American Cinematographer - November 1999 - 105

compiled by Douglas Bankston
Unusual

Developments

Crest National's

service adds

cross-processing
edge to Three Kings.

by Jay Holben
Set

immediately after the Gulf
Iraq, director David
0. Russell's film Three Kings is a harsh
but enlightening examination of the
troops caught up in that conflict. The
story follows four U.S. soldiers (George
Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and
Spike Jonze), who discover a map lead¬
ing to millions of dollars in stolen Kuwaiti
gold. While searching for the treasure,

War in the deserts of

the soldiers

come

among still photographers, as well as
music video and commercial directors of

photography. The technique has also
been employed on several feature films,
including dockers (see AC Sept. 1995)
and U-Turn (see AC Oct. '97). Both films
employed Eastman Kodak's 5239 highcontrast reversal stock (long defunct
from mass-manufacture and now primar¬
ily loaded into in-flight cameras used by
NASA and the U.S. Air Force).
Sigel himself had previously used
cross-processed reversal emulsion for
the "Demon-Vision" sequences in the

face to face with the

harsh realities of

post-Desert Storm Iraq.
Three Kings was shot primarily in
Casa Grande, Arizona (as well as loca¬
El

Centro, California, and
Mexico), and director of photography

tions

in

Newton

Thomas

Sigel (The Usual
Suspects, Apt Pupil) concentrated on
capturing an oppressive feel to represent
the Iraqi desert. Sigel explains, "We
wanted the film to begin and end with a
desaturated tone
[we sought to]
-

To

muted, burned-out palette. To

Ektachrome 100 Professional Plus Film

some

of the colors to create

accomplish that, we bleach-bypassed
negative [at FotoKem in Burbank,

the

Phot s

base and the world outside."

accomplish that transition visu¬
ally, Sigel turned to Eastman Kodak

take out

BWaroconusefrt.esy

transition between the world of their

a

whiten the skies, whiten the sand, and
more

film Fallen. "I've done

(EPP100),
reversal

a daylight-balanced, color,
still-photography stock that

cross¬

offers increased color saturation. Kodak

because it has

custom rolled the film into

color and in the contrast.

a more

Being

a

film, the EPP100 also has a finer grain
than the 5239, and seems to capture

The reversal stock

processed by Crest National Laboratories
in North Hollywood, California, to result

Traditionally, when placed in the
appropriate E-6 developer, reversal film
travels through two developing stages.

in

The first turns the

a

then

cross-

negative.

Although described by Kodak as a
highly unstable misuse of their emulsion,
technique of cross-processing has
become popular in the last few years

the

shot with
director David
O. Russell

(far
left) while
shooting Three
Kings on
location in
Arizona.
Left: A series of

images
representing
the highcontrast,
burned-out
look that Sigel
achieved by
cross¬

processing
Kodak's EPP100
reversal stock.

slower

punched the rolls with proper Bell &
Howell perforations and striped the batch
with latent Keykode for the production.
was

Sigel (far
right) sets up a

radical shift in the

California]. In the second act, however,

off in search of the
gold, it's basically the first time that they
have been out of the safety and confines
of the military base. It's also the first time
they have an unguarded experience with
what is really happening in Iraq, and
David [Russell] and I wanted that to be a
very disorienting experience. We wanted
to create that feeling of being in a
strange place, where all of a sudden you
notice everything because nothing looks
familiar. We tried to really define that

lot of

Cameraman
Tom

-

when these guys go

1,000' lengths,

a

processing work," he notes, "and I found
that I really like what happens to the
colors with the [Kodak] EPP100 stock,
more than any other stocks that I've
cross-processed. I've used the 5239 -
which is an old VNF film
and it just
didn't seem as if it had enough of an
effect to make it worth the effort. I prefer
the EPP100 for a project like Three Kings,

Above:

more

detail in the shadow areas."

light-activated silver-

halide

crystals into black silver metallic
grains without forming color couplers.
This, in
white

essence,

forms

a

black-and-

negative of the photographed
American

Cinematographer 101
American Cinematographer - November 1999

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 1999
