American Cinematographer - December 2013 - S-10

Calls for a Classic Approach
When Haris
Zambarloukos, BSC fi rst
read the script for Jack
Ryan: Shadow Recruit, he
felt it was evocative of the
iconic espionage paranoia
thrillers of the 1970s like
The Parallax View and All the
President's Men. "There's
that internal battle that a
character has about what
patriotism means, where the
fi ght for being an individual
takes over," he says.
"There's action, but there
are interesting dramatic and
emotional threads entwined,
and that combination was
appealing."
The fi lm is Zambarloukos'
third with director Kenneth
Branagh, after Sleuth
and Thor. Branagh also acts
in the fi lm as the villain, and
the cast also includes Chris
Pine, Keira Knightley and
Kevin Costner.
The fi lmmakers envisioned
a classic approach to Jack
Ryan: Shadow Recruit. "We
didn't want the glam world
of Bond or the handheld
world of Bourne," says
Zambarloukos. "We wanted
something unique, and at the
same time, a timeless quality,
but with a certain amount of
realism. And sunk through
all of this, some kind of '70s
vibe."
In light of this approach,
fi lm seemed an obvious
choice. The format was
35mm anamorphic, and
the fi lm stock was KODAK
VISION3 500T Color
Negative Film 5219.
"First of all, fi lm is our
preferred medium," he
says. "I handpicked C Series
anamorphic lenses that had
the quality I'd seen in the
fi lms that I remember and
love from the 1970s, where
the edges are soft and the
colors are big."
Zambarloukos also
recalled a graphic quality
in the fi lms of Alan Pakula
and Gordon Willis, ASC.
"One of the aspects of their
work, which I love, is that
the images seem graphic,
but graphic in a way that
makes the photography
work - placing the person
in an environment, and using
architecture and structure
in the urban landscape to
symbolize a certain structure
or feeling about society."
Zambarloukos knew
that Pakula and Willis were
inspired by Magnum, the
infl uential photography
cooperative co-founded by
Henri Cartier-Bresson.
"I thought that if they
were referencing images
from Magnum in their
era, I should have a look
at what's happening right
now in photojournalism,"
says Zambarloukos. "I
looked at the work of too
many photographers to
mention, but I did fi nd the
Magnum website very
useful. How are Magnum
photographers portraying
Afghanistan or Wall Street?
It's quite timeless - using
the human face in an urban
environment. It tells a
story, and you often end
up quite graphic. So there
is defi nitely an infl uence
from Pakula and Willis, but
I think the similarity might
stem from an admiration of
photojournalism."
The anamorphic format
provided Zambarloukos
with opportunities to
use focus. "I often used
soft focus and diffused
backgrounds to choose how
and when the audience sees
the environment that the
face inhabits," he says. "In
anamorphic, even on wider
shots you can control that.
You can stay in objective
external space, or go into
American Cinematographer - December 2013

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