AmericanCinematographer201201

◗ Cold Case
Top: The crew
confronted frigid
conditions on
location in
Northern Europe.
Bottom: Working
in the relative
warmth of a
soundstage in
Sweden, the crew
simulates the cold
while setting up a
car shot.
From Fincher’s perspective,
perhaps the biggest advantage of the
Red is its size. “Because it’s small, I feel
like the filmmaking process itself
becomes sort of intimate,” he says.
“Filmmaking is a small circus — that’s
the nature of the beast — but I prefer to
keep it as intimate as possible. When
the mechanics become too consuming,
it’s too easy to get distracted from the
real reason we’re there: to capture the
actors’ performances. When the gear
gets too big, I feel like there’s a wall
between my cast and me, and it’s hard to
get around it to talk to them. I really
prefer to have that relationship, that
connection, be immediate. How we
shoot, where we shoot and what we
shoot with all play a role in finessing
that relationship.”
Shooting with two cameras
simultaneously and having the cinematographer
operate the B camera are
usually part of the plan. “David has
almost always worked that way,” says
Cronenweth. “I was the B-camera operator
on Fight Club and Social Network,
and Claudio [Miranda] was the B-
camera operator on Benjamin Button.”
Fincher explains, “I try as much
as possible to put that second camera in
a place where it will get me another
setup that I actually need — I’m never
just looking for gravy. It can be frustrating
for my cinematographer and tough
for lighting, but I’m going to challenge
him to bring that second camera as far
around as possible, to not just stack [the
cameras] and get a medium and close at
the same time. I’m going to shoot a
pretty wide and fairly disparate view. If
I can, I’ll do opposing coverage, 180
degrees. That does make lighting tough,
but sometimes getting those perfor-
38 January 2012 American Cinematographer