Camera Operator Fall 2013

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ender’s game

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the book thief

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saving mr banks

fall 2013

Display Until February 2014 the hunger games: catching fire

fall 2013 camera operator

us $7.00

WWW.soc.org

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“ C I N E M AT O G R A P H E R E M M A N U E L L U B E Z K I E X PA N D S THE EMOTI O NAL VO C ABU L ARY O F F I L M M A K I N G .”

STEPHANIE ZACHAREK -

“A M A J E S T I C , I N N O VA T I V E H E A R T- P O U N D I N G S P E C TAC L E! T H E C A M E R A R O TAT E S I N L O N G, CO N T I N U O U S S H OTS, I N CLU D I N G A W O N D R O U S 13 - M I N U T E O P E N E R. CA MER A ANGLES HEIGHTEN THE VA S T N E S S AT O N E M O M E N T A N D CL AUS TRO PH O BI C C O N TA I N M E N T T H E N E X T.” CLAUDIA PUIG -

“ WORDS C AN D O L I T TL E TO CO N VE Y T H E VISUAL ASTONISHM ENT T H I S S PA C E O P E R A C R E AT E S .”

KENNETH TURAN -

BEST C I N EM ATO GR A PHY

EM M ANUEL LUBEZKI, ASC, A . M .C.

W W W . WA R N E R B R O S 2 0 1 3 . C O M

Fall 2013 DONALD SUTHERLAND AND PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN IN ‘HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE.’ PHOTO BY MURRAY CLOSE

Volume 22, Number 3

Features

Cover

Catching Fire: Part 2 of ‘The Hunger Games’

by David J Thompson SOC The second installment of the franchise was filmed in entirely new locations with a new crew.

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Playing ‘Ender’s Game’

by Brooks Robinson SOC Playing computer games can lead to saving the world in this adventure set in the future.

Ender in zero gravity from Ender’s Game. © 2013 Summit Entertainment, LLC.

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Tracking ‘The Book Thief’

by Florian Emmerich A luminous young star and a balanced approach from the director bring this story to the screen.

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‘Saving Mr Banks’: The Story Behind the Movie of ‘Mary Poppins’

by Ian Fox What was the real story behind Mary Poppins, and Walt Disney’s desire to bring it to the big screen?

Departments

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2 President’s Corner

60 Hi Def with Jeff

5 Editor’s Message

61 Transitions 63 Last Take; Advertisers’ Index 64 Roster of the SOC

by Chris Tufty SOC

by Jennifer Braddock

8 News & Notes 18 Establishing Shot

by Jeff Cree SOC

as of 11/17/13

President’s Corner

Why I love this organization What does it mean to be an Active Member of the Society of Camera Operators?

To me it means that: • You have the director’s vision in your mind • The Director of Photography loves everything you do • Production thinks you’re a genius • YOU get to float a camera thru a $1 Million set with gifted actors while telling an incredibly written story • Your lens, your decisions, your creativity, your pans and tilts all are the “je ne sais quoi” part of making the film • No one else can tell the cinematographic story the same way you just did That is what it means to be an Active Member of the SOC! I love it!

Save the Date

The SOC Lifetime Achievement Awards, which include the Governors Award, President’s Award, Distinguished Service Award, Historical Shot Award, and Camera Operator

BACKCOUNTRY PICTURES

Being Active

of the Year Awards will be held at Skirball Center on Saturday, February 15, 2014. There’s a special price for SOC members. Please plan to attend and honor your colleagues.

It’s also a great place to network.

See you there!

Chris Tufty, SOC President

“EXTRAORDINARY! A SINGULAR TRUE STORY OF INCREDIBLE COURAGE WHEN IT COUNTS THE MOST. BRILLIANTLY ACTED AND DIRECTED.

‘Lone Survivor’ is action-packed, unforgettable, tense and inspiring.”

Pete Hammond, MOVIELINE

“A POWERHOUSE. ‘LONE SURVIVOR’ LACES ACTION WITH MORAL QUESTIONS THAT HAUNT AND PROVOKE.” Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY TOBIAS SCHLIESSLER ASC

© 2013 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

universalpicturesawards.com

BASED ON TRUE ACTS OF COURAGE

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Editor’s Note

Great Things Happening We here at Camera Operator are excited to introduce a new regular section to the magazine entitled “Establishing Shot.”

Each issue, 2–3 active SOC members will share their stories of how they got started in the industry, and what paths they took to becoming a camera operator.

I hope these unique experiences will inspire our future camera operators.

We encourage all active SOC members to submit their stories to camopmag@soc.org, with the subject “Establishing Shot” or just “Est Shot.”

More to love I am also delighted to announce that Camera Operator will become a quarterly publication. I am so proud of all the work that the SOC continues to do, especially with this magazine.

It is truly unique; our contributors are the camera operators on the project.

If you are working on a film or TV show or other project that you would like to write or talk about for the magazine, please contact us via camopmag@soc.org, with the subject “Article.”

We’re always looking for interesting material. You’re in the

HOPPER STONE

Tell your story

front line, and you know good stuff when you see it! So please share.

The big event Save the date for the 2014 SOC Lifetime Achievement Awards! The annual event will be held Saturday, February 15, 2014 at the Skirball Cultural Center’s brand new Guerin Pavilion and adjoining Herscher Hall, with cocktail hour beginning at 4:30pm.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

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SOCIETY OF CAMERA OPERATORS BOARD OF GOVERNORS OFFICERS President .................................. Chris Tufty Vice President .......................Mark August Vice President ..................David Frederick Vice President ..................... Michael Scott Recording Secretary.......... Bill McClelland Treasurer .......................... Douglas Knapp Sergeant-at-Arms ................. Mike Frediani

BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE Jennifer Braddock Rachel Hudson Rochelle Brown Kenji Luster Dan Coplan David Mahlmann Rich Davis Denis Moran Mitch Dubin Heather Page David Emmerichs Tammy Fouts Sandoval Eric Fletcher Lisa Stacilauskas John Hankammer Chris Taylor Casey Hotchkiss Dan Turrett

STAFF AND CONSULTANTS Office Administrator ............ Diana Penilla Accountant.................. Alla Ratynets, CPA Bookkeeper ........................ Michelle Cole Assistant Bookkeeper....Heather Ritcheson Web Administrator .................Rick Gerard Publications Manager ....... Douglas Knapp Publications Layout ..............Lynn Lanning Publishers...................... IngleDodd Media Calligrapher............................. Carrie Imai Legal Reps ............. Jonothan Feldman Esq, Magasinn & Feldman is a registered trademark.

All rights reserved.

COMMITTEE CHAIRS Awards ............................. David Frederick Charities .........................David Mahlmann Communications .......................................

Constitution & By-Laws .............................

Corporate Liaisons................ Mark August, David Frederick COY Awards .....................Rochelle Brown Education & Mentor ............... Hugh Litfin, Michael Scott Events.......... Jessica Jurges, Rachel Lippert, Jessica L Lopez, SOC Historical..............................Mike Frediani Magazine Editor ............ Jennifer Braddock Membership ...................... Rachel Hudson Merchandising & .............Brad Greenspan, Promotions ................ Rochelle Brown Newsletter Editor ........... Jennifer Braddock Public Relations/Publicity ......... Rich Davis Publications....................... Douglas Knapp SOC Rep, East Coast..................................

SOC Rep, South Coast .......... Heather Page Technical Standards....... David Emmerichs Subscription Rates: USA $20/year; Outside USA $28/year (U.S. Funds Only) Subscribe online at www.SOC.org Camera Operator is published 3 times a year by the Society of Camera Operators For display advertising information, contact: Dan Dodd (310) 207-4410 x236 fax: (310) 207-1055 Dan@IngleDodd.com For article submissions, please contact: SOC Attn Magazine PO Box 2006 Toluca Lake, CA 91610 Phone (818) 382-7070 email: camopmag@soc.org

CAMERA OPERATOR FALL 2013 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Braddock Managing Ed/Art Director . . . . . . Lynn Lanning Post-Production Manager . Douglas Knapp soc Cover Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ©Lionsgate Production Coordinators. . . . IngleDodd Media Advertising Director . . . . . . . . . . . . Dan Dodd

CONTRIBUTORS Peter Abraham soc Will Arnot soc Jennifer Braddock Tilman Büttner Jeff Cree soc Richard W Davis soc Florian Emmerich Ian Fox David Frederick soc Michael Frediani soc

Brad Greenspan Sawyer Gunn Douglas Knapp soc Eric Leach soc Lynn Lanning Jessica L Lopez soc Brooks Robinson soc David J Thompson soc Chris Tufty soc Aiken Weiss soc

PHOTOGRAPHY Claudette Barius Gary Baum soc Murray Close François Duhamel Richard J Foreman SMPSP Jules Heath Douglas Knapp soc

David Frederick soc Michael Frediani soc Kim Gottlieb-Walker Rick Rollier Hopper Stone Jay Yowler

© 2013 by the Society of Camera Operators

Visit the SOC web site www.SOC.org

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C I N E M A T O G R A P H Y ROGER A. DEAKINS,

ASC, BSC

“Everything is filtered through the lens of the legendary DP Roger Deakins, who favors blacks and blues and dark browns, often shooting through rainstorms and giving us the same distorted perspective as Keller.�

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

W W W . WA R N E R B R O S 2 0 1 3 . C O M

News & Notes

What’s going on with members and in the industry

PHOTO CREDIT DOUG KNAPP. TROPHY BY HARTT TROPHY

Award for College Camera Operator of the Year

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t the June 2013 SOC Board of Governors meeting at the SOC Clubhouse at Filmtools, Awards Chair Dave Frederick SOC presented the College Camera Operator of the Year Award to recipient Ben Hardwicke of The American Film Institute, for his camera operating on the student produced short film, Munchausen.

SOC President Chris Tufty presented gift certificates from Fletcher Camera and Createasphere.

Not in the photo: College Awards Chair Steve Fracol SOC, whose vision and persistence made the College Awards program possible.

David Frederick SOC, Ben Hardwicke, Chris Tufty SOC

IATSE Time SOC members attend the 67th quadrennial

IATSE convention in Boston: Jennifer Braddock, Dan Kneece SOC, Bob Primes, Michelle Crenshaw, Michael St Hilaire SOC.

At work in Berlin

George Clooney and Matt Damon in The Monuments Men

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Camera OperatOr: News & NOtes

CLAUDETTE BARIUS © 2013 COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC. AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

KIM GOTTLIEB-WALKER

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ilman Büttner, honorary SOC member since being awarded the historical shot award for The Russian Ark, was working on The Monuments Men (see photo bottom left) and sent this comment via Aiken Weiss SOC: “I have to say, it was a rare treat to work with such a pleasant director as George Clooney. He is very quiet, nice and technically very clear. One or two takes—done. Hardly ever working over 8 hours. Really awesome. A very relaxed and funny cast. Clooney directed in uniform … Real fun … he jumped back and forth between director and lead actor easily. He was a team-player and never stressed … at least not on set. At the wrap party he DJ’ed and had a great time with us Germans.

I was there when they were shooting a scene with tons of extras in the Harz mountains—the arrival of the Americans. We were in tunnels and mines which were used as hiding places for the stolen art work.”

The Monuments Men is based on the true story of a group of art historians taxed with rescuing the art treasures the Nazis had looted and hid.

The film stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and John Goodman.

Fall 2013

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BEST C INEMATOGRAPHY ANDREW LESNIE, ACS, ASC

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ‘THE LORD OF THE RINGS’ TRILOGY

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SOC Continues Historical Plaque Program

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uring his recent term as president, Michael Frediani SOC was determined to revive the SOC’s exclusive program of presenting historical plaques recognizing achievements in the motion picture industry.

Initiated many years ago under past president Randall Robinson SOC, plaques were presented for Buster Keaton’s The General and Laurel & Hardy’s The Music Box. [Editor’s note: The earlier plaques can be seen in the SOC membership directory.]

Working with Historical Chair Georgia Packard, Frediani suggested Mole-Richardson Company to honor their 85 years of lighting excellence in our industry.

“My choice seemed relevant, having taken a field trip there many years ago while attending Columbia College Hollywood right across the street on La Brea Avenue,” Frediani revealed. “Plus the fact that when Columbia College moved into the old Panavision building in Reseda (where I first prepped cameras), Mole purchased the La Brea building to create Mole-Richardson Studios. And to tie this up into a nice neat package, that is where the SOC produces its video segments for our Lifetime Achievement Awards. We are so proud to honor such an iconic company.”

The Presentation at Mole

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RICH DAVIS SOC

he Society of Camera Operators (SOC) in partnership with the Hollywood Heritage Foundation presented the third in their historical marker awards to one of Hollywood’s pioneering companies, the Mole Richardson Company. Mole Richardson is a company that led the way by pioneering in lighting design and becoming a standard of Hollywood films and television.

The ceremony which was attended by hundreds in the film and television communities took place at Mole RichardLarry Mole Parker, Michael Parker son’s annual Open House and Douglas Knapp SOC and BBQ. The bronze plaque was presented by SOC Board of Governors member Douglas Knapp SOC and gratefully accepted

by Larry Mole Parker and Michael Parker, descendants of the founder of Mole Richardson, Peter Mole.

Michael Frediani SOC and Georgia Packard SOC, both past SOC presidents and Historical Chairpersons of the SOC, were unable to attend, but without their hard work this presentation would not have happened.

The plaque will be mounted and displayed in the Mole Richardson lighting showroom on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood.

Fall 2013

Camera Operator: News & Notes

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PHOTOS BY JESSICA L LOPEZ

Stabilizer Gear Expo celebrates its 4th year “

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he Rich just keep getting richer,” said fellow Steadicam operator Richard W Davis SOC right after he caught another t-shirt flying through the air standing in a crowded huddle of grips, camera operators, assistants, and their offspring. We were all very close to each other breathing, laughing, and waiting around for our names to be called at the GoPro booth raffle during Cinegear Expo 2013.

Stan McClain, proprietor of Filmtools, host of Stabilizer Pro Expo, and past SOC president

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Camera OperatOr: News & NOtes

The following day at the Steadicam Guild’s Fourth Annual Stabilizer Gear Expo, Rich won the grand prize raffle that was a fully custom fitted PRO Vest from GPI PRO Stabilizer Systems—one of the best vests on the market.

Just four years ago this amazing Stabilizer concentrated event began in a restaurant in the San Fernando Valley with a limited amount of space and just six vendors. Due to the new happening idea we were able to pull it off successfully and raise company awareness and participation to the local community.

Steadicam Operators David Allen Grove SOC and Jessica L Lopez SOC founded the thriving event, with organization overseen by Dan Kneece SOC. Combined, they wanted to make a prime event for the growing Steadicam community especially when operators from all over the world were conveniently visiting Los Angeles at the same time. The Steadicam Guild has been a big help with local involvement, connecting operators to stabilizer core companies, and providing membership resources to our specific profession.

For the past three years the Stabilizer Gear Expo has found a home with friends at Filmtools and the Society for Camera Operators. This year all the designated spaces were filled with representatives from Jerry Hill Steadicam Products, GPI PRO Stabilizer Systems, Inovativ Carts, Transvideo, Cinetronic, Barbertech, Hocus Focus, Tiffen Steadicam, Steadicam Rickshaw, Sachtler Artemis, C-Motion and Glidecam, with additional sponsorship from Bartech Engineering and Walter Klassen FX. Even the famed Grilled Cheese Truck made it out to feed everyone.

Next year in June, we expect the event to get even larger.

The Stabilizer Gear Expo is definitely a great opportunity for any newbie or veteran Steadicam operator to meet colleagues, try out the latest gear, and build connections within our unique community. continued on page 15 Fall 2013

“THIS IS A FILM WHICH TAKES CLASSIC SOURCE MATERIAL AND IMBUES IT ON SCREEN WITH A SENSE OF WONDER COMMENSURATE TO ITS PRIOR FORM, PERHAPS OFFERING AN EVEN MORE VISCERAL IMPRESSION OF THE POSSIBILITIES INHERENT TO THIS BEAUTIFUL, TRAGIC WORLD.” – RICHARD LARSON, SLANT MAGAZINE

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY SIMON DUGGAN, ACS

“THE AMBIANCE AND STORY PROVIDE A MEASURE OF INTOXICATION AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE CORE THEMATIC CONCERNS PERTAINING TO THE AMERICAN DREAM, SELF-REINVENTION AND LOVE LOST, REGAINED AND LOST AGAIN ARE TENACIOUSLY ADDRESSED.” – TODD MCCARTHY, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

W W W . WA R N E R B R O S 2 0 1 3 . C O M

PHOTOS BY JESSICA L LOPEZ

Stabilizer Gear Expo continued from page 12

Steadicam Operators are a different breed of filmmaker.

It’s a very demanding job, as we absorb several positions in one at the time “action” is called. We don’t just train our bodies to handle mass weight for long periods of time, we are a group of individuals that really do care about the art, stamina, and mental stability it takes to be a professional Steadicam operator. Not everyone is meant to do it. That’s why we take workshops, practice for several years, and invest

our life savings in state of the art gear. We make a living by standing behind a camera and by wearing one fulltime.

We are the only filmmaking profession where competition, friendship, guidance, respect and technology play an important role in one’s journey to the top (for those who succeed).

—Jessica L Lopez SOC

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Camera OperatOr: News & NOtes

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Fall 2013

Camera OperatOr: News & NOtes

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were, where the cameras were, what the lenses were on them, and if there was a dolly move, I would draw the dolly track and what was going on.

After the internship, I went back to Chicago, finished school and moved out to LA in June 1999. I had a few friends from Chicago that had been here a year or two, and landed jobs here and there as a gaffer or grip, helping friends, or friends or friends. I was happy to work and keep busy. I joined the grip union after some of these shows turned.

Meanwhile a friend became a DP and would contact me when he needed extra operators. I was balancing grip jobs and operating jobs when our little feature Cabin Fever turned union and I was suddenly in the camera union as well.

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grew up in Indiana, just outside of Chicago. I enrolled in Columbia College and attended their four-year film program. I came out to Los Angeles exclusively as a cinematography intern with Mauro Fiore on a movie called Lost Souls. Janusz Kaminski was directing it. They were alumni from Columbia and Janusz would always get somebody from Columbia to come out and intern. That was my first trip to Los Angeles. Strangely enough to this day I actually have the binder from that movie. It’s about four inches thick; the key grip and the production designer would give me set layouts and then I started drawing little lights and where the props

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JAY YOWLER

RICK ROLLIER © 2013

n the middle of my freshman year at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, I emerged from a train platform into the Great Room of Grand Central Terminal. I found immense HMI lights, a Chapman Electra crane with a 16mm Arriflex BL and two camera people perched on it—and so much more. It was a documentary on Grand Central Terminal sponsored by Philip Morris.

I talked my way onto that set as a PA and for the first few years of my career, every job I landed could be traced Peter Abraham SOC back to people I worked with that first day. Those folks encouraged me and taught me not only the craft of cinematography but how to be a professional on a working film set, how to bring out the best of myself and demand from myself skill and creativity, and to support those around me whose great joy was rising to that same level.

That was in the winter of 1981. I help out every single young person that I possibly can who desires to work on a film set. I will never forget those formative days, weeks, years. I remind myself and others that every day is both an audition and an open-ended gift that can bring new ideas, new methods, new solutions.

— Peter Abraham SOC

Eric Leach SOC

It was probably about 2006 that I finally said I wasn’t going to be a grip anymore because I was doing more operating at that point and things were starting to take off. I did a movie called Fame and I met Dan Gold and I heard about the SOC. He helped me become involved and learn that when you’re in the SOC, you’re obviously somebody who is experienced, well-rounded and also working in the business. And you have legitimate experience that everybody amongst your peers can associate with.

—Eric Leach SOC Submit your story about how you got started in the business to camopmag@soc.org For the subject line, please use Est.Shot or Establishing Shot. If you’d rather talk than write, let us know and we can arrange a phone interview.

Fall 2013

The moment everything you shoot becomes cinema.

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Part 2 of ‘The Hunger Games’

by David J Thompson soc Photos by Murray Close © 2013 Lionsgate. All Rights Reserved.

Jennifer Lawrence with “A” Camera Operator Dave Thompson handholding the IMAX camera

Naturalistic approach Catching Fire was all the parts that I love about the job, creating a beautiful image along with great acting, and working in the pure physicality of a mostly handheld film.

Shooting anamorphic and IMAX were just the icing on the cake. Jo and Francis trust me to fight for the shot and give them the best frame possible. The reward comes when Francis asks, “How was that for you?” and I can enthusiastically say, “It was great!”

Francis and Jo’s visual approach was to keep it very naturalistic. The camera complements the lighting and vice versa.

The camera shouldn’t be—and isn’t—obvious. It’s part of the conversations and moments that are happening with the characters. Keeping it handheld and being able to adjust instantly is a must. If I felt it was right to pan from different characters and follow dialogue or emotion, I wasn’t held back from exploring that. It was encouraged. It was all about making the shot work and telling the story.

As their operator, I felt Francis and Jo relied on my input and execution of shots. After blocking and discussion about focal lengths, they left it to me to find the moments. If the actors were giving something more emotional in a take, and I felt it was the right moment to push in, I would go for it. The idea is to connect with the characters. Being the operator, I am also the audience and sometimes I felt I wanted to be closer or more intimate with a character. I would start to lean in and physically move the camera closer into their space.

Difficult to do and be controlled and smooth while handheld! Sometimes I would be sitting on a 4 or 6 foot slider and

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Camera OperatOr: CatChing Fire

do the push that way or I would just contort my body and get in there. We all had a bit of shorthand and trust when it came to those moments. Francis actually coined this term for our subtle almost unnoticeable push in: a “Stank” he called it. It’s kind of shocking to a new actor when they hear they just got “Stanked”—which is actually the best compliment!

The cast of Hunger Games is outstanding. Having worked with Jen Lawrence before, I knew going in that it was going to be great. It was such an enjoyable experience, from Josh Hutcherson’s absolute professionalism and humor to working with an icon like Donald Sutherland. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright —everyone was just amazing.

Can’t do it without a great crew Catching Fire took on multiple formats—we shot 4-perf 35mm anamorphic with Panavision XL bodies. The newer front anamorphic zooms are unbeatable in clarity and range and we had an amazing 11–1 that we would throw into the mix on occasion. Handheld of course! Some select scenes were shot spherical. And then there was IMAX MSM 9802 15/70 cameras and modified Panavision and Hasselblad lenses; 40mm to 300mm were the focal lengths we had available.

I believe the partnership between the operator and focus puller is one of the most important on a set. If it works, it’s amazing; if not, it’s a total train wreck. The operator and assistant have to have a symbiotic relationship. They have to be “tuned in” to each other and have an understanding of Fall 2013

DIRECTOR FRANCIS LAWRENCE (RIGHT) SETTING UP THE JABBER JAY SEQUENCE WITH IAN FOX

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atching Fire is the second film in the Hunger Games franchise. The first film was done on location in North Carolina and was an ideal site for the 74th Hunger Games. The 75th Games and 2nd film called for a multitude of settings. Oahu, New Jersey, and Georgia fulfilled these needs.

Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Water for Elephants) was picked to direct Catching Fire. He brought on Jo Willems as cinematographer and Dave Thompson (Silver Linings Playbook, the upcoming Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Divergent) as camera operator. Dave has worked with both Francis and Jo separately on films and TV projects. All three collaborated on a pilot called Gotham. Catching Fire reunited them. Dave shares what it was like to create this movie.

how they each see the image. On a movie like this, racking focus between characters and dialogue is part of the style and if the focus puller isn’t engaged in the story, it’s just a bad shot. It’s important to fight for your crew. They aren’t just a line item in a budget; they make or break the film. Gregor Tavenner was absolutely the only one for this job and he brought an amazing attitude every day. And with Gregor came an amazing 2nd AC, Jess Lakoff. She kept our unit organized and efficient and it was done with grace and dignity. Not an easy task when juggling anamorphic, spherical, IMAX cameras and lenses, and all the locations. One of the best 2nds I have seen in a long time.

This was my first time working with the grip and electric crew. Guy Micheletti our key grip was outstanding, coming up with great ideas on the fly to solve the problems. Mike Bauman our gaffer was able to bring a huge amount of experience and confidence to the film. We all prided ourselves on the dirt and mud we tracked back through the hotel at the end of the days in Hawaii.

Round and round The last scene we shot in Atlanta was very challenging. It was the second part of a scene we had shot a few days before.

It was a blending of shots where the film goes from anamorphic 2.40 and opens up into the taller IMAX frame. The shot began in a 4½ foot glass elevator tube enclosing Katniss ( Jen). As the elevator begins to rise, Katniss sees Cinna’s murder. The camera is behind her handheld as we ascend the

tube. The camera moves and rotates right to left behind her.

This part was shot practical on the set. Then on the green screen stage we would complete her rise into the arena where the games begin. The previz has the camera completing the move right to left and swirling 540 degrees in a circle that grows bigger as it goes around revealing the sun and Cornucopia and then corkscrewing back in to end tight on her face.

Janek Sirrs, our VFX supervisor, and the VFX team would become very involved from this point replacing the green with created landscapes and plates shot later in Hawaii. The first thought was to do it on a circular track or dance floor with a short crane arm and remote head to be able to map out the move. This became an interesting problem to solve with coordinating cues with Jen, being in the right place when the sun (18k Arrimax Par) is revealed so as not to cast a camera shadow and, of course, we had to make the move seamless.

After discussing with Jo and Janek and shooting a quick rehearsal between setups on a set next to the green screen, we found the best tool for it was the Steadicam. We matched the tilt and height from the shot earlier and set the cues and shot from there. It was a dance between Jen, Gregor, Guy, and Mike to make it perfect. Gregor matching the focus going up the elevator and then racking between a closeup of Jen and the exterior of the Cornucopia and countdown clock as we start to go around. Guy underneath the camera with a bounce, and cuing the curtain that reveals the sun. All of us going around and around Jen standing on the elevator pedestal as she transforms from the emotional level of

Preparing to do stunt work on Cornucopia set Fall 2013

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watching Cinna be murdered and being back in the Hunger Games, pulling and then pushing in and trying to stay out of the hard light of the “sun.” We shot some select scenes in 4-perf spherical to match the IMAX. This was one of them.

“Problems” on set are a daily occurrence on any job but when you have a top shelf crew they are easily solved. We had a long scene in the dining car of the train and at the end of the scene Katniss gets up and walks down the hallway, stopping to look into a room where she finds images on a surveillance monitor. Sounds easy enough … except it was a 2½ page scene in the dining area, and fatigue sets in quickly when doing handheld with 1000 ft mags. Holding it steady and then booming up and leading her down a very narrow hallway is tricky because anything I am sitting on has to travel and go with us. Us” means Gregor, me, and Guy (leading me back). Throw in a boom operator and you suddenly have a parade of crew moving swiftly down a narrow passage. Guy came up with the simplest solution, something he called the “David Lean.” He screwed a 1½ ft 2x4 to two 2½ ft 2x4s so I could easily sit by leaning forward while the feet of the seat dig into the carpet. As Jen gets up and walks around the table I easily “boom up,” pushing the “DL” to an upright position by sitting up and pushing my feet back. Guy grabs it from under me and our footprint moving down the hallway isn’t three apple boxes but a very small manageable solution. Guy took this idea and perfected it and we starting using it for other scenes as well.

Handholding the IMAX

Getting focus marks for a 350mm IMAX closeup of Jennifer Lawrence

Catching Fire used IMAX in an unconventional way. It something abstractly beautiful about breaking filmmaking wasn’t just for landscapes, wide shots etc. We used it as you down to the bare minimums. Camera, sound, light, actors. would any other camera; the size and weight didn’t stop us. It Simple. actually pushed us further. Jennifer Lawrence on a 300mm Steadicam was used for specific scenes that Francis and Jo handheld in the IMAX format—how beautifully textured is had discussed in prep and then for scenes where we all that? 15 perf and 70mm—stunning bold images. I loved that thought it would benefit. There was a shot in Hawaii that we kept the language of the rest of the movie when we required multiple circles around Jen and at first we thought switched to IMAX. Francis and Jo don’t compromise. we could do it on circular track with the IMAX camera on a I would say the most physically challenging parts of this bag. We decided to do it with the Steadicam in low mode movie were the IMAX sections. Francis and Jo didn’t want with the IMAX camera instead. We had to get a very tight the size of the IMAX cameras to slow us down. We had to circle around her and she needed to enter and exit the scene. continue shooting handheld. Let me tell you, handholding an Very difficult to do with that kind of weight pointing up in IMAX camera is not for the weary. The size and mass of the low mode. And we only had 1½ minutes of film in the 500 ft camera wasn’t going to limit us. It was up to Gregor to figure out a way to make the MSM camera handheld.

When we told Doug Lavender, our IMAX tech, what we needed to do, his first question was “Why???” Followed with, “No one does that!!!” Well, we needed to do it and we needed to figure out how to put handles on it and throw it on the shoulder with a 1000 ft mag and do it in the jungles of Hawaii.

My approach to handheld is pretty straightforward. I try to lock the frame down as best I can. I don’t want it to “float.” Whether it’s in the way I stand or if I throw a cine saddle around me to stabilize it, I really try and fight the “float.” I believe the camera shouldn’t accentuate the shot. Handheld it gives the shot life, immediacy, and a sense that we are not only observers but we are Shouldering an IMAX right in the room with these characters. Plus there is Fall 2013

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artwork, discussions about style etc. Anything they talked about can only help you in bringing that vision to the screen.

Another factor can be the physicality of a film. On Catching Fire, I knew what I was signing up for. As soon as I got the call for the movie, I signed up with a trainer. I couldn’t afford to suffer and do any kind of permanent damage to my body. These kinds of movies take a toll.

My advice for upcoming camera operators is keep it simple. Don’t get lost in the technology, whether it is cameras, cranes, dollies, or any other latest and greatest gadget. Just because you have a 50´ Techno on a Maverick with a Libra head available to you on the set doesn’t mean it’s the best tool for that shot; it may be a simpler to put the camera on a sandbag and shoot it. Fight for the shot.

“As soon as I got the call for the movie, I signed up with a trainer.”

Don’t ever be satisfied with what you photographed. It can always be better. It doesn’t mags for the IMAX camera. Tough shot when you put in the matter if you are doing “A” camera, “B” camera, or “G” added weight and have Gregor, Guy, and the boom operator camera. Be happy you are there. Embrace those moments. running full tilt in circles around her, trying not to trip over Learn from them and do the best you can. Help out and don’t roots and rocks. take the “I am the camera operator/white glove attitude.” Get dirty. I have no problem pitching in and helping. Don’t ever Pay it forward talk down to anyone on set. You are a crew member just like I believe it’s up to every member of the camera department everyone else. There is no preferential treatment. to pass on your knowledge. We have gotten away from the If you think in terms of any job you could have on a set, it “studio” system in which most “veteran crew” came up. I was really is one of the best. You get to be creative, work with extremely fortunate to be trained as a loader and second by amazing crew and actors, travel and just see and do amazingly some of the best. I have been so privileged to work with so cool things every day! Who else gets to blow up buildings, many amazing DPs in my career. Having a commitment to a travel the world, witness Academy Award winning actors give film is important. You have to understand the language that stunning performances, and work with some of the greatest the DP and director are speaking—what films they may have artists/crew in the world? Operators get to do that every time looked at during prep, any kind of reference material, books, they put their eye to an eyepiece.

Cesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) interviews Peeta (Josh Hutcherson)

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Liam Hemsworth, Director Francis Lawrence, and Jennifer Lawrence Fall 2013

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Brooks Robinson SOC lines up a shot in Ender’s Game

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n the near future, a hostile alien race has attacked Planet Earth. To prepare for the next attack, and to save the human race, the International Military recruit and train young soldiers.

Young Ender Wiggin is recruited to join the elite and prepare for the next battle that will determine the future of Earth.

Based on the 1985 bestseller, Ender’s Game takes the audience on a gravity-free ride and stars Asa Butterfield (above left), Harrison Ford (above right), Ben Kingsley, and Viola Davis. Written and directed by Gavin Hood, and photographed by Don McAlpine ACS, ASC, the film is a visual masterpiece designed

Shooting for purpose Gavin Hood was passionate about bringing this cherished story to life onscreen, and was fanatical about getting the same film in the can that he had in his head. From production design to costumes, camera angles, and actor performances— everyone in the cast and crew needed to raise their game to reach the level Gavin demanded of each of us, and it was wonderful to work with a director who knew exactly what he wanted, and who focused so intensely on every last detail.

Gavin dictated the visual style of the film. He favored symmetrical shots that showcased the amazing sets and allowed the actors to move within the frame. Camera movement was methodical, and done for a specific purpose, either to reveal something or to solicit an emotional response … never simply because it “looked cool.” The camera stayed on the dolly or MovieBird Crane for much of the shoot, with very few handheld or Steadicam shots. When utilized, the Steadicam came out only because the shot couldn’t be achieved any other way, and I recall only two handheld scenes. The technique was only utilized to add tension to fight sequences and change the feel of an otherwise fluid camera.

There were no throw-away shots in Ender’s Game. Each shot that was photographed had a specific place in the movie.

The B camera was never brought in just for the sake of placating the producer or saving time … if it wasn’t serving an

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to be appreciated on the big screen. Three “A” camera operators are credited: Brooks Robinson SOC, Will Arnot SOC, and Chris Haarhoff SOC. Robinson (Iron Man 3, Tropic Thunder, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Water for Elephants), who worked longest on the film, reflects on this fantastical shoot. exacting purpose, the second camera wasn’t used. Some sets were better than others for multiple cameras, but the majority of Ender’s Game was a one-camera show.

Minds like ours Ender’s Game was my second film with cinematographer Don McAlpine ACS, ASC. The first was a small film called Main Street (2010) with Colin Firth, Orlando Bloom, and Ellen Burstyn. Don is a real filmmaker with a rich and varied history of films to his credit that date back to before I was born. He has all of the qualities I admire most in a cinematographer—a trained eye for light and composition, the political where-with-all to get what he needs from the producer, and the ability to steer the director in the right aesthetic and story-telling direction—all while relinquishing just enough creative control to his operators that we are an integral part of the process and not just a warm body riding the dolly and turning the Panahead wheels in circles as instructed. He is truly a delight to work with.

A real pleasure for me on Ender’s Game was working with Will Arnot SOC. We had met prior to this film but never had the chance to work together—mainly because we are both Steadicam operators in addition to our usual conventional operating duties. We talked several times during prep and compared notes on everything from our dealings with production to the visual styling of the upcoming film and Fall 2013

“A” camera operator Will Arnot SOC and dolly grip Dwayne Barr discuss a shot.

Brooks Robinson SOC prepares a shot; 1st AC Pat McArdle (behind the camera) is using his laser measuring tool, the “Disto” made by Leica.

Fall 2013

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Brooks’ Journal I keep a journal each day when shooting a movie. Here are some of the shots I did, and how I worked with those around me to solve issues as they came up.

Today started with a difficult shot. The camera was mounted on the MovieBird and up about 20 feet in the air.

We looked into the circular gateway that opens out onto the battle room. The shot was symmetrical and saw most of

monitor. I needed to compensate for the camera spinning in a non-nodal orientation, and try and keep the crosshairs on the center of the room as the set began to spin. What helped me was figuring how many turns I needed to make with each hand-wheel to go from a symmetrical frame while upside down to a matched symmetrical frame when rightside-up. As Billy O spun the camera and Asa walked forward, I counted as I turned each wheel (pan and tilt). This was tricky as they each had a different amount of rotation and speed, and trying to do that and keep count in my head was tough. I ended up doing it several times quickly so that I had a muscle memory of it, which proved to be a huge asset when we started rolling.

The next shot involved about nine kids entering the safety of their gate after being victorious in battle. They were running from the enemy and came in through the gate “hot.” Asa was hooked to wires and elevated outside of the gate. The remaining eight kids stood in place like bowling pins, and on action, the stunt department “flew” Asa into the gate and straight into them like a bowling ball, knocking them all to the floor in a heap. My camera was to scrape the floor and push into a close-up on Asa as he slid towards the camera on the floor. The overall effect of the shot was to

Ender experiences zero gravity. the outside of the open hatch. As Asa (Ender) ran up the stairs at the far end, we started to extend out and pickle towards him on the crane arm, ending in a close up as he looked out past the camera into the void of the battle room. This was an easy shot once the crane was aligned so that it was dead center with the gateway and the back of the hallway leading to the gateway. All that was required of me once the crane started to pickle out was to tilt up slightly as Asa walked towards the camera and the edge of the elevated platform. Easy.

Then it suddenly wasn’t. Gavin got the idea that it would be great to have the camera roll on its axis as it pushed into the close-up of Asa. This added twist would make it look like the space station was spinning in space. Gavin wanted to start the camera upside down, and roll the camera right-side-up as we met Asa in the doorway. I found this tricky for several reasons. The first was that the remote head wasn’t nodal, so any roll caused the camera to rotate off axis. For a shot that demanded perfect symmetry throughout the move, this complicated my life immensely. I asked B camera operator Billy O to help me roll the camera with the 3rd hand-wheel. He needed to time his move so the camera completed its 180° rotation exactly as Asa stopped on his mark, as well as make sure the camera was perfectly level when he stopped turning the hand-wheel.

This was where things got complicated. When the camera is upside down, the control wheels are backwards. Up is down, and left is right when you are operating off of the

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Brooks Robinson SOC and director Gavin Hood determine camera position for Ender on the floor. show that the actual actors (not stunt doubles) had dramatically flown through the gate from the battle room.

On any other set this would have been an easy shot to achieve, but not on this one, which was elevated — with a steep staircase at one end and the gate to the battle room at the other. We thought about two options: putting the jib arm on the dolly with a remote head, or using the dolly with an offset and remote head. The jib arm would have required a huge scaffolding to be built, as the dolly would have needed to be out past where the steep stairs leading up to the launching platform were. The dolly with the remote head seemed like the best answer, but with the 17mm lens, we would have seen the far end of the dolly track while at one, in order to get close enough on number two for the close-up. Don was content to have the grip Fall 2013

department build the scaffolding and go with the jib arm, but I pitched the use of Steadicam for the sake of time, and because it allowed for the most flexibility in case the shot changed at the last minute. Don pitched it to Gavin and off we went.

I hard-mounted the Steadicam with the Garfield to the Pee Wee dolly which allowed me to position the camera low enough to scrape the floor and also to do the shot without wearing the rig. We did three takes and all of them went well. Shooting with the Steadicam in this instance was helpful in saving time versus building a massive platform for the dolly, and we got the shot the director wanted without fuss.

This was my first scene with Harrison since taking over the A camera position, and it was an emotional one between him and Viola Davis. I was shooting over Harrison’s shoulder onto Viola when Gavin asked me to get a tighter shot of Viola. Since we were too tight to see Harrison, I moved him back behind the camera in an attempt to get his face close to the camera to keep Viola’s eye-line tight to the camera. Harrison ended Viola Davis up directly behind me looking over my ear to Viola. As we rolled on take one, Harrison took his place behind me. He pressed himself right up against me, so that most of his front was touching most of my backside. He then leaned in close to my ear and whispered from about two inches away, “It’s not because I love you … in that special way … that you know so well.” Just then, Gavin yelled “Action!” and it was all I could do not to fall off the dolly because I was laughing (internally) so hard. Somehow I kept it together and we made it through the take … whispers and all. When we cut, I wheeled around on the dolly seat, eyes wide, and Harrison smiled back at me and said, “Just messing with you, kid.”

Indiana Jones/Han Solo had a good laugh at my expense, and I got a story I’ll be telling for years.

We were lining up a close-up of Harrison. Due to the tiny room causing massive space Harrison Ford limitations, we looked at a 35mm for his close-up, which is a much wider lens than we’d usually use. It wasn’t going to work, and we knew it as soon as we lined it up on Harrison’s stand-in. Just then, Harrison came over to look at what we were lining up. Don McAlpine, who had previously worked with Harrison on ‘Clear and Present Danger’ and ‘Patriot Games,’ told him to go away as we needed time to move things around on set to get the camera farther away from him. Harrison instantly smiled and

said, “Good … a longer lens. I love long lenses. I also love young women, cash, and old whiskey, but mostly long lenses.”

The next shot was the reverse of a sequence we filmed a week or two ago. Ender had just moved into his new private quarters on the space station and stood looking out the window at the endless space beyond the glass. When we shot the scene from inside the room looking out, a light was attached to a remote head on a crane arm. The light moved from side to side on a diagonal path to indicate the sun moving across the sky as the space station rotated on its axis.

The moving light caused the shadows in the room to shift, which will help to better sell the gag when the stars and sun are added outside the window in post-production.

Today’s shot was outside the window looking in. It started low and to the right of the window. As Asa walked forward to the window and rested his hands against the glass, the camera swung left, pickled into a close-up of Asa, and gently boomed up. It went from a head-to-toe on Asa to a fairly tight shot. The camera slowed down during its arc to see him for a beat in a close-up, before quickly swinging off and

Ender looks out at space. panning off of the set. This shot will be added to in postproduction, with the visual effects team continuing the shot with the camera pulling away to reveal the entire space station spinning in its orbit.

It took several takes to work out the move, eliminate camera and crane reflections from the window, and get rid of the shadow caused by the camera mounted to the 20´ Technocrane passing in front of the moving light that was mounted on our usual 40´ MovieBird crane. We managed to get several takes in the can that worked very well, and I was pleased with our team’s effort to work together to solve problems.

We finished the night shooting a scene with a heated exchange between Viola (seen on a monitor — to be filmed later) and Harrison. It was a short scene, and we only had three camera set-ups on Harrison. The last one was from a video conferencing monitor camera’s point of view as he loudly began delivering his fiery monologue to Viola. I was about six feet away from him on a 75mm lens when he walked into his close-up, face flushed and full of rage, and began to lay into her while looking straight into my camera lens. It was truly an awe-inspiring experience. I’ve seen Harrison onscreen since I was 8 years old (‘Star Wars’), and to be there filming him in the eye of the hurricane sent shivers up my spine. I hoped I wouldn’t become mesmerized by his performance and forget which way to turn the Panahead wheels. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and I ended the week on a high note.

what we might expect going forward. It was good to be in sync heading into the shoot and it certainly helped me hit the ground running.

Once principal photography started, I very quickly grew to respect Will’s aesthetic, his working demeanor, and his efficient command of the set. He is a real talent and it was a unique opportunity to work alongside a camera/Steadicam operator of his caliber.

I was fortunate to have worked with both camera crews on this film, having first started on the B camera before making the transition to the “A” camera during the 6th week. Jan Ruona and Tonja Greenfield capably handled the “B” camera, while Pat McArdle and Tim Guffin worked miracles on the “A”.

I’ve known Pat since we worked together on Tropic Thunder, and he has worked with Don McAlpine for almost 20 years.

Having him pull focus and run the camera department was

Director Gavin Hood demonstrates what he wants as 1st AC Pat McArdle and camera operator Will Arnot SOC prepare.

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fortunate both for myself and the movie in general.

There was a lot of pressure due to the time constraints of working with a cast of child actors. There simply wasn’t enough money or time for what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish and to make our days the conventional way.

This frequently came back to bite us by the insistence of shooting the rehearsals on many key scenes.

Someone with less experience than Pat would have been simply overwhelmed by the shots we were routinely pulling off, and I felt very lucky to have him in the trenches with me.

I’m not sure producers always understand the necessity of having such an exceptionally experienced focus puller—especially when push comes to shove and the shots are happening on the fly. But the savings in time (and thus money) by not needing multiple takes because of focus issues simply can’t be calculated. It would have been impossible to do this picture without someone as seasoned and professional as Pat, and I was grateful to have him working with me.

We were also lucky to have local New Orleans dolly grip Rob Morrison pushing the “B” dolly and the exceptional Dwayne Barr on the “A” camera dolly. I’ve known Dwayne for years and he is passionate about what he does and completely dialed-in to the duty at hand. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some of the top dolly grips in the business over the years, and I’m always grateful to have someone with me that pays as much attention to the shot

Director Gavin Hood (center) analyzes the positions of actor Moises Arias and his team, while Brooks Robinson SOC lines up the camera, ready for the shot.

Fall 2013

Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield

as I do—eyes always open for a way to improve the shot and quick with a suggestion on how to make the shot better, easier, or more comfortable to operate. That is Dwayne.

Billy O’Drobinak took over the “B” camera operating duties when I moved to the “A” camera. In addition to his expert handling of the “B” camera shots, he did a remarkable job on the splinter unit filming a significant amount of the high-flying battle room action shots.

Specs We used the Red Epic on this shoot. I had little experience with it prior to the job, having used it only a few times before on commercials. While it has a small footprint on paper, by the time all the gear was added to make it a fully functioning camera, it was no smaller than an Arriflex Alexa and not nearly as ergonomic in my view.

The viewfinder wasn’t good and I was forced to rely on an onboard monitor to frame the shot. While I quickly got used to operating with the monitor (probably due to my Steadicam background), the small two-to-four frame delay proved to be a killer in several set-ups that included tight close-ups or fast moving action.

The camera was also quite a sight with three monitors on top: one for Pat, one for me, and the Red LCD display to change the settings. Despite any misgivings I might have had about the set-up, Don was very pleased with the images produced by it, and I’m sure he will use it again on his next picture.

We had on hand a full complement of Panavision Primo prime lenses, two 11–1’s, a 3–1, as well as the Angenieux 15–40mm and 28–76mm Optimo lenses. The Optimos were used whenever we were on the MovieBird, and quite frequently in some of the smaller sets where space was limited.

When using the Optimos, we tried to keep them at a focal

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length that corresponded to a prime lens size, should we need to switch due to lighting or other considerations.

Fine Commanders Every show is different, and the way I approach my role on each project differs depending on the cinematographer. Some DPs prefer to have the operator set the shot with the director while they concentrate on the lighting. Other DPs like to line up each shot, allowing the operator to hop on the dolly only at the last minute before the camera rolls. This can be difficult, constantly trying to catch and fix any issues the DP may have overlooked. More than that, quickly working out the physical demands of the shot isn’t easy to do on the fly.

This project fell somewhere in between. Gavin and Don would set most of the shots looking through a lens on the finder and would then hand it off to me to work out the logistics with Pat and Dwayne. This system worked well for the project, and allowed me enough freedom so as to feel like a valuable part of the process.

I try and run my end of things with an open door policy.

Despite having been fortunate enough to have operated on some very large and involved projects over the years, there is always a better way to do something. I don’t pretend to always know what it is. I rely heavily on my dolly grip and 1st AC to help me throughout the day, involving them in the shot discussion as soon as possible.

You have to be good at what you do to work on a movie like this, and part of being a successful operator is listening to the professionals that are a part of your team. They possess a wealth of knowledge based on years of experience, and I feel that part of my job is to involve them in the shot and seek out and listen to their advice, especially when it is better than my own. Movie making is a collaboration, and nowhere is this more true than in the camera department.

Fall 2013

by Florian Emmerich

Photos by Jules Heath Š 2013 by 20th Century Fox. All Rights Reserved.

Liesel (Sophie NĂŠlisse) reads to Max (Ben Schnetzer), the Jewish refugee hiding in their basement.

S

urrounded by the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace in stealing books and sharing the stories with others. The story of The Book Thief is narrated by Death, which comes very close to her several times. Spirited and courageous, Liesel transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a foster family who hides a Jewish refugee.

The movie, based on the best-selling book, is directed by Brian Percival, and stars Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, with Sophie Nélisse as Liesel.

Florian Ballhaus (The Devil Wears Prada, Red, Hope Springs) was the director of photography, with Florian Emmerich (Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum, Cloud Atlas, Child 44) as “A” camera and Steadicam operator. Filming was done in Germany at various locations: in Berlin, in the market square of the town of Görlitz, and at Studio Babelsberg near Berlin.

Camera operator Florian Emmerich shares some of the things that make this movie stand out for him.

A great experience What I remember most about this film is the good mood we had on set daily. Everybody wanted to be part of telling this story. It was a very good script. To see how it turned into reality was very rewarding. I think a huge part of that was Brian Percival, the director and Florian Ballhaus, the DP. Brian was a very calm guy but still he knew precisely what he wanted to do. Florian has a brilliant sense of humor which makes working really hard so much easier, because you still have fun. I think the second major part was Sophie, the main actress. She was this sparkling girl, a shining star, always in a good mood, but it was amazing how she could switch quite literally from laughing to big tears in the next scene. I think everybody was amazed by how much Sophie could concentrate and jump back into character no matter what she did before. She was so disciplined.

Studio Babelsberg has a more-or-less established crew for whenever the bigger productions come to Berlin. Often the same people work the same positions. But at the time we were there, George Clooney was doing The Monuments Men on the Babelsberg stages and they had a longer pre-roll, so a lot of the more established Babelsberg crew were working for him. I had done Bourne Supremacy there, and Cloud Atlas, and there were a few from our old bunch, but it was a lot of

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In spite of the war, Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) and her friend Rudy (Nico Liersch) find joy.

fresh people for the crew of The Book Thief. That’s why there was a big curiosity and a big sort of willingness and people were really keen to make this something special. I think that also played a huge role in why the mood was so good. It wasn’t just another job you pull off, it was people who really wanted to make this special, and I think you can tell.

The majority of the crew was new to me. The key grip, another Florian, is from Hamburg. It was the first time we had worked together. And Janosch Voss the gaffer was new to me too. The collaboration was really good—people looked for anybody who needed help. The focus puller and the second–Peter Byrne and Abby Catto–were from the UK and did an absolutely brilliant job. They are both amazing camera assistants. Florian the DP brought them in because most of equipment was his—the Alexa cameras with Leica lenses which have an absolutely beautiful look—so it was important to him to have people who knew his gear. The DIT, Dan Carling, was also from the UK. Most of the rest of the crew was from Germany.

I hadn’t worked with Florian Ballhaus before. Initially there was another operator, but he pulled out before shooting started, and by good luck I happened to email them again just then, asking if they needed another camera operator. So Florian and I met, maybe 4 or 5 weeks before we started Fall 2013

shooting. We developed a trust very quickly as we realized that we were sort of speaking the same language—besides both speaking German and both being called Florian, of course.

It was the first movie I ever worked on that had more than one Florian on the crew—and we had five!—the DP, me, the key grip, the visual effects supervisor and the assistant set manager. Later I heard there was also a stuntman named Florian. Pretty soon we all had nicknames. The DP was Florian, I was Flo, Florian Prinz was the Prince, and so on.

It really became this running gag, that you had to have that name to be part of the camera department.

My personal approach to working with a new crew is always to judge it on a gut feeling and first impressions—how do you feel about somebody in the first conversation, like can they only function if they know what’s going to happen next or are they okay if they are thrown into the deep waters?

There’s always the first couple of shooting days that I think are really crucial to find out what everyone’s preferences are, especially as an operator. Is the director or the DP someone who wants input or do they prefer to make their own calls?

You have to read between the lines. For The Book Thief, it was always a very close collaboration between the three of us.

Cast relations Because of everybody being in front of the monitors now, often there is quite a substantial delay between the end of the take and the feedback from video village, the director,

Camera Operator Florian Emmerich

towards the actors. The take finishes, and then if there’s a problem, all of them in front of the monitors—producer, director, DP—start talking to each other and it takes a while before the actors get any feedback. A lot of actors look at you directly after the take and ask how was it, because you are the first one who sees them on the screen. When you do handheld work, in a best case scenario it becomes like dancing with the actors and the more you get to know each other, the more you start anticipating what they’re going to do, so it

Filming the children playing in Himmel Street.

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Liesel (Sophie NĂŠlisse) sneaks into the well-stocked library of the burgermeister and his wife to pursue her love of reading.

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becomes this flow, and things sort of start bouncing back from each other in the group, like you move over there, but then they also react to the camera knowing that you are there, so instead of just doing their thing, they stay where they are because they know they’ll get a good shot from there, but then continue into something different.

So Sophie and Emily and Geoffrey and I were very close on this, and had a very good relationship to each other.

What was really thrilling was Sophie’s performance and her spirit. That 13-year-old girl basically encouraged the entire crew, because everybody knew Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) in the kitchen with her new foster parents, Rosa (Emily Watson) and Hans (Geoffrey Rush). that if she brings out that energy every day, you have to do at least as well to keep up with it and to do justice to it.

Rudy, Liesel and Rosa in the cramped air raid shelter—a neighbor’s basement.

Geoffrey and Emily could counterbalance that with their complete professionalism, and it was amazing to see what she learned from those two in a short amount of time. It was one of those films where people were genuinely sad that they knew this had to end. A lot of the crew—both German and international—said that this was an amazing film to work on.

Rehearsals were more for the technical moves. Brian really liked to shoot the first takes, and also Emily liked that a lot, and it also meant we could catch the freshness of Sophie. Most of the time we would block the scene, and Brian rehearsed with the actors quite thoroughly on a closed set. Then they would call the crew rehearsals; so all the departments that needed to be involved with the scene would come in, which sometimes was quite crammed.

Then they would run the scene with the stand-ins and Florian the sense of shooting handheld all the time for the sake of would start lining up the shots and lighting it, and we would being handheld. Brian and Florian made it clear that they do a couple of rehearsals with the stand-ins doing the moves, wanted to have a classical approach to the whole thing, but at just to kind of finalize camera positions and check the the same time wanted to give it an edge where it needed to lighting. But once the actors stepped on, we would start look different to other films. We always wanted to give the shooting immediately, which I personally like a lot, because it actors—especially the girl—the freedom they needed to gives you a huge chance to capture this freshness, which may perform, and the space to react to what would happen within not be technically perfect, but often has elements that you the scene. don’t get after 6, 7, 8 takes. Sometimes of course the actors “B” camera operator was Nikolay Gutscher. There weren’t get better and better the more takes you have, but others are enormous amounts of “B” camera on The Book Thief, but still best in the first 2 or 3 takes. It’s tricky. At least in this film the quite a few—and the funny thing is that a lot of “B” camera actors mostly did the same thing in each take, whereas other was on the tiniest sets—in the kitchen and in the basement. directors might want them to find a new approach every There were a few moments when we would think, no way single time, which then gets really challenging for the focus there’s going to be two cameras in here. In the library with pullers, especially if it’s handheld on longer lenses. the burgermeister’s wife, we had two cameras, and also on the bridge, and then in Görlitz they were using three cameras in Visual approach the big market square for the book burning. For almost all The way we shot this was very visual. From an operator’s the exterior situations on Himmel Street, we had two standpoint, what I liked was that we really used the different cameras rolling, but it was mostly planned in advance. tools available to us—whatever worked, according to the The basement and shelter were tiny little sets. There were mood, and not necessarily for the sake of achieving a style in some floating walls, but fairly limited. Florian and Brian Fall 2013

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Filming on the bridge just prior to throwing the book in the water.

wanted it to give the feeling that the camera was really within the space. If you move too far out with the camera, you realize that it’s a set and you automatically start detaching from the actors. A key element of those basement scenes was how cramped and claustrophobic the whole environment was. It was tight, but it was very effective.

The first work on international films that I had done was a lot of handheld—Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum, The Green Zone—so fairly quickly people put me into this shaky cam handheld drawer. It was basically on Cloud Atlas that I got a chance to show that I could work in the more classic style as well. What was interesting on The Book Thief

Liesel looks out at Himmel Street.

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was that Florian had this approach to tell it in a more cinematic classic style, but also to give it a somewhat new edge. That’s where I as an operator and he as a DP created something nice and new, because I could put in my approach with this more free style in the action scenes, and also put it in the performance scenes, when it’s really about where the actors are in what moment. He would sometimes say, “Keep it a bit calmer,” or “How about we do such and such?” And very quickly we all found this new language we could then base our daily work on.

One example is the looting scene. It was the end of the film where the Nazis start trashing the street and smashing shop windows and all that stuff. That was basically one long handheld shot that we intercut and then put more coverage in to give it that kind of energy. The street level work was entirely handheld. The idea was to build contrast into that, and by that I mean the collaboration that works so nicely, to have a top shot from the crane that was very graphic but also very strong, and to then jump back into handheld and be right amongst the people.

There are a couple of scenes in the basement that we actually did handheld, where it’s very calm handheld work.

We also did quite a lot of Steadicam—using the combination of tools whenever it really made sense to use them. Florian would want us to jump onto Steadicam when we followed somebody—always we lead them, but when we want to give it a bit more edge we say handheld following shot, things like that.

There’s a long walk and talk scene between the boy and girl walking down the main street before they turn into Himmel Street, and we pulled them. At first they’re fairly agitated, as they’re coming back from the bridge after the incident with the book thrown in the water, and Florian wanted it to have Fall 2013

Gaffer Janosch Voss, Director of Photography Florian Ballhaus, “A” Camera/Steadicam Operator Florian Emmerich

Liesel’s home on Himmel Street.

We used a lot of artificial snow, but some of it was definitely real. The first time we went to the bridge, by coincidence a lot of it was snowed in, even though it was the end of March or early April. Normally in Berlin at that time there’s no snow, but we had this extremely long winter last year. It was freezing cold when we started in February. Freezing is relative, but the scene where they’re on the bridge by the river, where they throw the book was exceptional for the time of the year—we started at -15° Celsius (5° Fahrenheit) in the morning.

That was cold. At Görlitz, on the night of the book burning, that was also -15°C, very very very cold with easterly winds coming in, and the wind chill was brutal for the extras and the crew.

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more of an edge, to be a bit more frantic, Himmel Street and their house in rubble, not like a smooth sailing Steadicam, which Liesel searches for Rosa and Hans. we did on various other occasions. But he didn’t want to just do handheld, so we took out the gimbal and the actual post and mounted the camera directly onto the Steadicam arm with this rubber engine mount, basically like mounting a gun directly on that arm. That made it a lot smoother than walking handheld—plus I was sitting on a rickshaw—but it was a bit edgier than the Steadicam because it hadn’t got this slightly rolling gentleness in it. That’s something we basically created for this film.

I developed this system during prep that we started calling “Flow cam.” It’s used quite a bit in the basement, in the shelter, during the night raids, the bombings, and those key moments.

We shot pretty much in scene order rather than in location before we started shooting. I think the big concern was to order. That was mainly due to the fact that Sophie is in help her as much as they possibly could, by putting the almost every scene. It was a request from Brian for Sophie schedule this way. If it meant sometimes going back and forth to places several times, we did. That was good with the claustrophobic spaces, because we would shoot in the basement, and then move to the other stage to the kitchen set and then maybe even in the afternoon or the Liesel (Sophie next day, move back again, so we didn’t have to spend Nélisse) daringly two weeks in a row in that basement set. It stopped rescues a book everybody from having this cabin fever where you can’t from the book stand to see that set any more. Also I think it helped the burning to pursue actors. her love of reading.

There were a few scenes such as the book burning in the big market square in Görlitz that it was inevitable to shoot in one block. Also they had to destroy and then completely demolish Himmel Street, the main set, which they could only do at the end, because there was no way re-dress it to two different stages. It took them over a week and a half to put it into that demolished state. Once the entire story was told, they figured they could bring it to an end in this location which was actually a very very moving moment. I remember coming into the Himmel Street set after we had spent a week away from it on the stage. Everybody had kind of fallen in love with that little street—it was like coming home every day. When we came back to the back lot and saw this devastation, people were pretty shaken. That was in the beginning of the day; smoke effects and all of that weren’t running yet.

When Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush stepped on, all the extras and dead bodies, the smoke, the fire, everything was in place. They were literally in tears, because for starters, that was their last shooting day, but also seeing their house—it was their house that was blown into bits and pieces. The whole shooting experience was very emotional for the actors and for the crew a lot of the time, and that, I hope, is reflected in the final film.

We had a couple of days with Techno 50s and Techno 30s. The opening sequence where the camera kind of

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drops into the train carriage— basically Death appears to be approaching Liesel and her mother and dead brother—that was a setup that was very interesting. Florian had an idea for the shot and what it should feel like. I worked with the key grip and the construction and art departments to develop this track to build inside the carriage of the car with a stabilized mini Flight Head on a jib arm. The general idea was that whenever Death tells the story and it becomes almost like his POV, we use this sort of floating move that can’t necessarily be done by a human, so the camera moves past obstacles very closely or even across obstacles.

That was quite an elaborate setup.

Her real mother and Liesel(far right) at her brother’s burial. The gravediggers are at the left.

Filming German history in Germany I think the most horrific scene for all of us to shoot was in Görlitz in that market square for the book burning. We did the first rehearsal with about 350 extras on the square–and the first time they all shouted “Sieg heil,” our blood basically froze. I think it was one of those moments where everybody who was German on that crew would’ve preferred to disappear into the ground and not be there because it’s still so in our system. You are obviously still so Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) and Rosa (Emily Watson) ashamed for what has happened. Those were accompany Hans (Geoffrey Rush) as he reports moments where it was really hard. for duty. He has been conscripted into the army.

What was quite interesting is that Sophie was so young that she didn’t really have a concept of the atrocious things that had happened. The children had learned the lyrics of some Nazi songs for the film, and Sophie would stroll from the hotel to the set, humming those songs. It seemed shocking to us, but it was also interesting that we the German crew seemed to be a lot more embarrassed than the international crew working with us. They were like, okay that’s a chapter from the past, and you guys are what you are now.

The scene in the train station where everything is dressed with swastikas and all that was also where Liesel (Sophie Nélisse, center) singing Nazi people were very aware of what our songs with her schoolmates. They all wear ancestors had produced, so it was a their Hitler Youth uniforms. bit awkward, but also, because it’s a Fall 2013

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film set, by the third day, you sort of get used to it. I just shot this film in Prague, Child 44, where we did a scene where the Russians conquered the Reichstag in Berlin and are fighting German soldiers. You shoot this massive battle, and it’s so real in a way when you shoot it, but at lunch break all the soldiers from both armies sit amongst each other, because they know each other as extras and stunt guys, and all the uniforms cross over. It’s a bit surreal.

I think it’s important for people to see what the German people were going through during the war, and the different attitudes. You’ve got a little bit of everybody in there—the ones who were hiding Jews, the ones who were sympathetic to Jews, the ones who were following the party line, and the ones who really believed the party line—a little of everything. That was really Brian’s brief to all of us—his main focus for the entire thing was that in everyday life, people were just like you and me and everybody else in the world.

Everybody had to make their choices, and some made their choice one way and some made it the other way. Not everybody was hiding Jews and not everybody was killing them, but people did what they sometimes could and sometimes they refused to. That was the conflict, that some were just sort of neutral, flowing with the stream, which I think is still the most dangerous. There were ones who sort of resisted it, and ones who actively resisted it, and then ones who actively pushed for it and followed it. And there are people like that everywhere.

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Liesel is delighted to have her “Papa” home again.

There are films that you work on, and you think it would be good if it does well, but in this case I really hope that The Book Thief does well, that it gets the attention it deserves, because I think it’s an amazing story, and the performances were outstanding.

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by Ian Fox

Photos by François Duhamel Š2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

PL Travers (Emma Thompson) is not happy with anything Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) has in mind for converting Mary Poppins from book to movie.

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n the extraordinary untold backstory of how Mary Poppins made it to the big screen, Disney presents Saving Mr Banks starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, who is trying to convince author PL Travers (Emma Thompson) to let him have the movie rights to her novel. Travers is extremely protective of her book. As the film unfolds, we learn about her childhood, a bit

about Disney’s past as well, and we see where the conflicts lie and how the two artists set Mary Poppins free.

Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Snow White and the Huntsman), the movie has John Schwartzman (Seabiscuit, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, The Amazing Spider-Man) as cinematographer and Ian Fox (A Better Life, Seabiscuit and the recently completed Dracula Untold) as ‘A’ camera operator. Ian Fox shares his thoughts and memories about the experience.

Emma Thompson as PL Travers, with her LA driver, Paul Giamatti

One for all and all for one

Robert and Richard Sherman (BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman) at the piano in the rehearsal room, checking Travers’ reaction to some music for Mary Poppins.

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Saving Mr Banks is one of those rare movies—shot entirely in LA, no fancy camera moves or special effects, no problems on set, no super-long days, just 9 or 10 weeks of feeling good about going to work and about the work we were doing—pure storytelling. Actually, we were telling three different stories, with three different looks.

There’s the Australia part of the story, when PL Travers was a little girl, which we shot mostly on the ranch in Santa Clarita, very stark and very warm at the same time.

The Australia section was all about Travers’ childhood and parents, and how much that influenced her creation of Mary Poppins.

We shot all those scenes together first, almost as a separate movie.

Then there was the London look, which is a little softer and grayer, where we find the adult Travers starting the struggle and personal journey that she went through to make the decision about letting Disney have the rights to her book for his movie. Her inner conflicts continue in the Beverly Hills Hotel room that Walt Disney arranges for her, so that she can come to the studio daily to discuss the movie version of her novel.

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Walt Disney took PL Travers to Disneyland, the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

And then there’s the Burbank look, which was more of a traditional Hollywood 1950s/1960s period look, with bright sunshine and blue skies. We had sets for Disney’s office and the rehearsal room and all the discussions and interaction there. These sets were all in Santa Clarita, too.

The rehearsal room was an interesting place to shoot because of the blocking and setup; it’s definitely her against the rest of the Disney team. There was a large table always separating her from that team (Richard and Robert Sherman as well as Don daGradi). This distance was enhanced as they moved to the piano or other parts of the rehearsal room and PL Travers stayed behind that table. This distance, which we used compositionally, visually laid out the struggle and isolation that PL felt. We used the “A” camera with the wider angle masters to reinforce this idea and used the “B” camera with Robert Presley to capture the character moments that helped define their differences. I think it was effective enjoyable camera storytelling.

On this large table there was at all times a tape recorder recording all their rehearsal meetings. These recordings, which PL Travers insisted on, are used as source material for the writing of the script. Without these recordings there may never have been this movie.

At one point in the story Walt say to PL Travers, “Whoever gets to go to Disneyland with Walt Disney?” So off we went, all 200 of us, to shoot at Disneyland for one sequence.

Disneyland did an incredible job hosting a film production company and recreating the period look. I don’t think they roll out the red carpets often for a production, especially since you can’t stop a moving train like Disneyland. We had Fall 2013

to get in there early before the public arrived, so we could have the park to ourselves for a few hours in the early mornings. Once the public merged with us, we were always on the lookout for wardrobe and modern day props which would betray the sense of period.

Not a movie about making a movie People describe Saving Mr Banks as a movie about the making of Mary Poppins. But we aren’t cutting to footage or matching footage and dissolving from one image that existed onto a related one. It is really a story about PL Travers and her relationship with Walt Disney, and the story behind why she wrote Mary Poppins, and the story of her father. It’s really a movie about people and their relationships, and why they do the things they do—why the characters in Mary Poppins were so compelling for Walt Disney and why it was so hard for PL Travers to let go of the story and the characters.

Travers and Disney visualized two completely different movies and each had their own reasons for how the story should go. In that sense it’s two artistic creative people having a completely different take on one subject. It’s also understanding that it happens often, when you try to create something in a group environment—everybody coming onto the same page and understanding what’s being said. It’s more of an understanding of the creative process and working together—just plain movie making. It could happen with any other creative endeavor or even a business—two people trying to work together and come to a common goal and a common understanding on something. For PL Travers it’s about her father and his struggle in life. For Disney it’s about Camera OperatOr: Saving mr BankS

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making his daughters happy. Two very different points of departure to tell one story.

I remember sitting in the Chinese Theater and shooting PL Travers watching the finished film. You could see in Emma Thompson’s face that there was a very big conflict in her at first, watching the movie, but I think we see her come to be at peace with it being made. I think she finally enjoyed that the film had been made. All these emotions are conveyed in just a couple of closeups of Emma. It truly speaks to the power of the close up combined with some great acting, as well as the power of filmmaking in helping her process all of the anguish she carried about her father for so many years. Maybe she learned to accept her struggle by how Walt interpreted her story.

There’s a long history to this film, almost like the 20 years Walt Disney spent pursuing the rights to Mary Poppins itself.

The story behind Saving Mr Banks is full of twists and turns.

I think some Australian producer had it and he was going to do some five-hour biopic or something like that. Then it ran through different producers until Alison Owen came on board. And then it landed on John Lee [Hancock]’s lap.

John Lee is a scriptwriter himself as well as a director—he has a very good understanding of how to tell a story and what a story is.

I read in a newspaper that at some point the Disney studio sent cease and desist letters about the script because they thought it would be infringing on the rights of Mary Poppins.

But once they understood that it didn’t, Disney decided to produce it. So it was a great collaboration from everybody— studio, director, cinematographer, myself, art department, etc. It was really quite fantastic. It is rare that you work on films these days where it’s just such a great experience on all levels. From what I’ve heard, the cut that John Lee made eight or ten weeks after shooting is almost exactly the same cut that exists now.

Getting the job

John Schwartzman was the cinematographer and John Lee [Hancock] was the director. The first time we did a movie together was maybe 12 years ago—The Rookie. It was offered to Robert Presley but he was busy, so I slotted myself into that movie instead of Robert and it was a lovely experience. [Coincidentally, Robert turned up as “B” camera/Steadicam for Saving Mr Banks.]

On a previous movie that I did with John Lee, we were having a very bad PL Travers is technical day. They’d flown in some ready for the premiere of equipment and it wasn’t working.

Mary Poppins.

John Lee looked calm anyway. I said, “I’m surprised you’re not mad. You’re not screaming.” He said, “If I thought screaming or getting mad would help, I would do it, but it doesn’t help so I’m not going to do it.” John Lee is a very kind man, a very good director. He and John Schwartzman are a great combination.

I think they always intended to work together again, but they had different commitments. Twelve years later their schedules met for Saving Mr Banks.

John Schwartzman called me for this movie. The way I look at it, I try and date as many cameramen as I can, and I do work with John a lot. In the last 12 years we’ve made about 13 movies together. I enjoy working with John. He gives me a lot of leeway and lets me work with the directors as much as they want to work with me and that’s really interesting. Some directors want to work only with the cinematographer. Other directors like working with the cinematographer and the camera operators, but the situation changes from film to film, personality is personality and you know how it goes. We would watch rehearsals with John Lee, and he would listen to what I had to say and what John had to say, as to where the cameras should be and like that. If we missed any of the beats that he wanted, he would communicate that to us, and we would revise our approach on the coverage or change a bit of the blocking or something. There was something very simple and commonsensical about this movie. It just fell naturally into place. It was a very good script.

A superb cast

Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) tries to cajole PL Travers (Emma Thompson) into signing over the rights to Mary Poppins.

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It was a joy to go to work and watch these actors at their craft. Emma Thompson was so dedicated to the part. It was just amazing to watch her. I was looking through the eyepiece and watching her simply be this character. Most of the times you look through an eyepiece, you see an actor acting, and you have to suspend your disbelief, and get into what you’re doing. Emma really transformed. You could believe that she was PL Travers. She carried it.

Tom Hanks was fantastic as well. I had never worked with him before. It was a great experience to watch them both, Tom and Emma.

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Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty and Colin Farrell as her father

Travers’ driver is played by Paul Giamatti. Even such a small character as Giamatti’s really resonated in the movie and I think balanced it out.

Colin Farrell was a very giving actor, especially with the little girl [Annie Rose Buckley, playing the young PL Travers, when she was known as “Ginty”]. Colin spent a lot of time getting her to open up some, to trust him, to understand what they were doing together and things like that. It was fantastic to see how he really worked with her to have a solid bond, a solid relationship, so that she could understand who she was supposed to be, and that he was playing her dad, and the whole situation.

Ruth Wilson, I think, is a fantastic actress. I’ve seen her before in a British TV series, so I was very excited to work with her. She proved to be charming and a really good actress. From an active fan point, it was just a tour de force. Every day looking through the eyepiece was magnificent.

But because of the way we filmed it, I don’t think Colin and Ruth were ever on the same stage as Tom and Emma other than for makeup and hair tests, or passing by as they were coming to work.

Getting the shots John Lee likes his rehearsal time and likes to make sure that everything is understood before we shoot, so, you know, there wasn’t much of—I guess the term

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Ruth Wilson

would be “shoot-hearsals” —where you shoot and rehearse at the same time. But we didn’t over rehearse. We did the rehearsal, we set up the camera and we shot. It’s pretty efficient. I like it.

It was up to John Lee and John Schwartzman and me to block the scene out and make sure that we captured in a very simple straightforward way the drama that was happening in front of us. I think if you look you’ll see that a lot of the work is very straightforward. There are transitions that help move the story along, but the story—the camera sits a lot and just lets the story tell itself. The movie juxtaposes different situations, different characters, different scenes in a way that moves the story forward efficiently and in very engaging way.

Even though it’s a very simple movie, it has a lot of different layers—all very simple but entwined to tell a great story.

I try to concentrate on the story.

Everybody just kind of came together feeling this was a good project. We didn’t really have a lot of equipment. It was a very small camera package, Panavision with anamorphic lenses.

Obviously it was two cameras, but originally they were only going to carry the second camera on certain days, maybe 10 or 12 days. Then they figured out that there would be a lot of great performances and great acting going on, so in pre-production they decided to carry two cameras the whole time. I think that was a wise decision because of the amount of talent that was there—you might as well capture what we were seeing.

There were a couple of crane days.

The first day we were sitting with the Libra head and a Technocrane and it was some of the stuff in Australia where they were sitting in a park. I think it’s almost the opening of the movie—the little girl in the green grass and the camera coming off the trees and straight down on her. That’s really one of the biggest days that we had, technically, in the arboretum, waiting for the right light to happen so there was not a lot of lighting to be done. It was just as natural as possible, maximizing the light. John Schwartzman was very good about picking times, so we just followed the sun and concentrated on the very small theme of the girl and made it as simple as we could.

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Ginty’s family arrives at their new home in a different part of Australia.

Ginty, the little girl who grew up to be PL Travers, in the arboretum with her leaf & twig house.

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It was mainly straightforward dolly work. A little Steadicam with Walt walking down Main Street in Disneyland. Just two conventional cameras, or one camera on a dolly, and that was pretty much the approach. We paid a lot of attention to rehearsal and blocking, to make sure that the camera was placed in the right spot for the masters, so that everything could fall into place nicely.

A wonderful crew It was the first time that I worked with Danny Ming [1st AC]. John Schwartzman and I had worked with a focus puller named Richard Mosier for many many years, but unfortunately he passed away during the making of this film.

That was a very sad time for most of us in the camera department. We were very close to him. Danny Ming was new to the team but he’s very sharp, ran a great department and made it easy to work together. Technically, he was right on top of everything, so we could just concentrate on the storytelling. It was a very good team of people.

I also had the fortune of working with a great dolly grip, Allan “Moose” Schultz who also can see things that I don’t see, and could suggest different dolly moves or different ties.

He’s very experienced and a very good storyteller himself. I don’t know that a lot of people think about a dolly grip as a storyteller, but I think Moose is very much a storyteller and it was a pleasure working with him and listening to his input about the camera and even the timing of the camera. He’s really a great guy.

The only other person left to meet is an amazing key grip

Director John Lee Hancock, DP John Schwartzman and “A” Camera Operator Ian Fox discuss a shot.

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named Les Tomita. He has everything so well planned out.

He’s quite the problem solver. He looks at things in a bigger way and makes sure that things are working for the camera department, for the electrical department, and so on. It’s lovely to work with him.

Robert Presley on “B” and Tucker [Korte], his focus puller, worked very well together. Jack Glenn was their dolly grip.

Jack always has his way of seeing things, always crunching numbers and putting his two cents in, so it makes for everybody being involved.

Times are changing One of the hardest things about operating is the distance you have to travel on operating jobs. The beauty of Saving Mr Banks is that it was all shot in LA. Any director that tries to make a movie in LA is my greatest friend, my greatest ally.

I will work for him one hundred percent. It’s really a shame how the industry is changing in a lot of ways. I’m not crying about it. It’s gone around the world, creating a lot of new industries, or the same industry in a lot of different countries.

People are enjoying it. But there was a reason to be in LA originally, you know—the weather and the light and things like that. On my most recent film, I sat around in the cold and rain in Belfast.

It’s happening in all industries, not just the film industry.

Everyone’s chasing better financial situations around the world. You have to kind of understand the business side of it all but it’s very hard to travel and be away from home so much, and not be with your family or closest friends. But it’s either that or you’re not working anymore. 20 or 30 years ago the film industry was a great way to make a living. It’s a lot more difficult for people now.

But then, you get to work on some great projects.

Saving Mr Banks was a lovely time. There was nothing really negative about this movie at all. The biggest challenge was making sure that when you block something that you put the camera in the right place for the master. And of course trying to make sure that what was in frame worked for the period, no power lines in the Australia scenes, and things like that. There is very little drama in the making of this drama, and that’s the beauty about it, it really is. That’s why of the filmmaking experiences in my life, Saving Mr Banks will stand out as one of the better ones.

Fall 2013

Alan Albert, Senior Executive Vice President

Tom Boelens, Vice President Technical Manager

Meet our Gizmologists!

When you need a custom gizmo, or anything technical, these are the “Go To Guys”, Alan Albert and Tom Boelens. Both have been with Clairmont since forever and absolutely know every last detail about every piece of equipment we own. They are also responsible for many of our unique designs and enhancements to our gear. If you don’t already know Alan and Tom, come on over and meet them; they will expand your creativity!

www.clairmont.com

Hi Def with Jeff

Evaluating Today’s High Performance Lenses

By Jeffrey Cree SOC

L

enses have always been a key element of a successful production. Choosing the right lens to achieve the look desired for the project has always been a large part of the art of cinematography. Due to its importance to the production the lens is has always been the most scrutinized element of the production package. Lenses have been reviewed and evaluated by Assistant Cameraman and Directors of Photography from the beginning. They look for scratches, smudges and any contamination of the glass, even the smallest particle could be reason to reject the lens. They will also check the operational feel of the lens, looking for rough spots in the focus, and for backlash. This is all well and good but now with PL glass being in short supply the rental house will not always have three or four sets of lenses from which to cherry pick an optimized set. Today’s reality requires that we make hard decisions about the image quality that the lens will provide and whether they will perform at the level required for the production.

No manufacturer whether it be Cooke, Zeiss, Leica or any other lens manufacturer you want to choose can produce a perfect lens. The new lens designs allow for very little tolerance during the manufacturing process.

Elements may require precision to be as close as one millionth of an inch to meet specification. New exotic glass formulations are being used to improve speed and performance required of today’s lenses. These new glass formulations are much more susceptible to scratches or digs during the grinding and cleaning process and only improve their durability after the coatings are applied. These cosmetic defects have always been present, but with the new glass they

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Camera OperatOr: Hi Def witH Jeff

have multiplied in the number present on each element. In addition many of the new lens designs provide larger rear elements and more magnification making these defects more visible during the inspection process. In reality these imperfections while visible are only cosmetic in nature and have little if no effect on picture quality.

Iain Neil, Chief Optical designer for the Leica SummiluxC Primes and other cine lenses, said, “When we talk about scratches and digs we are really talking about very small cosmetic defects. For example, residual polishing marks called sleeks appear as fine scratches and sometimes they are only a fraction of a wavelength in width but sometimes appear like other scratches which may be much coarser.

Unfortunately, sleeks are common to see on exotic glass types, which virtually all lens companies use to achieve high performance images. In addition, they are hard to see unless the lens is looked into with a high power projector. Lenses with large exit pupils and extra edge blacking may also tend to magnify these sleeks. Almost all high performance lenses will exhibit some small cosmetic blemishes, primarily due to high technology glass, coatings and fabrication. These will tend to be more noticeable in lenses where the blacks and skin tones are best. When you look into these lenses on a powerful (say 400 watt) projector, the cosmetic defects may stand out more. It should be noted that this would probably not be visible when holding the lens by hand and looking through it by eye at a blue sky, because chances are that the cosmetic defects would be almost invisible in that viewing situation.” (Film & Digital Times, April 2013, Issue 53) It has become more important for those that are evaluating lenses to understand what will and will not affect the performance of the lens. As it turns out scratches, digs, sleeks and small particle from the manufacturing process or environmental issues as well as scratches from production accidents are not the end of the world. A small scratch on the front element may cause a small area of the image to be softer than the rest of the frame but in most cases it will not be noticed in the overall frame. Internal element scratches and sleeks may never affect the image except in the rarest occasion. How much these small imperfections affect the image is greatly determined by the aperture you intend to use on the job. If you are shooting at a T2.0 minor imperfections on the front element will not affect the image. If shooting at T16 these small imperfections will become more visible requiring that you reject the lens. Filtration will also affect what is acceptable for the production. If using diffusion or soften filters a lens does not have to be as pristine as when shooting clean.

Nevertheless, it is important that you catalog any Fall 2013

check the performance of the lens but the best way is to put the lens on the camera you are using for the production. By reviewing both a resolution chart and a flat field chart you will get the best idea if the lens will perform to level required for your production.

One thing that I would like to add is that I have found that many of the people inspecting lenses today get so wrapped up in finding scratches and contamination they forget to inspect for backlash, tracking and lost motion of the focus ring. This should be a very high priority in the inspection process as it will affect the ability of the 1st AC to follow focus. Another couple of items that is often overlooked are the optical low pass filter on the electronic cameras and dust on the image sensor itself.

Contamination on either of these elements is more likely to be visible as they are closer to the image plane.

As the performance of the lenses that we use improve it is getting harder for the 1st AC or Director of Photography to make a subjective decision when selecting lenses to use for their production. The hard fact is that the higher the performance the more likely the lens will show its internal flaws.

The new high resolution camera systems are demanding more from the lenses that we use and the lens manufacturers are responding with new higher resolution optics to meet the demand. This higher performance makes our jobs harder as the tolerance for error becomes smaller. But we also have to deal with the reality that we do not live in a perfect world and that no perfect lens exists. It is our job to educate ourselves so that we can make a rational decision to the actual image quality that the lens can produce on the camera system that we are using so that we achieve the desired results.

Allan Lum Li was an SOC member for a number of years. He worked for NBC for 36 years, originally as a “Live Camera Color Correction Video Controller” and later as Video Engineer. In 1990 he joined the news team operating the new “Robotic Cameras” and wrote an article for Camera Operator (at that time called Operating Cameraman) about it in 2001.

Besides his work, Allan loved jazz, good movies, the Food Network, sharing his expertise with others, and of course his family. He died of colon cancer on October 10.

Fall 2013

Allan Lum Li 1944 – 2013

Camera OperatOr: transitiOns

GARY BAUM SOC, 2001 SOC AWARDS BANQUET

imperfection you find during prep as the Camera Rental House may try to hold you responsible for any marks and scratches found upon the return of the lens.

Even if we were to find the perfect lens it would not stay that way for very long as lenses are not hermetically sealed making them susceptible to contamination from water, dust and dirt, sand, smoke and other micro organisms in the environment. Much of the particles visible in today’s high performance lenses are sub micron in size making it impossible to produce a perfectly clean lens as the particles are smaller than current clean room standards. Stuart Rabin of Focus Optics has found that using an eye loop to inspect a newly cleaned element is not always enough to assure a clean surface. As you rebuild a lens what looked clean with the loop will display contamination when grouped with the other elements of the lens. The higher performance of the lens the more these defects become visible making it harder for those evaluating the lenses to determine the acceptability of the lens for your production.

The common practice to inspect a lens is to use a high power LED light. The bright directed light source is a good way to see all the flaws and defects of a lens but is it a good indicator of how the lens will perform, the answer is surprisingly, No. Neither is pulling the projector pattern slide and looking into the lens mounted on a high power projector.

Most lens designers and manufacturers use a bare soft white 60 watt bulb to inspect a lens. Using this you will find that very few if any of the internal scratches and sleeks, as well as small particle that is visible with the LED light is still visible.

This is a better indicator of how, if any, these imperfections will affect the image. Projection is also a very good way to

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SOC Lifetime Achievement Awards February 15, 2014

to benefit

SOC Roster Society of Camera Operators Current as of 11/17/13

FUJIFILM NORTH AMERICA CORPORATION Sandra Kurotobi GEO FILM GROUP, INC George Nolan GPI PRO STABILIZER SYSTEMS, INC Jack and Michelle Bridges HISTORY FOR HIRE James Elyea HYDROFLEX, INC Matt Brown JL FISHER INC Jimmy L Fisher Frank Kay KESLOW CAMERA Robert Keslow MARK BENDER AND ASSOCIATES Mark Bender MATTHEWS STUDIO EQUIPMENT Ed Phillips PANAVISION Bob Harvey POLECAM LTD Perry Drogo SCHNEIDER OPTICS — CENTURY DIVISION David Contreras Bill Turner SIM VIDEO Marty Meyer TERADEK, LLC Michael Gailing THALES ANGENIEUX Eva Paryzka TIFFEN Rick Booth

CORPORATE MEMBERS 3ALITY TECHNICA Sakae Manning ABLE CINE Andrew Shipsides ARRI, INC Bill Russell BAND PRO Brett Gillespie BERTONE VISUALS Gianluca Bertone BIRNS & SAWYER, INC William Meurer BLACKMAGIC DESIGN Stephanie Hueter Christine Peterson CAMADEUS FILM TECHNOLOGIES, INC Sebastian Lumme CAMERA DYNAMICS INC Jim Davis CAMERON-PACE GROUP Vincent M Pace CANON, USA INC Tim Smith CARL ZEISS MICROIMAGING, INC Richard Schleuning CHAPMAN/LEONARD STUDIO EQUIPMENT Leonard T Chapman Christine J Huenergardt CLAIRMONT CAMERA Mardrie Mullen DIGIHOLLYWOOD Chol Kim The Roster of Founding, Charter, Active, Associate, FILMTOOLS INC Honorary and Retired members is on page 64.

Stan McClain

C a rry On appr ov e d

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PHOTO OF IAN FOX AND JOHN LEE HANCOCK ON ‘SAVING MR BANKS’ BY FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL © DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.

“Mount the camera on the carousel horse…”

Advertisers’ index 20th Century Fox — www.foxmovies.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 10

Heffernan Insurance Brokers — www.heffins.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Backstage Equipment — http://www.backstageweb.com/. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Hover-Views Unlimited — www.hoverviews.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Canon — www.usa.canon.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

JL Fisher — www.jlfisher.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC

Carl Zeiss — www.zeiss.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Matthews Studio Equipment — www.msegrip.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapman Leonard — www.chapman-leonard.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

OConnor / Vitec— www.ocon.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Cinema Vision — www.motionpicturerentals.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Paramount — www.paramount.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Cinematography Electronics — www.cinematographyelectronics.com 48

SKB Cases — www.skbcasesusa.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Clairmont Camera — www.clairmont.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Thales Angenieux — www.angenieux.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC

Filmtools— www.filmtools.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Vitec Videocom Inc – East Coast — www.vitecvideocom.com . . 27

Fuji Optical — www.fujinon.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Universal Studios — www.universalstudios.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

GEO Film Group — www.geofilm.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Warner Bros Photo Lab — www.wbphotolab.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Glidecam — www.glidecam.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Warner Bros Studio — www.warnerbros.com. . . . . .IFC, 7, 9, 14, 16

Fall 2013

Camera OperatOr: Last take

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SOC Roster Society of Camera Operators Current as of 11/17/13

FOUNDERS & CHARTERS Lou Barlia Parker Bartlett  Paul Basta  Michael Benson  Rupert Benson Jr Stephanie Benson Bob Bergdahl Howard Block Donald R Burch Jerry G Callaway David Calloway Phil Caplan  Mike Chevalier  Bill Clark  Dick Colean Steve Conant Jim Connell  Rick Cosko  Jack Courtland Elliot Davis Sam Drummy Joe Epperson Mike Ferra Ron Francis Hiroyuki Fukuda William Jay Gahret Harvey Glen Jim Glennon Ray Gonzalez Jerry Good Jack Green  Gil Haimson  Lutz Hapke Peter Hapke Bill Hines Jim Hoover Bill Howard John Huneck Wayne Kennan Bob Keys Gary Kibbe David Kurland Norm Langley Thomas Laughridge  Steve Lydecker  Brice Mack III Joe Marquette Jr Owen Marsh  Bob Marta  Bob McBride Al Myers Ed Morey Tom Munshower Fred Murphy Lee Nakahara Jay Nefcy  Rik Nervik King Nicholson Leigh Nicholson John G Nogle Dan Norris Skip Norton David Norwell David B Nowell, ASC Wayne Orr  Richard Price Ernie Reed Arnold Rich Randall Robinson Parker Roe Sam Rosen Peter Salim Lou Schwartz Chris Schwiebert  Michael Scott Bob Seaman Hal Shiffman Fred Smith Roger Smith Michael St Hilaire  Ray Stella Joe Steuben John C Stevens Carol Sunflower Bill Swearingen Joseph F Valentine Ron Vidor Sven Walnum  denotes a Founding Member

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ACTIVE Peter Abraham Jonathan S Abrams Michael R Alba Bret Allen Derek M Allen Robert Reed Altman Colin Anderson Jack Anderson Kevin W Andrews Francois Archambault Joseph Arena Will Arnot Ted Ashton Jr Mark August Grayson Grant Austin Paul Babin Randall B Baer Christopher Baffa Lonn Bailey James Baldanza Jerry Banales Christopher Banting Jeff Barklage Ricardo Barredo Angel Barroeta Tom Barron Gary H Baum John James Beattie Guy Norman Bee Tim Bellen Nils Benson George M Bianchini Lukasz Bielan George Billinger Howard H Bingham Bonnie S Blake Jason Blount Bob C Boccaccio John Boyd Katie Boyum Kevin D Braband Gerard Brigante Hilaire Brosio Garrett Brown Kenny Brown Pete Brown Scott Browner Robin Buerki Gary Bush Stephen S Campanelli Jose A Cardenas Peter Cavaciuti Dave Chameides Lou Chanatry Joe Chess Jr Jeffrey R Clark Anthony Cobbs Craig Cockerill Steven Cohen Marcis Cole Kris A Conde Andrew Glenn Conder Michael Condon Brown Cooper Dan Coplan Luke Cormack Javier A Costa Richard J Cottrell Jeff Cree Rod Crombie Richard Crow Jeff L Crumbley Richard A Cullis Grant Culwell Joseph C D’Alessandro Nicholas Davidoff Markus Davids Richard W Davis Mark G Dawson Andrew A Dean Michael S Dean Jim Denny Kris Andrew Denton Joel Deutsch David E Diano Troy Dick Alfeo Dixon Rick Drapkin Scott C Dropkin Mitch Dubin Simon Duggan, ACS Louis R Duskin Allen D Easton William Eichler David E Elkins

Jason Ellson David Emmerichs Kevin J Emmons Brant S Fagan Tom Faigh Diane L Farrell Dianne Teresa Farrington Jesse Michael Feldman Michael Ferris George Feucht Dick Fisher Lance Fisher Aaron Fitzgerald Eric Fletcher Michael Flueck Houman Forough Felix Forrest Ian Forsyth Steve G Fracol Keith Francis Nick Franco David J Frederick Michael Frediani Michael A Freeman Steven French Samuel Buddy Fries Mick Froehlich Jeff Fry Paul M Gardner David Gasperik Anthony Gaudioz Rusty Geller Mark Gerasimenko William Gierhart Laurie K Gilbert Mark Goellnicht Daniel Gold Allen Gonzales Robert Gorelick Afton M Grant Bruce Alan Greene Chad Griepentrog David Allen Grove Robert Guernsey Pedro Guimaraes John C Gunselman Chris C Haarhoff Jess Haas John Hankammer Tim Harland Joshua Harrison Kent Harvey Chris Hayes David Haylock Dawn J Henry Alan Hereford Steven F Heuer Kevin Hewitt Dean Holmes Abe Holtz Jerry Holway Casey Hotchkiss Colin Hudson Philip Hurn Frederick Iannone Dave Isern Christopher Ivins Eugene W Jackson III Francis G James Alec Jarnagin Simon Jayes Christopher D Jones Kurt Jones Steven Jones Jacques Jouffret John H Joyce David Judy Mark Jungjohann David C Kanehann Mark Karavite Adam T Keith David Kimelman Douglas H Knapp Dan Kneece Rory Robert Knepp David T Knox Robert Kositchek Bud Kremp Kris Krosskove Per Larsson Jeff Latonero Eric Leach Sergio Leandro Silva Richard Leible Sarah Levy Jimmy W Lindsey

Camera OperatOr: SOC rOSter

Hugh C Litfin Patrick Longman George Loomis Jessica L Lopez David Luckenbach Greg Lundsgaard Kenji Luster Bruce MacCallum Rob Macey Vincent C Mack Paul S Magee David Mahlmann Giuseppe Malpasso Kim Marks Cedric Martin Johnny Martin Philip J Martinez Parris Mayhew William McClelland David B McGill Michael P McGowan Christopher TJ McGuire Aaron Medick Alan Mehlbrech Jack Messitt Duane Mieliwocki Marc A Miller Andrew Mitchell William Molina Lawrence P Moody Mark Emery Moore Denis Moran Josh Morton Manolo Rojas Moscopulos Jeff Muhlstock Michael James Mulvey Scott T Mumford Riggs Murdock Chris Murphy Sean Murray Dale Myrand Leo J Napolitano Robert Newcomb Julye Newlin William R Nielsen, Jr Randy Nolen Austin Nordell Ryan Michael O’Donnell William O’Drobinak Mark D O’Kane Michael D Off James Olcovich Andrew William Oliver John Orland Rafael Ortiz-Guzman Brian Osmond Georgia Tornai Packard Heather Page Mario Eugene Page Nick Paige Victor J Pancerev Andrew Parke Patrick J Pask Christopher T Paul Douglas Pellegrino John Perry George Peters Matthew A Petrosky Jonathan F Phillips Alan Pierce Theo Pingarelli S Jacob Pinger Jens Piotrowski Joseph Piscitelli Robert Presley Louis Puli Ryan Purcell Elizabeth Radley Yavir Ramawtar Juan M Ramos James B Reid George Richmond Alicia Robbins Peter Robertson Brooks Robinson David Robman Andy Romanoff Peter Rosenfeld Andrew Rowlands Dave Rutherford P Scott Sakamoto David M Sammons Joel San Juan Martin Schaer Ron Schlaeger Mark Schlicher

Gregory J Schmidt Mark Schmidt Fabrizio Sciarra Brian David Scott Benjamin Semanoff Barnaby Shapiro David Shawl Osvaldo Silvera Jr Jamie Silverstein Teddy Smith Needham B Smith III John Sosenko Mark Sparrough Benjamin Xavier Spek Sandy Spooner Lisa L Stacilauskas Robert Starling Meagan Stockemer Michael R Stumpf David L Svenson Christopher Taylor David James Thompson Richard Tiedemann Henry Tirl John Toll, ASC David Tolsky David Roy Tondeur Remi Tournois Neil C Toussaint Michael Tsimperopoulos Chris Tufty Rick Tullis Dan Turrett Brian Tweedt Matt Valentine Paul D Varrieur Ron Veto Andrew Voegeli Stefan von Bjorn Rob Vuona Bill Waldman Michael J Walker Timothy N Walker Adam S Ward Gareth Ward Gretchen Warthen Aiken Weiss Mande Whitaker Kit Whitmore Ken Willinger Chad Wilson Dana D Winseman RL Wise David A Wolf Bill Woodbridge Ian D Woolston-Smith Peter C Xiques Brian Young Chad Zellmer ASSOCIATE John Addocks David S Adelstein Brook Aitken Jamie Alac Ana M Amortegui Andrew B Ansnick Jillian H Arnold Daniel Asmelash Jacob Avignone Ryan Vogel Baker Jose Valero Ballesteros Tyson Banks Eddie Barber Josh Barrett Stephen Blanor Jeffrey D Bollman Peter Bonilla Jean-Paul Bonneau David Boyd Jennifer Braddock David Brooks Rochelle Brown Donald Brownlow Clyde E Bryan Sasha D Burdett Anthony Q Caldwell Bruce Cardozo Paul Case Marc Casey Gregory Paul Collier Mack Collins Gareth Paul Cox Richard P Crudo, ASC Anthony Deemer Enrique Xavier Del Rio Galindo William B Demeritt, III Ronald E Deveaux Jorge Devotto Twojay Dhillon David Dibble Keith Dunkerley Brian James Dzyak Christopher Ekstein David T Eubank Allen Farst Paul Ferrazzi

Kristin Fieldhouse Nichole Fleit John C Flinn III, ASC Mark Forman Tammy Fouts-Sandoval Bryan Fowler Fred M Frintrup Nicole Fuchs Juan Pablo Fuentes Hank Gifford Michael Goi, ASC Wayne Goldwyn Al Gonzalez John M Goodner Nikki Gray Brad Greenspan Dave Gregory George Eric Griffith David E Grober Robert Guthrie W Adam Habib Bob Hall James Hammond Anthony Hardwick John Hart Jennifer Ann Henry Anthony P Hettinger David Hirschmann Alex Hodge Scott Hoffman Chris Horvath Rachel A Hudson Jim Hunter Carrie Imai Toshiyuki Imai Gregory Irwin Haley Jackson Quenell Jones Jessica Jurges Brett Juskalian David Kane Timothy Kane Frank Kay Mark H Killian Douglas Kirkland Robert La Bonge Laurence Langton Dr Thomas Lee Aaron Leong Alan J Levi Mark Levin Howard Levine Justin Liang Adrian Licciardi Stuart T Lillas Rachel A Lippert Gordon Lonsdale Jasmine Lord Christopher Lymberis Dominik Mainl Darin Mangan James Mathers Jim R Matlosz Colin McDonald Hilda Mercado Lowell A Meyer Jonathan Miller Charles Minsky, ASC K Adriana Modlin-Liebrecht E Gunnar Mortensen Matthew C Mosher Natasha Narkiewicz Micah Newman Natalie Newman Kurt Nolen Russell C Nordstedt Casey Burke Norton Crescenzo GP Notarile, ASC Obie Kim Palmer Larry Mole Parker Steven D Parker Jeremy Parsons Florencia Perez Cardenal Mark W Petersen Jon Philion W S Pivetta Ted Polmanski Robert Primes, ASC Liz Radley Richard Rawlings Jr, ASC Marcia Reed Bill Reiter Brian Reyes Elizabeth Reynolds Lawrence M Ribeiro Claudio Rietti Peter J Rooney Sam Rosenthal Melissa Roth Steve Saxon Terry G Schroth Carl Martin Schumacher, Sr Christian Sebaldt, ASC Christopher Seehase Stephen Silberkraus Charles A Simons

Guy Skinner Michael Skor Jan Sluchak Dan Smarg Rob Smart Robert F Smith Dean Robert Smollar Brian Sowell Brent A Spencer Don Spiro Owen Stephens Aymae Sulick Jeremy Sultan Tara Summers Andy Sydney Ian S Takahashi Joe Tawil John Twesten Caitlin Rae Tyler Daniel Urbain Sandra Valde Thomas Valko Dale Vance, Jr Breanna Villani W Thomas Wall Leonard P Walsh,II Justin Watson Alex White Simon Wolfe Tim Wu Santiago Yniguez Tim Yoder Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC HONORARY John Bailey, ASC Tilman Buettner James Burrows Alexander Calzatti Trevor Coop Roger Corman Dean Cundey, ASC Bruce Doering Clint Eastwood Jack Green, ASC Tom Hatten Ron Howard Ron Kelley Kathleen Kennedy-Marshall Jerry Lewis Larry McConkey A Linn Murphree MD Diana Penilla Steven Spielberg Robert A Torres George Toscas Roy H Wagner, ASC Haskell Wexler, ASC RETIRED Aldo Antonelli Gary Olyn Armstrong Eugene Ashbrook Al Bettcher James Blanford Vee Bodrero Bruce Catlin Ivan Craig George Spiro Dibie, ASC Robert M Feller Jerry Fuller Wynn Hammer Ken Hilmer Gary Holt Robert C Horne Heather MacKenzie James Mann Stan McClain Michael McClary Ron McManus Mike Meinardus Emmanuel Metaxas Robert Bob Moore Sol Negrin, ASC David L Parrish Aaron Pazanti Frank Ruttencutter Richard Salvatore Chuck Schuman Philip D Schwartz George B Stephenson Phil Stern Gene Talvin Ben Wolf

The list of Corporate Members can be found on page 62.

Fall 2013

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