American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 30

Watchmakers “We’re all pretty proud of the shot of The Comedian going out the window,” says Fong. To capture the defenestration, Morgan was suspended by a wire rig and dropped from a special set piece constructed 30' above the stage floor, and Fong used a PanArri 435 — rolling at 150 fps — on a Technocrane. Chocolate Factory, Minority Report). “I think a lot of why Watchmen is such a great graphic novel and has been so recognized is that Alan Moore’s narrative instructions to Dave Gibbons are all about how much story you can put in the pictures, and Zack wanted to be true to that.” Fong adds, “Before anything was built, my crew and I would study the conceptual drawings, paintings and blueprints, and Alex was really thoughtful about getting my input on any lighting that would be built into the sets.” All told, the production 30 April 2009 called for the construction of some 150 sets. The largest by far was the New York City exterior, built from the ground up near Canadian Motion Picture Park Studios outside of Vancouver. The filmmakers had flirted with shooting on location in downtown Los Angeles or the Big Apple, or using the New York Street set on Warner Bros.’ backlot, but they opted to build the three city blocks from scratch so they could faithfully render the comic’s stylized cityscape. “It was really nice to be able to completely design our own world,” says McDowell. “We liter- ally poured the street. We were able to get really broken-up sidewalk and broken-up asphalt — the sorts of things you’re compromised with on backlots — and we were able to build the streets at a decent scale. The set was 30-35 feet high, which allowed us to contain close-ups and mid shots, but we knew there were going to be set extensions in almost every scene; we put greenscreen at the end of every street so we could extend streets to the horizon.” Fong’s lighting objective for the outdoor set was the clash of fixtures typical in real urban settings. “We tried to make as much of the city light itself as possible,” he says, noting that Snyder suggested Taxi Driver (1976) as a reference. “When you’re shooting at night in a real city, you’re usually trying to take away all the weird colors and the multiple shadows to make your shots look beautiful and controlled. In order to make this look real, I decided to keep it raw.” To build the raw feel into the set, Fong, gaffer Denis Brock and rigging gaffer Jarrod Tiffin supervised the efforts of 24 set wiremen before the lamp operators could even bring in any fixtures. “It

American Cinematographer - April 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2009

American Cinematographer - April 2009
Contents
Editor's Note
Short Takes: Patiences
Production Slate
Watchmakers
Sum of All Fears
An Epic Endeavor
Sundance 2009: 5 That Thrived
Post Focus: Autodesk Updates Lastre
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
ASC Membership Roster
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Thomas Ackerman
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - American Cinematographer - April 2009
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 4
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 5
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 6
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 7
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Editor's Note
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 9
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Short Takes: Patiences
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 11
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 12
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 13
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 14
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 15
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Production Slate
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 17
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 18
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 19
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 20
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 21
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 22
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 23
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 24
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 25
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 26
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 27
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Watchmakers
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 29
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 30
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 31
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 32
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 33
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 34
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American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 37
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American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 39
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 40
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 41
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 42
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 43
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Sum of All Fears
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 45
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 46
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 47
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 48
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 49
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 50
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 51
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 52
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 53
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - An Epic Endeavor
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 55
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 56
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 57
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 58
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 59
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 60
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 61
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Sundance 2009: 5 That Thrived
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 63
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 64
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 65
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 66
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 67
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American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 74
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 75
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 76
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 77
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Post Focus: Autodesk Updates Lastre
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 79
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 80
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 81
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 83
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 84
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 85
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 86
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 87
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 88
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 89
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 90
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 91
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 93
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 95
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - ASC Membership Roster
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 97
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - 99
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - ASC Close-Up: Thomas Ackerman
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - April 2009 - Cover4
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