American Cinematographer - July 2009 - 47

comfortable and is very ergonomic.” For running shots and tighter quarters, like inside the Humvee, Aaton’s A-Minima came into play. “You can poke it around a bit, the same way people use [Sony] PD150s; it’s got that kind of attitude.” Though Bigelow storyboarded the film, the four Aaton operators worked like documentary shooters covering a war. The sets were big, usually more than 300 meters long. In the opening sequence, the video images were captured by the Army’s robotic device. Two XTR-Prods were stationed behind the Humvee to pick out dialogue and reveal characters. (In this sequence and others, special reveals were given to wellknown actors playing cameo roles, such as Pearce and Ralph Fiennes.) Canon 8-64mm and 11165mm zoom lenses were employed throughout the shoot. “It’s a good, huge range,” says Ackroyd. “We’d have three to four cameras, and we’d tell one of the guys to try to find a rooftop. There are lots of lovely 45degree angles down. Using an 11–165mm zoom, you could pick off a head-and-shoulders shot of someone across the street, or have a wide-angle shot. We used a lot of zooms within the shot to give it that little edge.” IED explosions were created by special-effects supervisor Robert Stutsman and his team. No digital effects were used to create or enhance any explosions because Bigelow was aiming for total accuracy. “Those fake gas fireballs have a lot of visual impact but are inaccurate, especially given the type of ordnance soldiers are dealing with in Iraq,” she says. “The effect we were after was predominantly a very dense, black, thick, almost completely opaque explosion filled with lots of particulate matter and shrapnel.” The blast in the opening scene was captured at high speed with a Phantom HD, which was obtained in Beirut, Lebanon. Ackroyd notes Left: James examines the detonator he ferreted out while defusing a car bomb at the United Nations building in Baghdad. Below: James and Sanborn search an abandoned building where suspicious activity has been detected. he is normally reluctant to use slowmotion for such scenes. “On a lot of films I’ve shot, we’d refuse to shoot high-speed or use multiple cameras on something like an explosion or a crash because that’s showing too much knowledge,” he explains. But in this case, “we shot high-speed to get the sense of flying dirt. When an explosion that big goes off, the whole earth moves. “The great thing about that [Phantom] camera is that it’s really quite simple to use, provided you have enough daylight,” he continues. “And you can play back and see your results straight away, which is really helpful.” He determined that shooting between 500-1,000 fps would facilitate the appropriate amount of screen time and optimal resolution in the HD image. As he has on all his features, Ackroyd manned the A camera throughout the shoot. “It’s my documentary background,” he says. “When you’re feeling in tune with something, you can follow a whole scene or conversation — even one in another language — and know how to make that coverage tell the story. You can use one camera and one sound recorder and get cutaways and reaction shots, all in real time. I think that’s the greatest kind of training you can have.” The other camera operators on the picture were Scott McDonald, a Canadian who had worked with Ackroyd on Battle in Seattle (2007); Duraid Munajim, who was hired for second unit but American Cinematographer 47

American Cinematographer - July 2009

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