American Cinematographer - November, 2010 - 26

Left: Sound recordist Ian Maclagan (left), Edwards (center) and line producer Jim Spencer prepare to capture a traveling shot o n location in Mexico. Right: Edwards set the Sony PMW-EX3’s gain to 9dB when shooting with available light at night.

ally where strong shadows lie or random highlights catch something. It’s these shapes I compose for, not the objects themselves. I think the same difference exists on location between storyboard stick figures and naturally lit scenes; I learned to ignore the objects in front of me and focus on balancing the shapes created by light and dark areas in the frame. Nevertheless, there are shots that appear to have been planned, particularly as far as production design is concerned. Edwards: If it looks like there was production value, it was done after the fact on the computer. Because of the computer graphics, we could shoot anything on location and manipulate it afterwards, making one-off happy accidents fit in with the story. For instance, there’s a shot of two guys in a wagon carrying a jet engine with an American flag on it; they were just guys with an empty wagon I filmed as they went past. In the edit, we decided what CGI I would put in there. I also kept filming advertisement signs everywhere we went, and later, in the computer, I painted over them to create warning signs about the ‘Infected Zone.’ As well as being cheaper, it meant we didn’t have to stop filming or carry lots of props with us. What software did you use for the CGI? Edwards: We edited in [Adobe] Premiere, and I used Photoshop and After Effects. All of the creature animation was done in Autodesk 3ds Max, and I did all of the tracking in Mocha, which is the only way
26 November 2010

I know of to track out-of-focus areas. That was a lifesaver! What camera did you shoot with? Edwards: It was a Sony PMW-EX3, and it had a Letus35 Ultimate adapter on the front for our Nikon lenses. We had three lenses during the shoot — a 28mm, a 50mm and an 80mm — all with an aperture of 1.2. I fell in love with the 50mm and secretly wanted it to get stuck on the camera! The camera shot 23.97, 1080p MXF files to SxS cards. We could get about three hours on two cards, and you can take one card out while keeping the other one rolling. We had an editor and an assistant who pulled the footage off the cards, checked to make sure it wasn’t corrupted, cloned the footage so we were totally safe, and then deleted the cards. A lot of times at night I would set the camera to 9dB. We did a few tests at 0dB in night conditions with the grade whacked up so you could see into the blacks, and at 9dB with some de-graining. We printed both tests to 35mm, and they looked pretty identical. I chose 9dB because it meant I could see what was in focus when I looked in the viewfinder. The EX3 records in 16x9, but the movie’s final aspect ratio is 2.35:1. Why did you decide to crop the image? Edwards: I’m just a big fan of 2.35:1. I’m always disappointed when I go to the cinema and the curtain doesn’t open up that extra bit after the trailers. I also think it’s how our brains work — peripheral vision
American Cinematographer

feels like extreme letterbox — and, to be honest, [at that width] it’s easier to make a composition look stronger. In the viewfinder, I stuck some tape roughly where the 2.35:1 markers should be and then, in the grade, we could reposition the frame up or down. Did you have a chance to scout any of the locations during prep? Edwards: I hadn’t actually seen anything until we landed to start filming, but we did use Google Earth, which is a really useful tool. We made a wish list of [the locations] we thought we wanted, and then mapped out a route through Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Did you try to map your route so you could shoot chronologically, or was it more of a ‘catch as catch can’ methodology? Edwards: The actors, completely rightly, get nervous about ad-libbing a film out of order, but it became impossible [to shoot chronologically]. It really became standard issue to keep a lookout for anything a bit weird as we were driving along in the van, and then we’d jump out, make some shots, jump back into the van and carry on. How did you keep track of coverage with all of the ad-libbing? Edwards: It was kind of a headache. We got our best stuff when we were letting the scenes happen spontaneously without much planning, but the problem was that we’d do a half-hour take and then I’d say, ‘Great, can we do that again from this angle?’ What wound up

American Cinematographer - November, 2010

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