British Cinematographer issue 51 - Imago

British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012 36
On the Job
–––Dariusz Wolski ASC
Prometheus 3D
Illuminating... Wolski worked with
gaffer Perry Evans to bring futuristic
LED light to the imagery.
Headshot of Dariusz Wolski
by, and courtesy of, Douglas
Kirkland.
Wolski was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. He
migrated to New York City in 1979 after graduating from
the national film school at Lodz. Wolski began his career
working on BBC documentaries. He explored new
horizons while shooting commercials and more than 100
music videos, including many for Tony and Ridley Scott’s
company, after moving to Los Angeles in 1986. Wolski
collaborated with Tony Scott on The Crow in 1994 and
Crimson Tide in 1995. He has earned approximately 20
movie credits, including Alice In Wonderland, Rum Diary
and the four popular Pirates Of The Caribbean films.
Scott has earned BAFTA Best Film and Best Director
awards for Thelma And Louise, a Best Director BAFTA
award for Gladiator, a Best Film BAFTA Award for
American Gangster and Academy-Award nominations
for Thelma And Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.
A short list of his other memorable credits includes Alien,
Blade Runner, Robin Hood, Someone To Watch Over
Me, Hannibal, Body Of Lies and American Gangster. Sir
Ridley Scott was knighted in 2003 in recognition of his
contributions to advancing the art of filmmaking.
“Ridley visited the set in Los Angeles whilst I was
shooting Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in
3D stereo format in 2009,” Wolski recalls. “Later, he visited
the set while we were shooting in London and began a
conversation about producing Prometheus in 3D.”
Although the RED Epic camera was still in the
prototype stage at this time, Wolski says that he and
Scott were interested, because it is half the size of
other digital cameras and has a 5K chip. After Wolski
completed production of Pirates, they shot a 3D test with
a prototype Epic camera and agreed it was the right
tool for producing Prometheus.
“I think Ridley is a genius,” Wolski says. “His body of
work is incredible. He has pioneered the contemporary
science fiction genre. He created kind of grungy,
textural looks for Alien and Blade Runner that were
complete departures from other science fiction movies.
I knew from watching his films over the years that he is
always driven to take it to the next level.”
The script for Prometheus is an original story coauthored
by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. A short
list of the ensemble cast includes Charlize Theron, Guy
Pearce, Noami Rapance and Michael Fassbender.
“Ridley envisioned a very sterile, clean look with a
little bit of texture,” Wolski says. But how much is a little bit?
Every filmmaker has a different answer to that question.
Most of Prometheus was produced on stages at
Pinewood Studios with additional scenes shot on the
backlot. Wolski credits production designer Arthur Max
and set decorator Sonia Klaus with playing significant
roles in providing believable environments for both the
spaceship and the alien planet. Background plates
and exterior scenes on the planet were produced at
a national park in Iceland. Aerial shots of mountains in
Jordan were taken from a helicopter. They also shot one
scene in the mountains in Scotland.
“I knew that Ridley likes to be able to move fast with
cameras,” Wolski says. “After we decided to go with RED
Epic cameras, we told the people who we were dealing
with them how to make the stereo rig simpler, smaller
and more flexible.”
37
British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012
Most of the story takes place on the spaceship and
underground on the planet. “They are very big spaces,
which I lit as minimally as possible,” Wolski says. “The
characters are wearing helmets with lamps on them, so
there was light on their faces. They also carried flashlights
everywhere. (Gaffer) Perry Evans designed futuristiclooking
light fixtures on spaceship sets, using LED lights that
were controlled with dimmers. It’s very naturalistic looking
and it gave us the freedom to put cameras anywhere.”
Wolski’s crew included Steadicam operator Daniele
Massaccesi, who came from Italy, camera operators
Graham Hall and Gary Spratling, first assistants John
Fergurson, Robert Palmer, Miles Proudfoot, second
assistants David Churchyard, Elliot Dupuy, Iain Mackay
and Paul Wheeldon. Perry Evans was the gaffer, Gary
Hyams was the key grip, Adrian Barry was the grip and
Adam Dale was the aerial cinematographer.
“My crew were terrific,” he says. “The camera
operators and assistants were put into very complex
situations, where they had to adapt quickly. They all did
great jobs.”
A number of people on his crew had collaborated
with Wolski on Pirates Of The Carribean: On Stranger
Tides, including stereographer James Goldman. Wolski
explains that the stereographer is the person who
watched his back while he was lining up shots.
“There are two principles,” he says. “You have to
be careful about the interocular distance between the
eyes and the point of convergence. On Pirates Of The
Carribean: On Stranger Tides, we weren’t converging
on the set. We were shooting parallel takes and doing
convergence during postproduction, when we decided
how deep backgrounds should be.”
O U T E R S P A C E
Prometheus takes the audience
on a 3D journey to a planet in
outer space with a group of
explorers who are on a quest to
find the secret to the origins of life
on Earth. The spaceship is named
after Prometheus who, in Greek
mythology, stole fire from Zeus and
gave it to mortals. Dariusz Wolski
ASC and Ridley Scott brought
deep pools of experience and
talent for the global art of visual
storytelling to this ambitious
endeavour, writes Bob Fisher.
Wolski explains that each stereo rig held two RED
Epic cameras at 90 degree angles with a mirror used
to emulate the way people see 3D with their eyes.
The interocular distance was controlled by motors
and the alignment was monitored with a control box
where Wolski and his crew could see if the images were
properly aligned. Images were composed in widescreen
in 2.4:1 ratio.
Wolski says that the Epic camera has a comfortable
800 exposure index. However, they were losing almost
a stop, because they were shooting in 3D stereo with a
mirror rig. He always had cameras on four rigs ready to
roll at all times. Wolski explains that it would have taken
too long to change and realign two shorter and longer
prime lenses with the mirror. The cameras on two rigs had
Angenieux 16-40mm short zoom lenses on them. The
cameras on the other two rigs had longer Angenieux
27-76 mm zoom lenses on them.
Wolski says that he dealt with the actors and
everyone else the same way the same way he would
on a 2D movie. “We had to be careful of eye lines and
two cameras are obviously heavier than one, but that
didn’t stop us from putting them on a Steadicam,” he
says. “The best tool was the Technocrane, because we
could put it everywhere. When the cameras were set,
the stereographer and rig technicians made sure all the
zoom lenses were properly aligned.”
Because they were shooting with multiple cameras,
the production had an extensive video village. There
was a director’s tent with two big 3D monitors inside, and
also two high-end 2D monitors that Wolski could switch
between the left and right eye cameras.
“I was monitoring individual eyes and also looking at
2D images on big monitors,” he explains. “It was a very
complex video village that required special wiring with
great video playback. We rehearsed with it on Pirates
and improved it tremendously on Prometheus.
“The tent was always near the set. Ridley spoke with
the actors when they came on the set. He set everything
up and then went back into the tent. I was constantly
moving between the village and the set.” When the
production shot in Iceland the video village was housed
in a truck due to the wind and cold weather.
“We created data files which were a little bit more
compressed for dailies and watched them on a big
television screen,” Wolski says. “In the beginning, we
watched a lot of dailies on the big screen to make sure
that the look was what we envisioned. I timed dailies on
the set by downloading files and touching up shadows
and colour temperatures. You can play with it.
“Most of the look, including convergence of images
from two cameras, was created while we were timing
dailies for the 3D release,” Wolski says. “We played a bit
with shadows and colours in DI. A lot of nuances were
added when we timed the 2D version.”
The digital intermediate was timed in collaboration
with colorist Stefan Nakamura at Company 3 in Santa
Monica. There is also going to be a 2D release in IMAX
format.
Wolski offers the following advice for
cinematographers who are shooting their first 3D
movie: “Trust your instincts the way you would if you
were shooting in 2D format. There are people who are
extremely knowledgeable about 3D, but they have
very little experience dealing with a cast and crew and
the unexpected things that can happen when you are
shooting a film. My best advice is try to shoot it like a
normal film. One of the big differences is that you have
to light and compose images for three-dimensional
viewing. You don’t want it to look flat.”
Twentieth Century-Fox is releasing Prometheus in
both 3-D and 2-D IMAX formats.