American Cinematographer - November 2015 - 64

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Thinking Different

Top: Jobs takes the
stage at the War
Memorial Opera
House in San
Francisco to
present the Next
Computer. Bottom:
Director Danny
Boyle discusses
the scene with
Küchler.

original ideas are there but not fully
developed."
Boyle and Küchler also determined that Steadicam would be the best
way to enhance the visual dynamics of
the dialogue-intensive screenplay.
Operator Geoff Haley ended up shooting as much as 80 percent of the
finished film on a Tiffen Steadicam
Ultra2. (See sidebar on page 70.)
"The progressive approach to
formats and lighting that Alwin imagined and executed enabled us to apply
an incremental upgrade in visual quality
as the story develops," observes Boyle.
"It's a conceit that is beautifully tailored
to the story we are telling, and it was a
lot of fun to do. Great credit should also
go to Geoff as the Steadicam [operator]
64

November 2015

and sculptor of scenes."
Küchler's other key collaborators
included 1st AC Gregory Irwin and
chief lighting technician Len Levine. In
keeping with the edict to frame the
movie as cinematically as possible, the
filmmakers chose to frame for the
2.39:1 aspect ratio. Dailies were
processed by FotoKem and distributed
digitally to the filmmakers using the Pix
dailies delivery system. FotoKem
scanned 16mm and 35mm negatives on
a Spirit 2K scanner. Küchler was able to
communicate desired dailies corrections
via FotoKem's Frames iPad app.
The different camera bodies
necessitated different lenses. According
to Irwin, "We used [16mm and 35mm
Zeiss Super Speed (T1.3) primes] on
American Cinematographer

the Arri 416 camera, and [Arri/Zeiss]
Master Primes for the Arricam 35mm
and Alexa cameras with pretty much
the entire focal range. For zooms, we
used the shorter Angenieux Optimos
on the 16mm camera, including the 1540mm [T2.6] and the [28-76mm
(T2.6)]."
The production sourced its
camera bodies and lenses from Keslow
Camera in Los Angeles. "Keslow's Brad
Wilson was instrumental in prepping
eight cameras in three formats over just
five days and shipping it all to San
Francisco," says Irwin. "We couldn't
have done this movie without them."
"I operated a lot on B camera to
get additional coverage where possible,"
notes Küchler. "We also ran up to six
cameras on the big crowd scenes. Steve
Jobs was such a rock star that the call for
volunteer audience extras attracted
thousands of people. Greg, Geoff and I
would bring the cameras and lenses to
the set the day before we shot to help
decide what to cover."
Because the camera was
constantly covering large distances,
monitoring also became a significant
challenge. "We used [Navtech Systems]
Rover transmitters for the film cameras
because they were powerful enough to
punch through all of that dense metal,
concrete and RF interference in the
locations," Irwin says. "Initially, the
Comtek audio monitoring wasn't in
sync with the Rovers due to their different methods of transmission. Sound
mixer Lisa Pinero built in a digital delay
that counteracted the audio lag brilliantly. For the Alexas, we switched to
Teradek Bolt uncompressed wireless
HD transmitters. With the Preston
Cinema Systems remote lens control
and [Cinema Electronics] CineTape
distance-measuring device, we were able
to make each camera rig completely
wireless."
The long runs and relatively low
lighting levels proved a challenge for
Irwin's focus pulling as well. "There
were a couple of times when I was
essentially pulling focus blind," he notes.
"We shot in a lot of narrow practical
American Cinematographer - November 2015

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