American Cinematographer - June 2006 - 21

This and other battle shots in the

valley
practical work and CGI;
Massive Software, an application that
generates 3-D digital crowds, was often
mix of

were a

used to increase the number of combat¬
ants, and in one case it was used to
create a cattle

stampede. (Pau explains
production planned to use real
animals, but they refused to run.)
Because Kaige doesn't like using
multiple cameras or a second unit, most

that the

of The Promise
camera, a

was

shot with

one

Moviecam Compact, which

Pau describes

"user-friendly and reli¬
production also used an Arri
435 Advanced for high-speed work. The
movie was shot in Super 35mm 2.35:1
because Pau wanted the depth of field
offered by spherical lenses. "You have
to go in close, within a foot, when
shooting action sequences, and with
anamorphic lenses the minimum focus¬
ing is 3 to 4 feet. Also, I wanted more
depth of field for the landscapes."
as

able." The

Pau used Zeiss Ultra Primes

ranging from 10mm to 180mm,

as

well

Cooke 25-250mm zoom, a Canon
170-600mm zoom, and five Canon tele¬

as a

photo lenses: 200mm, 300mm, 400mm,
500mm and 600mm. For his main

lenses, he

never

considered using

anything other than Ultra Primes.
"They're sharp at the edges, and when
you blow up [to 2.40:1] you still get
detail in the corners."
In

action-packed sequence,
the slave, Kunlun (Jang Dong-Gun),
rides into the Imperial City on horse¬
back, kills the king and rides off with the
princess, Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung).
The pair is later trapped in the Long Hall,
a cavernous (650'-long, 40'-wide and
58'-high) corridor. Guangming rides into
the Long Hall on horseback, pursued by
one

to be seen from a

high angle. We had to
swing the camera as the general is grab¬
bing her hand, so that as she is actually
flipping onto the horse, we are above
them. It was a very narrow space to do
a

vertical

movement.

PeeWee

We

used

and we
up so the horse had
to pass underneath, then lowered it
again to see the pursuing soldiers
marching straight at the camera."
raised the

camera,

crane arm

Another difficult

a

dolly with speed wheels to get
Qingcheng as she runs
towards the horse. Once she and Guang¬
ming are both on the horse, we follow
them from behind as they gallop toward
the exit. The horse was running so fast
we had to use a camera car to keep up!
"We tried to get every possible
angle," the cinematographer continues.
"For one setup, we had the horse run
side shots of

straight toward the

scene was

set

in a circular metal cage that measured
about 30' wide. In the scene, Snow Wolf

(Liu Ye), the duke's assassin, tries to kill
Kunlun; both characters

are

Above: The

crew

films the slaves

scrambling up
the cliffs toward
some

waiting

soldiers.
Below: Pau (left)
and director

Chen

Kaige

flank their
secret weapon.

from the

Land of Snow, where people are able to
run with superhuman swiftness. "The
actors had to be secured with wires as

they

ran around
and flew from
says

the interior of the cage
point to another,"
Pau. "We needed the camera to go
one

the Duke of the North's (Nicholas Tse)

foot. Guangming
scoops up Qingcheng, rides to the end
of the corridor and, as Kunlun uses
men,

who

are

on

sheer

willpower to force open a door,
the horse to jump over his slave
and sail through the doorway to free¬
spurs

dom. "We needed the

crane

for when

the

princess leaps onto the horse
general," says Pau. "We
wanted her flip onto the running horse
behind the

American

Cinematographer 17
American Cinematographer - June 2006

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