American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 48

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In the Cold

Top: Alex and Ben traverse a tarmac, beginning their ill-fated journey.
Above: The crew readies a scene on the tarmac.

dark," she continues. "It took an hour to
helicopter up cast and crew and unpack
the gear, and another hour to chopper
down, leaving only six hours during
which to shoot. We didn't take any lighting equipment with us and, because the
atmosphere up there is so thin, the
natural light is very contrasty - the sky
is bluer, the clouds and snow whiter, and
the shadows darker."
The Australian-born cinematographer knew it would be tricky maintaining a balance between the different
skin tones of the actors' complexions and
the exceedingly bright snow, which is
why she opted for Arri's Alexa 65 for all
snow exteriors. "My tests - shot on
nearby Whistler Mountain during
preproduction - showed I could
expose, for instance, for the shadows on
Idris' skin and the snow, just using available light," Walker says. "The 65 picked
48

November 2017

up more detail and definition in the
shadows and the highlights in the snow
than [the] 35mm Alexa. And digitalimaging technician Leon Rivers-Moore
made sure that the snow never peaked
and Idris never went too dark."
Before leaving Los Angeles,
Walker had tried out a variety of lenses
and chose Panavision Sphero 65s. "They
drop off at the edges and are not super
sharp, so they give a more cinematic
look," she says. Walker sought improved
illumination for the 24mm and 29mm
Sphero primes, so Panavision's vice president of optical engineering and lens
strategy, ASC associate Dan Sasaki,
redesigned them, producing a T2.8 and
a T2.5, respectively. Due to the
extremely cold conditions the equipment would face, Sasaki applied a special
lubrication to all the lenses.
The large format was ideal for
American Cinematographer

snow exteriors, though after her tests
Walker felt it was too harsh for interior
close-ups of the actors. All interior scenes,
the majority of which were shot on stage,
were captured either on Alexa Mini or
Alexa SXT cameras. For these scenes,
Walker tested Panavision's 35mm
anamorphic C, G and B Series lenses -
as well as Xtal Express glass - before
deciding upon the Cs. As with the
Spheros, Walker liked the cinematic look
produced by the Cs. "We used them only
[with] IRNDs and straight ND filters,"
she says. "I did have them flattened by
Sasaki, which I always do with anamorphic lenses." Sasaki adds that this process
involves reducing the lenses' "field curvature and astigmatism." Lavender reports
that the production occasionally acquired
70-200mm, 48-550mm and 270-840mm
zooms for 35mm capture. The 65mm
package included a 60-360mm and 150600mm large-format zoom.
"On [the anamorphic 35mmformat lenses], I shot T4 on just about
everything," she continues. "I believe we
kept the Spheros between T4 and T8 [for
the Alexa 65 material]. I felt they got too
contrasty when the aperture was closed
too much, so rather than closing down the
lens when I wanted to focus less on the
environment and more on the actors, I
lowered the depth of field with NDs at
strengths ranging from .3 to 2.4, sometimes combining them."
Arri Rental supplied three Alexa 65
bodies, and Panavision provided two
Alexa SXTs and the Alexa Mini, as well as
the lenses for all camera models. The lens
package also included a 55mm Macro
Auto Panatar - mainly for the Mini -
as well as a dual-format super-telephoto
lens that was customized by Sasaki, which
had a focal length of 2,700mm when on
an Alexa 65, and 2,800mm when used on
a 35mm. Renowned lens designer and
advisor Sasaki elaborates, "We converted
the lens to have a universal mount adapter.
For the large-format spherical, we had a
dedicated 65 mount with a built-in
expander to accommodate the larger diagonal. When we switched to the 35mm
version, we made an anamorphic adapter
that went on the back." The Mountain

American Cinematographer - November 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2017