American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 58

Few Against

Many

Right: Leonidas
and his front¬

line troops were

flesh-and-blood,
but the

more

distant ranks
were

often

filled with

synthespian
recruits. Below:
A Technocrane

proved
invaluable to

Fong, who often
used its

telescoping
as a

for

arm
substitute

dolly work.

Leonidas and his

men

march

out

of

Sparta through a wheat field, and
played in full sun. We left the
cool toplight and added a very
strong backlight that was basically
neutral, straight tungsten; the later
timing adjustment in overall
warmth warmed up the backlight
even more,
creating a very golden,
that's

sunlit look in those

down the hall from mine," the cine¬

all of them, which saved

about the concept art and the color
scheme he'd come up with for

highlights. This
approach meant we had to change
gels on just a few lamps rather than
a

lot of

prep

for the

time."
With six weeks

to

60-day shoot, Fong began
tests

camera
in coordination with Bissell.

"Thank God Jim's office

was

just

matographer jokes. "We talked a lot

Sparta. We couldn't afford to shoot
[all tests] on film, so in some cases I
took digital stills and then used
Photoshop to approximate the
movie's final look, which we called
'The Crush'
clipped highlights
-

and crushed shadows. I didn't know

exactly how our post process would
work

or

how the movie would look,

and that's

position any cine¬
matographer wants to be in."
Throughout the shoot, Fong used
Apple's iPhoto to catalog and anno¬
tate his stills; this helped him com¬
municate lighting and camera
details

to

essary.

not a

the second unit when

nec¬

He did "Crush" tests for

almost every

other department

as

well, including hair, makeup and
props.

Shooting in Super 35mm
with Panavision and Arriflex
and Primo lenses,
Kodak and Fuji film
eras

found

that

cam¬

Fong tested
stocks and

Kodak

Vision2

Expression 500T 5229 "worked best
for underexposure. That was
important, because I knew I was
58

April 2007



American Cinematographer - April 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2007

Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 4
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 5
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 6
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - 7
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American Cinematographer - April 2007 - A
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - B
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American Cinematographer - April 2007 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - April 2007 - Cover4
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