American Cinematographer - December 2016 - 67

as their foundation, although with a
cooler overall look. "Everything exists in
the toe," Young elaborates. "There isn't
one real highlight. It's an aggressively
dark LUT."
Young reports that on this project
he operated the camera - and there was
nearly always only one. He further notes
that "many filmmakers from my generation are saying, 'I don't even know where
to put the second camera. Let's just get
this frame right and then decide where
the camera should go next.' That's how
we executed the whole film. It's something Roger and Denis worked into
their way of shooting that carried over."
Young made one exception,
however, by putting three cameras to
work for an exterior location scene in
which Louise and Ian talk on the back
of a truck near the base. Although their
respective philosophies initially position
them as adversaries, the characters have
evolved into allies, and the filmmakers
wanted to capture their warming relationship at magic hour - which
presented a limited window. "We
weren't looking to get more coverage
because 'more coverage is better' - it
was a time variable," the cinematographer explains. The crew therefore set up
a wide shot, along with a side profile of
the truck - to which the floating spaceship could later be added in the background - and a two-shot from the
truck bed. Close-ups were shot on-stage
at a later date.
Young mostly used Camtec's
customized Vintage Series Ultra Prime
lenses developed by Camtec's Kavon
Elhami in Los Angeles. The lenses are
Arri/Zeiss Ultra Primes, but with recoated glass elements that offer softer
contrast and increased flare characteristics. "You get that beautiful creaminess
and flare [similar to] a Canon K-35, but
with the mechanics of Ultra Prime
lenses," Young notes. He shot them
wide open, which had 1st AC Dany
Racine, in the words of Rivers-Moore,
"pulling focus like a boss at a constant
T1.9."
Young estimates that up to 90
percent of the Vintage Ultra Prime work

Lights are put into place for helicopter interiors shot onstage.

was done on the 28mm. If the filmmakers wanted to push in for detail, they
would grab a 40mm. "We wanted to
shoot the whole film on the 20mm," he
recalls, "but when we shot screen tests
with Amy we realized it was way too
aggressive on her. It didn't give us many
options to be as close as we wanted. The
28mm got us in a little closer, and we felt
that was where she was best represented
in frame."
Emotionally evocative vignettes
of Louise and her daughter, Hannah,
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open the movie and are sprinkled
throughout; Young shot these scenes
with Arri's Alexa XT M. The cinematographer held the camera head,
which was connected via 20' fiber cable
to the body - which, in turn, was
mounted to a backpack frame worn by
dolly grip Patrice Lapointe, who
followed Young. This setup allowed
Young to freely track Adams and the
actresses playing Hannah at different
ages.
After a couple of weeks of
December 2016

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2016