American Cinematographer - April 2008 - 46

Temple of Doom the filmmakers viewed a mix of 35mm and digital dailies. “We saw dailies on film as often as we could, and the 2.40:1 aspect ratio was maintained in the DVD dailies,” notes Khondji. “Atlab did really good work, and [senior color timer] Olivier Fontenay timed our dailies and organized all this for us.” When it came to shooting night scenes on the pyramid location, Khondji wanted a balance between stylization and realism “so you’re not quite sure if it’s moonlight or something less tangible. Night offers no sanctuary; the surrounding forest is ominously dark, and the Mayans have circled the pyramid with campfires. To create an uncomfortable, dirty feeling, the gaffer, Reg Garside, and I made sure the color of the night wasn’t too blue and had a touch of green.” To create soft moonlight sources, Garside constructed a 240K softbox keylight using 20 12K space lights mounted vertically on a frame. In front of that was ½ CTB with ¼ Plus Green, and the structure was then swathed in 1⁄2 gridcloth. The source was positioned about 80' in the air, providing an exposure of T1.41⁄2. “We put Dinos on a platform running along the outside of the set,” recalls Garside. “The lights sat below the level of the top of the set so Darius could shoot over them, and we then raised two 20-by-12-foot bounce sheets on 135-foot-high cranes to create a soft ambience over the set.” Things take a turn for the worse when the tourists hear what appears to be a mobile phone ringing at the bottom of a shaft that drops through the middle of the pyramid. In an attempt to retrieve the phone, several of the party are severely injured, one fatally. Like the pyramid, the shaft was constructed as two sets. “The shaft built atop the pyramid location was about 22 feet deep,” says Major. “That was to enable shots that could go from the top of the set down into the shaft in one move. The studio set was approximately 6 feet by 8 feet wide and 32 feet Left: Mathias (Joe Anderson) takes a terrifying fall as he is lowered down a shaft to the bowels of the ruin. A bluescreen at the bottom of the set allowed the filmmakers to increase the sense of depth. Right: Moments later, Stacy is lowered into the shaft to help her injured friend. of quiet, intimate emotion between characters. “I love the way the C-Series lenses render skin tones with a beautiful softness but still stay sharp when needed,” he continues. “The older anamorphic lenses can become a little gray and need a lot of light to get enough contrast in printing. I knew that with a digital intermediate [DI], I would be able to get the contrast back, but I wanted to have some kind of contrast in any prints we did and in the dailies. It was therefore very, very important to select the right lenses.” 1st AC David Elmes was duly dispatched to Panavision in Los Angeles with instructions to obtain high-contrast lenses — specifically, the ones used on The New World and Rush Hour 3. “We also obtained close-focus lenses that had been adapted for Stealth that had the added benefit of being slightly faster,” recalls Elmes. “One of the issues with anamorphic is you can’t always get focus on actors inside 4 feet, but the set of lenses we had worked beautifully.” “I like the older C-Series lenses for the same reason I like Cooke anamorphics,” adds Khondji. “The glass is older and they have a softer, slightly rounder look on faces. The way they render close-ups is unique and beautiful. The distortion is also very attractive on nature, the way the trees bend a little; that made them good for this picture as well.” Khondji filmed The Ruins on two Fuji Eterna film stocks, 250T 8553 and 500T 8573. “I started shooting with Fuji a few years ago — both My Blueberry Nights [2008] and Funny Games [2008] are on Fuji stock,” he notes. “The combination of the 250T stock with the C-Series lenses was wonderful for both the skin tones and the rendering of the jungle. For the underground sequences, I exposed right down the toe of the curve to keep it very dark, yet, at the same time, I wanted the lenses to perform well, so I couldn’t go too far or the negative would have gone muddy.” All scenes that take place after the group leave the safety of Cancún were shot on 8573 pushed 1 stop. (Khondji rated the stock normally but pushed it during the processing.) The production’s footage was processed by Atlab in Sydney, and 46 April 2008

American Cinematographer - April 2008

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