American Cinematographer - May 2015 - 20

Production Slate

Youth Without End
By Jean Oppenheimer

The Age of Adaline is a romantic drama about a 29-year-old
mother who survives a car accident that mysteriously leaves her
immortal and forever young. Decades pass, but Adaline Bowman
(Blake Lively) never ages a day. Lest anyone discover her secret, she
opts to lead a reclusive life, avoiding relationships and moving any
time her ever-youthful appearance begins to draw attention. Her sole
confidant is her daughter, Flemming, whom Adaline watches grow
from childhood (Julia Torrance) to adulthood (Cate Richardson) to old
age (Ellen Burstyn).
Although the movie opens in the present day, its story jumps
back and forth in time, from Adaline's birth in San Francisco in 1900
to her marriage and widowhood in the 1930s, her hippie days in the
1960s, and back into the 21st century, when she meets and falls in
love with a handsome young philanthropist named Ellis Jones
(Michiel Huisman). In the present, Adaline must decide whether to
run away again or to finally reveal the truth about herself.
"Director Lee Toland Krieger and I wanted to give the different time periods a very subtle contrast of tone and looks," says cinematographer David Lanzenberg, who had previously collaborated
with Krieger on two shorts and the feature Celeste and Jesse Forever.
Born in France, Lanzenberg spent his childhood in Spain, then moved
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May 2015

to New York when he was 13. He started his career as a production
assistant and later a coordinator for MTV before finding his niche
behind the camera. His cinematography credits include music
videos, commercials, the feature The Signal and the pilot for
Married.
Lanzenberg and Krieger initially pushed to shoot with an Arri
Alexa, but Lakeshore Entertainment, which co-produced the
feature, mandated the use of a Red camera, so the filmmakers
instead worked with two Red Epic Dragons. "Cinematographers
should be able to work with different cameras," Lanzenberg opines,
"and this gave me an opportunity to learn, which was exciting. We
were able to formulate an interesting look with [the Epic Dragon]."
After weeks of testing, Lanzenberg opted for a mix of lenses
"to define the [different] periods," he says. For present-day scenes,
he employed Vantage Film's Hawk V-Lite 2x anamorphic primes
(ranging from 28mm to 140mm) and a V-Series 180mm. The Hawk
lenses, Lanzenberg observes, "are crisp and clinical, which is well
suited for [a contemporary feel]."
For the period from 1940 through the late '60s, Lanzenberg
turned to Kowa anamorphic primes (ranging from 32mm to
100mm). "They're softer than the Hawks and brought a warm,
romantic tone, producing a more classical feel overall," the cinematographer says. "For the pre-Forties period, however, anamorphic lenses didn't seem appropriate because they didn't exist back

American Cinematographer

The Age of Adaline photos by Diyah Pera, courtesy of Lionsgate. Additional images courtesy of Finn King.

In the romantic
drama The Age
of Adaline, a
young mother
(Blake Lively,
right) survives a
terrible car
accident,
becoming forever
young. Her aging
daughter,
Flemming (Ellen
Burstyn), is her
sole confidant.

American Cinematographer - May 2015

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