American Cinematographer - November 2012 - 56

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Creative Conspiracies
Ambassador Ken Taylor and his wife (Victor Garber and Page Leong, at right) listen as Mendez discusses his plan with the houseguests. Keying the scene are 18K ArriMaxes softened by Full Grid outside and the sheer curtains inside.

Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham and Kerry Bishé] escape from the building, we shot their approach to a staircase door in the Veterans Administration Building, but that door actually led to a closet. Then, outside in Istanbul, [production designer] Sharon Seymour built a small set that featured a platform with two walls that formed a corner, matching the VA closet door, but in this case leading to staircase going down to a door that led to the street. One of the walls matched the closet door, and the other wall had a window, which I lit through with an 18K ArriMax on a Condor. They open the door and go down the steps, and the camera follows them handheld. I asked Sharon to put some practical fluorescent tubes on the staircase’s ceiling to create a silhouette of the actors as they walked downstairs. We left the base of the staircase dark so that when they reach the bottom, there’s a moment of darkness and then a burst of light as they open the door and step out into the street, and the handheld camera swivels around them, all in one shot, as they look around, not knowing where to go. The shot connects the loca56 November 2012

tions in L.A. and Istanbul as if it had all taken place in Tehran.” Something that helped Prieto keep track of such bits and pieces was an organizational tool he has used for eight years: his “photographic breakdown,” a chart on which he notes every scene, its time of day, the film stock and/or format to be used, any additional cameras or special equipment required, and any notes or questions he has. “I started this on Brokeback Mountain [AC Jan. ’06] because Ang [Lee] asked me to do a breakdown of the weather or mood for each scene, and I thought as long as I was doing a breakdown, I should include these other technical details,” he explains. “I use it to communicate to production and my camera crew what I need for each scene. It frees my mind to know that someone else is making sure the right equipment is at hand when needed and the right film stock is loaded on the camera.” The main set in Iran is Ambassador Taylor’s residence, and these interiors were filmed in a house in L.A.’s Hancock Park neighborhood. (The exterior was a residence in Istanbul.) “Ben actually had the actors
American Cinematographer

live together in the house for a week during prep so they could develop that dynamic you see when a group of people spends a lot of time together,” recalls Prieto. “That was really effective; by the time we started shooting, they had their own way of relating to each other.” Affleck wanted all of the camerawork in the house to allow the actors freedom to improvise so they could react spontaneously as the characters’ situation develops. “All of those scenes were shot handheld with two cameras, and we had to make fast adjustments as the actors moved — the focus pullers [Acamera 1st AC Zoran Veselic and Bcamera 1st AC Nino Neuboeck] had to be ready for anything!” says Prieto. “Sometimes we were off the lines, shooting one actor while others were having a dialogue, and sometimes we’d find someone in the middle of a line. Ben really liked that spontaneity.” To achieve a number of lowangle shots, Prieto and Anderson used Joey Cams, mobile stools created by Joseph Dianda, Prieto’s longtime key grip, whose ability to build whatever Prieto needs to achieve a particular camera move or lighting effect has led
American Cinematographer - November 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2012
