American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 54

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In the Cold

With the camera mounted atop a sled dolly, the crew follows the actors as they
trudge through the snow.

Walker reports, known as Black Wall.
Wearing the 88-pound Steadicam,
Wilke followed closely behind Elba up
the final 250 meters to the summit, then
made a full 360-degree circle around the
actor. Elba made his own 360 as his
character surveys the landscape in all
directions.
"It was by far the hardest shot I
have ever done in my life," Wilke says.
"That last 250-meter hike up the ridge
was treacherous. Snow that looked solid
crumbled underneath your boots, revealing jagged ancient rock that was sometimes slick with ice." With the camera
focused on Elba, Wilke couldn't see
where he was stepping as he circled the
actor on the peak, so dolly grip Monro
guided him from behind. When the
snow gave way under one of Wilke's legs,
Monro gently lifted him up and kept
54

November 2017

him moving. Meanwhile, Lavender was
not only pulling focus but also giving
timing notes to Elba and Wilke so they
could sync up their respective 360s.
"That shot was a testament to the teamwork it takes to make a film," Wilke
submits.
It was exceedingly windy along
the ridges, and Kirilenko and Monro
carried windbreaks to help shield the
Steadicam. Though windbreaks are
normally black, Walker asked her key
grip to make them white, so they could
bounce back a little sun onto Elba.
Because the two grips couldn't also hold
bounce cards, Walker had them wear
white painters' suits - in effect becoming the bounce.
The filmmakers had originally
considered using Steadicam for many of
the mountaintop scenes, as well as for
American Cinematographer

the descent, but Wilke and Kirilenko
realized that it wouldn't work for the
numerous 300-to-500-meter walk-andtalks in the deep snow. "We started
thinking about a pontoon-style snowboard rig with a Libra 5 [stabilized head]
on it," Wilke recounts. "From there we
progressed to a double-snowboard base
with an adjustable pipe platform on
which we mounted the Libra head."
This proved a far better alternative,
although it took every bit of energy
Monro and B-camera dolly grip Todd
Hlagi had to push the sled through the
snow. Wilke notes, "We were able to
track with the actors without [having to
dig] channels for me to walk on, had I
used the Steadicam."
Kirilenko and his team built two
sled dollies. "I got high-quality snowboards and converted my Rickshaw
Dolly, fabricating pieces to adapt the
snowboards to the axle, then mounted
the Libra to the Rickshaw," the key grip
says. "The second dolly was smaller, and
made from speed rail with push bars and
fabricated pieces to mount the snowboards to the sled." Kirilenko also
designed an additional dolly to use on
awkward terrain. "It basically tracked
along a piece of 20-foot customized
ladder truss and could be quickly set at
any height we wanted."
The telephoto lens was ideal for
shooting the actors in this environment
- "as we sometimes had one camera very
wide and one telephoto for effect at the
same time," Walker says - juxtaposing
the two tiny human figures against the
vastness of nature. One of Walker's
favorite shots is of Ben pulling the injured
Alex on a small, flat sled that he has
constructed. "It's snowing," Walker
describes. "The camera is about a half
mile away and his size hardly changes.
There are layers and layers of snow falling
between the camera and the actors."
Wilke adds, "Idris is trudging
through waist-high snow across a beautiful valley, and it looks hard because it is
hard. The danger within the beauty is
something Hany talked about a lot, and
you can see it in this and other scenes."
Walker opines, "Hany has a very

American Cinematographer - November 2017

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