American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 52

have

to

deep depth of field and
amazing objects come

make these
out

of the black." To achieve this,

director of

photography Declan
use Cine Magic's

Quinn decided to
Revolution lens

on

his Arri 435.

Often used for

tabletop work, the
modular lens system has a snorkel
configuration that allows for live
horizontal panning. "One of the
great advantages is that it can be
reached

out over a

table

or can

ride

right on the surface, and the camera
body doesn't get in the way," says
Quinn. "The optics use smaller
lenses so you can get more depth of
field, creating this sense of a smaller
creature's point of view."
The Revolution was initially
selected in order
drawn

to a

to

film

a

moth

flame, an image that was

later

dropped. "We needed the
depth on that tiny macro world,"
says Quinn. "Then we decided to
shoot the whole sequence with the
same lens so it wouldn't have a
jump
in perspective." Different lenses were
used only when necessary - to
track the peacock's unpredictable
for instance (which
required a 10:1 Angenieux zoom),
movements,

or

when the Revolution wasn't avail¬

able for
case

specific shot (in which

a

Cooke S4s served instead).
The success of the title

sequence,

which Quinn shot

on

Kodak Vision2 500T 5218, also

depended on perfect lighting.
Though the objects needed to be
brilliant against a black background,
"we didn't want a harsh spotlight,"
says Wright. "We didn't want it to be
theatrical. We wanted

a

soft, diffuse

light, which is really difficult to get
just right. It's not just a matter of
getting a few lights and diffusing
them." Says Quinn, "We wanted to
use cleaner light than we used in the
movie, something with pristine clar¬
ity. We wanted a soft side source that
would create a nice graphic sense.
We used a couple of Maxi-Brutes
through heavy gridcloth, and we
had to have

a

lot of stop

-

we were

shooting at T8 to T16, depending."
The trickiest part was lighting
the lily pond. In the credits' sole
moving shot, a leaf gently drops
through darkness and hits the calm,
dark surface of water, creating ripples
that catch a white edge of light. The
camera then glides over the pond,
revealing lily pads in bloom. To film
the shot, Quinn put the camera on a
dolly with a Fisher jib arm and
Weaver-Steadman underslung head
to track over the pond. Because the

between wide shots

water's surface acted like

Cotswolds served as the

a

mirror,

everything in the studio had to be
meticulously covered. "It took a little
time to find all the lighting angles,"
says Quinn. "We had a light source
just for the ripple, a couple of lOKs
aimed at a 16-by-4-foot white
bounce; and a more ambient source
for the leaf, a Nine-light Mini-Brute
warmed with CTO

going into an 8by-8 piece of white material in the
ceiling." All sources needed to be out
of the reflection
9'xl5'

area

of the water,

a

pond constructed in Ceco

Studio in Manhattan. The task

was

Crawleys after the death of their
patriarch, Sir Pitt Crawley (Bob
Hoskins). Becky and her in-laws are
seated around a dinner table placed
next to a bay window that features
leaded glass. The image alternates

The

Stanway House in the
Crawley resi¬

dence, and the

takes advantage

is made of 500-year-old

amber glass.
keep that color, so I lit
through the glass and let the color
play," says Quinn. Unlike many prac¬
tical locations in Vanity Fair, this one
had a view appropriate to the period
facing a stone gate and chapel -
"We wanted

to

-

so

to

Quinn was able to use the location
its full effect. (Elsewhere, the film¬

makers used sheer curtains

signs of modernity.) He
placed .3ND or .6ND gels over the
to

were

visible in the

control the exposure.

designed the shooting

In the

so

"We
we'd turn

end, the team got what

around toward the windows in the

series of iconic

last part of the afternoon," he says.
"That way, it wouldn't be too bright

objects
with richly textured and lustrous
detail. The only thing they couldn't
capture was a shot of the peacock
opening its tail feathers in all their
glory. Wright notes ruefully that
despite the presence of an alluring
female peacock, the male subject just
a

hide

to

telltale

frame

it wanted:

scene

of home's 20'-tall bay window, which

windows that

-

lens,

shocks and charms them.

low

ceiling
the grid.

21mm

elegant mansion
that Sir Pitt wanted so desperately to
keep, and 75mm close-ups of Becky
and the Crawleys as she alternately

trickier still because of the

facility's
approximately 13' to

on a

which reveal the

wouldn't strut his stuff: "It

was

apparently the wrong time of year."
-

Patricia Thomson

out in

be

a

the

nicer

courtyard and there would
quality of light." For shots

that didn't face the windows, the

production placed

an

18K

Condor and several 6K Pars

on a
on

a

scissor lift outside,

projecting the
latter units through Vi Silent
Gridcloth. "The idea was just to keep
it feeling ambient," says Quinn.
"Inside,

we

didn't

use

much; there

another window

high and to the
left that always had ambient light
coming through, and otherwise,
there was just a big bounce behind

was

camera at a

fill level. We warmed that

bit [with CTO] to bring it closer to
the color of the leaded glass."
a

Except for two days at Elstree
Studio and three in India, the 11-

week shoot occurred

entirely

on

American

Cinematographer 39
American Cinematographer - September 2004

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2004
