American Cinematographer - July 2008 - 47

realism, but not something so overly stylized that you wouldn’t believe these events could be happening right now. We increased the color saturation slightly, adding some brighter colors to the sets and more colors to the lighting, but we did not want it to feel like a comic-book movie at all.” Berg decided to shoot the movie completely handheld, with two cameras (operated by Dave Luckenbach and Lucas Bielan) almost always running simultaneously. “I wouldn’t say it was shot like a documentary because Peter rehearsed the actors, but it was shot very freely,” remarks Schliessler. “After a rehearsal, Peter had Dave and Lucas put the cameras up and shoot the scene, and he’d call out directions as necessary — asking one operator to go in tighter, for example — but he pretty much let the operators run freely with the actors. If he didn’t get what he needed, he’d make adjustments for the next take, but for the most part, the coverage was achieved very organically. “Peter had worked with Lucas and Dave before and was very comfortable with them,” he continues. “For the most part, I concentrated on lighting and Peter worked with the operators. Peter and I have a common language and understand each other very well, and I knew his choices would be exactly what we needed for this film. The operators were also on that same page, and it all fell in quite naturally.” Berg’s penchant for long takes required the use of 1,000' magazines throughout the shoot. Further adding to the operators’ load was the camera — the filmmakers chose the Panaflex Platinum over the lighter Millennium XL — and the lenses, Panavision Primo 11:1 and 4:1 zooms. “It wasn’t uncommon for one camera to start on a 24mm, snap in to a 275mm for a moment, and then snap out wide again in a single shot,” says Schliessler, who estimates each camera weighed 70-80 pounds. “Dave and Lucas were real troopers, and I don’t really know how they did it. They were going with the flow, creating a kind of dance between the two cameras and the actors. Sometimes the cameras would catch each other, and sometimes they’d run into each other, but for the most part, it worked amazingly well.” To keep the action rolling for particularly long periods, when one camera rolled out, Berg would continue with the second camera while the first was reloaded instead of cutting the scene. Then, with a fresh roll of film, the first camera would slip back into the mix and shoot through the second camera’s reload. To capture a four-page dialogue scene with Hancock, Embry, and Embry’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), on the patio of a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, three cameras worked this way to maintain the intensity of the scene. “We just kept shooting, moving around the table with the three cameras,” recalls Schliessler. “It took an hour and a half of constant shooting, but we got the scene and were wrapped by lunch!” To light the scene, Schliessler placed an electric candle in the center of the table. “It was 4 or 5 inches high and about 4 inches around,” he explains. “We put a bigger socket in there with a stronger bulb, and it created a really beautiful, warm glow on all their faces. For scenes like that, when I knew Peter wanted to shoot without interruption and without relighting, I would go into the environment and try to find a source that would allow us to shoot 360 degrees and also look good on the actors. The actors were always free to move about and improvise their blocking; Peter didn’t want any marks on the floor or anything to lock anyone into a specific action. Once we were lit for a scene, we wouldn’t change anything for closeups; we’d just shoot and shoot until Opposite page: Unconventional superhero John Hancock (Will Smith) leaves his mark on the city he protects. This page: After being saved by the hero, PR wizard Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman, in car) helps Hancock craft a new image and smooth over relations with his hometown of Los Angeles. Images courtesy of Columbia Pictures. American Cinematographer 47

American Cinematographer - July 2008

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