American Cinematographer - May 2006 - 28

Harlan (Edward

Hansen Dam, Ventura Ranch, Point Dume

Norton) finds
his cowboy

and

Disney Ranch. He used Panavision's
anamorphic lenses to evoke the

C-Series

lifestyle out of
place in the

of

sense

San Fernando

sun-saturated environment.

a

"We tested E-Series, C-Series and Primo

Valley in Down
in the Valley,
shot by Enrique

anamorphic lenses, and we fell in love
quality of the Cs," says
Chediak. "It was a very important creative
decision, and although it was a little timeconsuming to get a matching set, that's
with the flare

Chediak.

what

we

used. We didn't want to make

the locations look

glamorous, and we
really liked that the C-Series lenses gave
us a

Suburban

Cowboy
by Hugh Hart
Ecuadoran

cinematographer
Enrique Chediak has made films through¬
out the Americas

-

his credits include

Cronicas, Boiler Boom (see AC April '00),
and Songcatcher(ACOec. '00) - but until
he teamed with director David Jacobson

we

tried to

to meet with him about Down in the

the

valley's heat and dryness."

Valley At that point, the director was
leaning toward filming in Super 35mm,
but during their initial conversation,
Chediak lobbied for anamorphic 2.40:1,
even though he had never worked with
the format before. "I encouraged David to
go see The LastSamurai[ACJan. '04] and
compare it to a Super 35mm movie before

they flare
use a

Chediak shot the entire picture on
"I'd just

finished

using 5218

much

without filters."

over

their

Jacobson.

father,

as a

paved-

version of the old West," says

(David Morse),
becomes increasingly hostile to the
gunslinging stranger. After Harlan and
Tobe's romance takes a dangerous turn,
Harlan persuades Lonnie to run away with
him, prompting Wade to take action.
Aware that setting played a critical
role in Jacobson's story, Chediak

"Shooting in anamorphic gave
it the feeling of a big Western as opposed
to a small, independent family drama."
During prep, the filmmakers
screened the classic Westerns LonelyAre

immersed himself in the environment. He

widescreen narrative. "Oshima devel¬

moved to

oped his shots in

an

Wade

apartment in Sherman Oaks

Nuys. "When I read the script, I thought it
was a very dramatic story," says Chediak.

the Brave, Bed River and The Searchers,
well as Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of

as

Youth, which served

as a

model of

was

"But when I visited all these locations

medium of cinema. We

It

was

Chediak's handheld cine¬

between 5218 and the C-Series lenses
gave us the washed-out look we sought.
We wanted to deglamorize the valley as
as we

could,

so we

shot clean,

Images of California's famous free¬
form a recurring motif in the film,
establishing the narrative timeline with
traffic at night, during the smog-ridden
afternoon, and at magic hour. Chediak
praises the work done by camera operator
Wolfgang Held, who shot second-unit
aerial footage of the highways, and he
also singles out 1st AC Aurelia J.
Winborn and 2nd AC Amy Silverman. "I
ways

tricky in anamorphic," he notes.
One of the picture's most dramatic
sequences pays homage to Howard

with David, it was almost like an anthro¬

excited, and it was

an

were

very

inspirational movie

for us."

Chediak

deep into the
The marriage

in Chile, and I was not so

thrilled

Millennium XLs

blacks but does not go as
blacks as other negatives.

work with Aurelia often, and she did a
tremendous job pulling focus, which is

by the story, but when David and I
watched it together again, we noticed
how wonderfully Oshima used the

pological study; we saw horses and
cowboys not very far away from the
places we would be shooting. It was very
interesting to me to find horses so close to
Hollywood and Vine."

saturation than other stocks. It has rich

elegant way,"
the

a very

notes Chediak. "I remember watching

film when I

strong

place. I decided to go with it
again for Down in the Valley because to
my eye, it presents color in a more natural

ing the San Fernando Valley

bored teenager,

decision," recalls the cine¬

Cronicas, which is

of

sense

the movie's themes. "Our film is present¬

a

Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood), and befriends
her younger brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin),

a

on

set in Ecuador and also has a very

Harlan falls in love with

he made

very beautifully, and
lot of flares to convey

Kodak Vision2 500T 5218.

matographer. After watching back-toback screenings of The Last Samurai and
Cold Mountain {AC Jan. '04), Jacobson
agreed anamorphic was better suited to

and spent several weeks scouting loca¬
tions with Jacobson, who grew up in Van

May 2006

washed-out look. We also discov¬

ered that

on the 2004 serial-killer
drama Cronicas that prompted Jacobson

Down in the Valley, he had never
explored the San Fernando Valley's
surprising nooks and crannies. Down in
the Valley stars Edward Norton as Harlan,
a drifter trying to hang on to the cowboy
lifestyle amid the concrete freeways and
strip malls north of Los Angeles. When
on

24

matography

used
the

two

Panaflex

production, which
was filmed over 40 days at locations that
included Santa Clarita, Arleta, Sun Valley,
on

Hawks' Bed River. In it, Wade pursues
Harlan and Lonnie through a foggy
orchard

on a moonlit night, and once
Lonnie's torch is blown out, the characters
are shown only in silhouette. "That was a

complicated scene that took three days to
shoot," recalls Chediak. "We created

a

big separation between the foreground

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American Cinematographer - May 2006

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