American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 70

of a person's life is
closely monitored by the govern¬
ment. Thanks to the pervasive¬
ness of cloning, couples must be
carefully screened before they are
allowed to procreate, and because of
a
shortage of resources, productive
citizens are confined to metropolitan

In the futuristic world of Code 46,
every aspect

"undesirables"

while

centers

banished

are

the desolate

outlying
begins, William
Geld (Tim Robbins), a psychic detec¬
tive, arrives in Shanghai to investigate
the forgery of a set of papelles, highly
areas.

to

As the film

coveted

documents

that

enable

people to travel to and from metro¬
politan centers of civilization. While
investigating the crime, William
questions a young woman, Maria
(Samantha Morton), and quickly
falls for her. Because his own papelles
limit him

24-hour visit, their

to a

affair is short-lived, but the romance
soon

takes

neither

dimensions

on

that

could have

predicted.
Directed
by
Michael
Winterbottom and shot by co-cine¬
matographers Marcel Zyskind and
one

year-old Zyskind

'Rumble

hired

to

was originally
be Kiichler's camera opera¬

Code 46, but after

principal
photography got delayed, the new
start date ended up coinciding with

tor on

in both its content and creation. Shot

Andrew Eaton

soundstages in London, the film is
richly detailed portrait of a transna¬
tional future
everyday English
features smatterings of Spanish and
French, and there is no racial major¬
ity. Thanks to a variety of CG effects,
the arid Saudi peninsula melds with
Shanghai's futuristic high-rises, and
poverty-stricken Jaipur blends into
cosmopolitan Dubai. Winterbottom
explains, "From the beginning, we
on
a

-

wanted

to

combine elements of the

real world in

Phot s

definition (HD) video: "Michael
knew HD had been used for the

plifies the international production

and the United Arab Emirates, and

than
create

strange way rather
artificial world, to

very familiar
lot of texture, but at the

something that's

and has

a

time doesn't

quite correspond
anything that really exists."
Winterbottom had previously

same

to

a

create an

collaborated

with

Kiichler

and

planning

March '01), and with Zyskind on In
This World (AC Dec. '03). The 24-

the birth of Kiichler's first child.

England

46's

Winterbottom wanted

Winterbottom

location in China, India,

Code

on separate projects -
with Kiichler on The Claim (see AC

Alwin Kiichler, BSC, Code 46 exem¬

on

AUrntocisuerfdt.esy

Zyskind

and

producer
subsequently asked
Zyskind to shoot most of the loca¬
tion work, and Kiichler later stepped
in to photograph the soundstage

work and

some

location work in

London.

in

stages,

to test

high-

the

Jungle' fight
in Ali, and at that time, the
format had the advantage of not
being very grainy even in available
light." However, when Kiichler saw
Zyskind's test footage of Kodak's
sequence

new

Vision2 500T 5218

ISO 1,000 and

he

was

into

pushed

-

rated

one stop

at
-

elated. "It read much better

the blacks,

and the grain

improvement was fantastic," says
Kiichler. Zyskind, who worked as an
operator for Robby Mtiller on the

Zyskind's experience on the
micro-budget digital-video feature

DV features Dancer in the Dark and

In This World had been

5218

a

kind of

baptism by fire, but Code 46 was
only slightly more generously
appointed. The core of its Londonbased

crew was

limited to about 20

people, and the filmmakers had just
one or two days of prep in each loca¬
tion. Indeed, Winterbottom

wanted

the feel of In This World

to

form the

help

hybrid world of Code 46-
the colors and textures, not
just the look and the content, but
also the visceral experience of
making it."
Kiichler notes that early in
"not just

In Code 46, a
detective

investigating the
forgery of official
travel papers is
intrigued by
Maria (Samantha
Morton, opposite
page), a young
woman

who

works at

one

of

the sites in

Shanghai where
the papers are
manufactured.
This page:
Damian (David

Fham),

one

of

Maria's friends,
needs a set of

papelles to study
bats in their
native habitat.

Party People, concurs: "The
picks up everything. If you can
see it with the
eye, the film can see it,
too." (The cinematographers shot
day exteriors on Kodak Vision 200T

24 Hour

5274.)

Zyskind

notes

that

Winterbottom was keen to maintain

of the

rough-and-tumble
mobility of a DV shoot. "Michael
wanted to keep that momentum," he
says. "We'd go somewhere that was
new and just explore - making the
film was a journey."
The production team was
bowled over by their first stop,
some

American

Cinematographer 57
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