came down, he’d try something different and would go to a different place. Then, on one take, he stopped right next to the light, where he looked totally overlit. Concentrating on performance, Menno said, ‘That’s it! Print it! We’re moving on! Johnny, are you happy?’ And John said, ‘That was it!’ I looked at Chris Meakes and we both shared a laugh, knowing that for lighting it could not have been worse.” ¢ 28 November 2007

American Cinematographer - November 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2007