Month: March 2017

Based on the popular book series, the film stories follow Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman) on his various quests and his wanting to understand and reunite with his father. We really ran poor Logan through the paces on this one and he never once complained. We dragged him, hung him from wires, ran him through fire and here, stretched him between two halves of a speeding taxi driven by a maniacal threesome that share a single eyeball. Obviously, a fantasy based story which opened up the possibility for great visuals. In fact, I would have loved to have gone a bit further and more dramatic with this film, but the studio needed to consider the age of their young audience and wanted a look that more favored the fantasy component and less the dramatic themes. Totally understandable when making a film of this nature for a large studio. The movie was Directed by Thor Fruedenthal. I had a great Vancouver crew including Gaffer Drew Davidson, Key Grip John Westerlaken, operator Peter Wilke and First AC Taylor Matheson. These guys helped me to no end and really keyed-in to what we were doing and made my life extremely easy with regard to camera, lighting and grip. All very creative guys with great work ethics. Here is Logan Lerman on his way to the chiropractor.

We separated two halves of a stationary taxi against green screen and married that with speeding back plates shot by Roger Vernon. The taxi sequence is involved, had a lot of dialogue and a sweeping sort of back-lashing camera movement. We also had fast moving lighting affects with a 360 array of mirrors that surrounded the car to add reference to the fact that the taxi was moving at a fictional hyper-speed. We used cabs cut-away in various forms to accommodate our fast sweeping cameras and gimbal that tended to toss the actors not unlike socks in a dryer.

Another big pilot on Pilot Day. This was my 5th collaboration with Joe Johnston and I very much enjoy shooting movies for him. We had a high-pressure start on my first film with him and I remember the day vividly when I found his funny bone and made him laugh… Somewhere around the third week of Jurassic Park 3. It’s funny because on those films you’re faced with situations where your choice is to laugh or cry… And once we could laugh together (much at my expense, granted) we had access to see solutions. Now it seems no matter what we are faced with, we understand at least one of us will work up a good plan… If not both of us. Lumen was a large pilot for DreamWorks that was shot in New Zealand. It’s about a boy who figures a way to access the world of a famous fantasy novel series and helps his family in the process.

Great New Zealand gaffer Tony Blackwood really worked hard on this project. This location was remote and he had maxi brutes dotting the hillside and his crew worked very hard to get the placements I requested and power to this location. It was a set up that we got a lot of mileage from. In fact, one shot that was cut from the script was a wide shot of our group entering the camp in a remote area. At lunch time (around midnight), Joe Johnston told me he’d love to get that wide shot, and asked if there was some area within Tony’s rig several acres of lit forest that we could cheat that shot into existence. We explored during the lunch break and Joe found this tree that was wonderfully side lit and asked if I could make that work. Tony panned around some backlight and we got this shot rather quickly. Joe is great at finding the graphic element in a location or piece of action. He is art trained and knows his way around a composition and any set design. His vast ILM experience gives him quite the pedigree and he’s very exciting to work with. Tony was able to shake up a few lights that we could see and hide them behind foreground trees. We were able to walk our kids through the shot before we lost them to the child labor laws and we were happy to get the shot so quickly. I owe Tony a beer for this one.

Directed by Mark Williams, this is an exceptionally well written script by Bill Dubuque. The story largely takes place in the competitive world the boiler-room office and a father who is detached from his family must find a way to connect with his son when he’s faced with illness. The son has an interest in Chicago architecture and teaches his father about appreciating the simple beautiful things that are right in front of him. Gerard Butler plays the lead roll and was very excited to star in this very delicately written piece. I always enjoy seeing an actor take a chance and work outside their safety zones. For me, I try to take the camera on a similar journey in these cases… Work outside my safety zone as well and create a united front between the director, actors and myself so that they can feel safe and supported and have some faith that the camera will be there for them when they need it. It must be tough for these actors to challenge themselves like this and I try to constantly monitor what they might be needing so that the crew can help them. In addition, first time director (but quite experienced producer) Mark Williams had an intimate understanding of the material and since the characters all go through massive changes in the telling of the story, was enormously helpful in establishing the faceted arc for the narrative. Personally, I’d swear he’s done 10 films. He’s a natural. Ultimately this film is about understanding people and how the right thing is often not the easiest thing, and I think this same idea is what we strived for in the spirit in the cinematography as well.

Here’s a short frame for you. The great actor Alfred Molina eavesdrops on a telephone conversation and we wanted to really push his sense of despair, so we decided to push the anamorphic framing a bit. Interestingly, this shot was made on our first day of shooting. I think that when you push a frame like this early in the production process, you almost give the crew permission to think a bit outside the box and it fosters a spirit knowing their own suggestions can be a little more extreme. After we made this shot, I noticed Operator Michael Carella really click-in and search for opportunities where his framing would add layers to the storytelling. First AC Barrett Axford did similar things with his expressive focus-pulling that followed the meaning of the dialogue… And not necessarily the words. A film set is busy and distracting and it’s wonderful to have crew that thinks about story. In addition, our gaffer, Mike Hall and key grip Rico Emmerson were constantly finding creative solutions to technical challenges. Often when hiring a crew on location, I consider the personalities and group dynamic and try very hard to pair the right personalities with the specific project. So much of this is a gut call, since I’m often the stranger in these cases and know nothing of these people. I was very happy with how hard this crew worked on this project and helped Mark and Gerard through the process of making this film.

Please meet one of my key teachers, Allen Daviau, ASC. I met Allen in the late 70’s and he has been a constant presence ever since. He taught me much about the craft of cinematography with his coaching. How to be passionate about cinematography with his persona… And how to strive for artistic excellence with his images. I think we should all take a moment to thank our teachers and think about how we can extend that connection with young cinematographers. He even took a cab to Pasadena to watch one of my student films projected on an apartment wall. In this photo, Allen is paying a visit to the Jurassic Park 3 set on Stage 12 at Universal. A large-scale set lit for both day and night exterior shooting that provided a controlled environment for Stan Winston’s dinosaurs. The film was directed by the great Joe Johnston. Allen helped me enormously after I got offered JP3 and showed me the film Congo, that he shot where he had many stage-bound jungle scenes. He was very candid and honest about pointing out what he thought he did well… And where he felt he needed improvement. One of the true giants of cinematography.

The Big Bang was shot in Spokane, Washington with a largely local crew. Mike Vukas was the gaffer and he worked hard at embracing our unusual visual aspirations. Peter Green was the A Camera operator and Ronnie Dennis was the First AC. We all worked hard… including doing our own rigging during lunch, so that our Director, Tony Krantz, could come away with something he truly authored. On this shot, a red nightclub, I was told that the red gel I had ordered for the windows was too expensive. So, we sent some PA’s to the party supply store in downtown Spokane and they came back with a dozen or so plastic party table cloths that we could apply to the outside of the windows in lieu of the costly gel. It made the UPM happy and sometimes that’s what tips the scales of sanity on a film set. A pretty funny 99 cent solution.

Shot from Jurassic Park 3… Stage 12 jungle set. Director Joe Johnston wanted to have the ability to look any direction at any time without waiting for time consuming re-lights. I spoke to Larry Parker at Mole Richardson and discovered they were about to come out with large MoleBeams with newly engineered Bausch & Lomb mirrors. Larry made me something in the range of 70 of these units to serve as sunlight for our stages. On stage 12, we had 44 units rigged on a motorized overhead rail system so that we could move our lights over the set and change our sun patterns in just a couple of minutes, thus freeing time for Joe to work with his amazing cast from that film. The gaffer was John Sprague, and he worked very hard throughout that project as much of the rigs were on a large scale. Key Grip, Bob Babin created fantastic and amazing rigs for our lights, cameras and sun control on a scale never attempted. A-Camera operator was longtime collaborator, Don Devine and focus puller Mike Martino. I’m thankful to have had such a gifted crew.

Jurassic Park 3, Stage 12 jungle set. Sam Neil reprised his role as Dr. Alan Grant, and it wouldn’t be a Jurassic film without him. There’s one of our hardworking MoleBeams behind him. One tip that Allen Daviau, ASC gave me as a result of his experiences on the film Congo… “You need atmosphere to create depth but don’t use smoke. Use high pressure water mist so you can place your atmosphere in layers and avoid too much build up.” No truer words were ever spoken. The mist system was brilliant.

Jungle Visual Reference Image. Director, Joe Johnston gave me this illustration by Paleo Artist Doug Henderson as the best example to create our visual layers on stage. We were able to construct a methodology where we had deepening degrees if light and shadow created into depth within the frame. Ed Verreaux, the incredible Production Designer also contributed by very cleverly designing a jungle consisting of plants with lessening degrees of foliage scale as we shot towards the outer edges of the set in order to mimic depth within our stage confines. Stage 12 at Universal is gargantuan… But seemed to become quite small as our sequences grew.