American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 24
Top and bottom:
Tim "Nailer" Foley,
de facto leader of
Arizona Border
Recon, searches
the Southern
Arizona mountains
for cartel scouts
and drug mules.
Middle: Director
and cocinematographer
Matthew
Heineman captures
a moment with
Foley at the
Arizona-Mexico
border.
camera was going into a scene, it would be
his."
Because so much of the film was
shot under intensely bright conditions, a
couple of accessories were especially important. The first was a Deity Mira monitor
loupe viewfinder attachment that affixed to
the C300's LCD screen, and the other a
24
September 2015
threaded Tiffen variable ND filter, which
allowed Heineman and Porwoll to bypass
the C300's internal ND filter and achieve
smooth transitions of up to eight stops
when moving into and out of cars and
buildings.
Heineman sees Cartel Land's interview scenes as a way to "guide" the vérité
American Cinematographer
sequences, and he wanted the two styles to
match in energy and realism. He thus developed a testimonial style with each subject,
who would look directly into the camera
lens. Porwoll, who was responsible for
shooting the interviews, lit the subject with
a single 1x1 Litepanel and operated from
the side of the camera, while Heineman sat
directly behind the camera and asked questions.
Heineman and Porwoll filmed the
vérité sequences, sometimes together but
often separately, to follow different characters. In Arizona they traveled with a sound
recordist, but in Mexico their crew lineup
was more fluid. "We owe an enormous
amount of gratitude to our fixer, Daniel
Fernández, and our local producer, Myles
Estey, for helping us gain access to the
Autodefensas and keeping us safe there,"
Heineman notes. In the absence of a sound
recordist, Porwoll would capture wild sound
on a Zoom recorder, and Estey often served
double-duty as producer and translator.
Through the process of filming Cartel
Land, Heineman bore witness to shootouts,
torture cells and secret meth labs. "There
were times when it wasn't possible to bring
any crew whatsoever," he says. During the
gunfight between the Autodefensas and
the Knights Templar, Heineman found
himself completely alone - he managed to
keep himself calm amid the chaos by focusing on the exposure and framing and
making sure the record button was on. The
shootouts and interrogation scenes were
especially difficult situations to operate in
alone, particularly without a sound person
or even a translator. As Heineman suggests,
American Cinematographer - September 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2015
Contents
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - Intro
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 1
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 2
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - Contents
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 4
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 5
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 6
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 7
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 8
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 9
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 10
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 11
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 12
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 13
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 14
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 15
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 16
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 17
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 18
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 19
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 20
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 21
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 22
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 23
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 24
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 25
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 26
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 27
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 28
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 29
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 30
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 31
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 32
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 33
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 34
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 35
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 36
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 37
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 38
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 39
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 40
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 41
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 42
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 43
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 44
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 45
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 46
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 47
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 48
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 49
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 50
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 51
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 52
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 53
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 54
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 55
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 56
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 57
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 58
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 59
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 60
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 61
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 62
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 63
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64a
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64b
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64c
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64d
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64e
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64f
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64g
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 64h
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 65
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 66
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 67
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 68
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American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 70
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 71
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 72
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 73
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American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 76
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 77
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 78
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 79
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American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 81
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American Cinematographer - September 2015 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - September 2015 - Cover4
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