American Cinematographer - July 2008 - 35

focus, and that helped us,” Hall says. “Also, we saw that certain actions had to be minimized to an extent. Strobing was an issue, and we learned which fast shots and what kinds of moves we could get away with. Chris is very astute about what is usable and what isn’t; he realized that in extremely difficult shallowdepth-of-field shots, some moments would be out of focus. His intent was to get certain important beats, and once we had those in focus, we could move on.” The Dark Knight centers on the relationship between Batman (Christian Bale) and police Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and their attempt to curb crime in Gotham. They are joined by District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who, with Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne, forms a love triangle with Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). A new villain, the Joker (Heath Ledger), presents a difficult challenge for law enforcement because of his nihilistic methods. “In this film, Batman is going in a new direction, and the environments we created are completely different from those in Batman Begins — Wayne Manor has burned down, and the Batcave has been replaced by a brightly lit secret bunker,” says Pfister. “We wanted to suggest a colder, more modern world, and rather than going dark with everything, we had fun with some brighter environments. The red-yellow patina of Batman Begins came naturally from the sodiumvapor lamps we used so much, and Dark Knight’s different environments became an excuse to play with colors a bit more.” The new film features three distinct tones: one is slightly bluegreen; another is neutral, almost black-and-white; and the third is a rust-like tinge that references Batman Begins. “Early on, I suggested to Wally that because the film is called The Dark Knight and is Batman assists with an interrogation of the Joker that turns a bit physical. about, metaphorically, extremely dark subjects, it would be interesting to play against that for much of the film and make things as bright as possible, even as the material gets darker,” says Nolan. “I encouraged Wally to be open to different textures for different scenes and not be too rigid in terms of an overriding style, and he really warmed to that. His style of photography is very naturalistic and very subtle; he’s very good at making things feel real with an unforced and natural beauty, and that’s what we were really after on this film.” The 35mm material was shot with Panavision cameras, two Millennium XLs and a Platinum, and the production carried the same E-Series and C-Series anamorphic lenses Pfister had used on The Prestige, along with some Panavision Super High Speed lenses. The picture was filmed on two Kodak Vision2 emulsions, 500T 5218 (rated at EI 400) and 250D 5205 (rated at EI 200). In certain situations, Pfister pushed the stock a stop to gain speed while maintaining solid blacks. “I’m not a guy who changes film stocks to create a different look,” he notes. “I like to have a simple set of tools and change the look with lighting and exposure. 5205 has a very solid grain structure, and I usually use it all day long with ND filters during the brightest parts of the day. By the end American Cinematographer 35

American Cinematographer - July 2008

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