American Cinematographer - June 2000 - 47

Pedal to the Metal
Right: A

of

row

overhead
fixtures adds
the

The

When it

appropriate
ambience to
the film's

warehouse-type
garage set,
which featured
windows that

had ostensibly
been turned

by
of dirt
grime.

opaque
years

and
Below: Sena

(left) and
producer Jerry
"Mr.

Blockbuster"
Bruckheimer
consult

on

location.
Bottom: Paul
Cameron with

his trusty
Panavision

image. Also, I absolutely love the look
[Panavision] C-Series lenses
we used; even
though they breathe a
little bit, they have beautiful, beauti¬
of the

big picture
came

time to select

a

proscenium through which to tell the
story of the Raines brothers, Sena
asserts

ful flares."
Cameron notes that first assis¬

that he had to "think about it

for all of about three seconds before I

tant

decided

thoroughly tested the Panavision
lenses during preproduction, a task
that proved to be a saving grace. "He

anamorphic. I just love
the way the 2.35:1 image looks.
When I was doing videos, I would
always be doing them 1.85:1, at least.
Even

to go

on

learned all of the intricacies about

commercials, I would try to

imagine. He
only thoroughly tested them in
prep to get the best possible set, but
he also learned the optics inside and
out. We would be shooting a closeup, and he would be able to say that

agencies] into
shooting a wider format whenever I
could. I shot Kalifornia in Super 35
because I knew the film was going to
be a run-and-gun, low-budget
production. There would be no
going back once we shot at each of

not

the B-camera 100mm would be

the locations.

"With

anamorphic, there

can

60

Seconds, has also worked with

Oliver Stone

(Titanic) and
Michael Mann (Heat), among
others. "Every time I start an
anamorphic show, I always have a

lot

problems that might
require a reshoot or additional cover¬
age: a hair in the gate pretty much
a

more

that the shot is gone, and the
focus is a lot tougher," he continues.
means

lengthy conversation with the [direc¬
tor and cinematographer], asking,
'Are you sure you want to do this?' It
was
especially important to ask that
question on this show, since we were
going to shoot mostly at night and
put the camera in some cramped
spaces, like under a dashboard. Why
would you want a huge lens that
needs a great deal of light when you
can
get the same format in Super 35?
Let's face it: with
better

smaller.
"I

"But for Gone in 60 Seconds, I knew

going to have a bit more
breathing room. Actually, I was a
little tentative about telling the studio
that I wanted to go anamorphic, but
when I did, they just said,'Sure. What
else would you shoot?' I didn't really
stop to think that for most of the
people who make movies with Jerry
Bruckheimer, it's pretty much a given
that they're going to shoot anamor¬
phic!"
Jimmy Muro, the A-camera
and Steadicam operator on Gone in
we were

38 June 2000

Super 35, you get
depth of field and the gear is
do

love

anamorphic,

though," Muro enthuses. "I love the
look of the image, and if the produc¬
tion is willing to accept the challenge,
like this one did, then we go for it. It
does take a while to get used to the
format, though - in our first week
of shooting, we were doing a lot of
180mm close-ups, but by the final
week of shooting, most of our closeups were [75mm to 100mm], so you
can see

is

the actors in addition to what

going

frame. It

beyond them in the
really adds depth to the

on

a

better choice for the focus range and
frame size because the breathing was
minimized at that focal area.

"Of

(Any Given Sunday),

Cameron

James

be

Danny Gonzales

these lenses that you can

talk [the clients and

camera.

cameraman

articles

course, we

read all the

could get our

hands on
regarding anamorphic shooting, and
developed our own philosophies on
how to best maximize the optical
qualities of these lenses," the cine¬
matographer continues. "We had
we

both the C-series and E-series lenses
this show. I

shooting the
night exteriors at about a T-2.8/3.2
on

on

was

the C-series and

5.6/8 for

at

more

of

a

T-

day exteriors. It was an
challenge to not only work
in anamorphic, but also to always
work with multiple camera setups. I
extreme
American Cinematographer - June 2000

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