American Cinematographer - December 2003 - 18

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FOUNDED IN SAN

FRANCISCO 1929

project was shot with digital-video cameras and later recorded onto film in the
anamorphic format.

The

NDs, sometimes

Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Nationally Accredited by
ACICS, NASAD & FIDER

79 New

as

ND1.5, to

viewfinder; sometimes it would be more
for the

highlights, other times the shadow

range, and other times somewhere in
between. I know it sounds random, but

the

good thing about video is that you can
immediately see what you're going to
get. Overall, I found myself underexpos¬
ing the image slightly in daylight because
there's nothing left in the highlights when
they burn out, and we'd pull the stop in¬
shot if necessary in order to get the best
image."
The only time the filmmakers used
the PC9s was during a daring night
sequence in which the boys cross the
mountains outside of Turkey. Zyskind
used the infrared mode of the single-chip
PC9 cameras in straight 4:3 mode to
cover this scene. "The infrared light on
the camera lit it all," he says. "I adjusted
the shutter for

some

shots in this

scene

[to get as much exposure as possible],
one wide shot the moon actually lit
boys more than the infrared light. We
graded this footage black-and-white for
the final film. We got golf-ball-sized
[noise], but I think it's a beautiful image."
Despite the fact that they were
working with non-actors, Zyskind says he
and Winterbottom "approached this film

and in

www.academyart.edu

much

bring the stop down to a better range," he
explains. All of the PD-150s were fitted
with Century DV Matteboxes to accom¬
modate the 4"x4" filters. "I mostly
exposed for what looked good in the

the

1.800.544. A RTS

as

you would any other, except that we
didn't do any rehearsals. We would say to
as

the

boys, 'Go from here to here,' and then
would follow them. If something
didn't work for the camera, we'd change
our shot, but we rarely changed the boys'
actions. The goal was to keep it simple
and not let the boys think about the
camera. In a way, we approached it as a
documentary, but we also shot several
takes to get the coverage we needed."

we

Because In This World was to be

released

on

film in the

anamorphic 2.40:1

format, Zyskind wanted to get as much
information into the 720x480

pixel area
possible. To achieve this, he used
Century Precision Optics' 16:9 anamor¬
phic lens adapters on the PD-150s. Once

as

the film

was

edited, it

was

onlined in

DigiBeta, graded by Chris Beeton at
Pepper in London, and then recorded to
film by Duboi in France. The optical
squeeze to 2.40:1 (from the cropped 16:9
video master) was done at the IP/IN

stage by Deluxe in London.

"Everything transferred to the big
in a beautiful way," Zyskind
concludes. "Looking back, I am very proud
to be part of this film. We had a fantastic
crew from London, and the help we
received from local people was wonder¬
ful. It's a privilege for a cameraman to
travel and work in such diverse places in
screen

the world. That, and the friendliness of
the

people, made In This World one of the
experiences of my life."
■

best
American Cinematographer - December 2003

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2003
