American Cinematographer - July 2006 - 36

Hero Shots
Right: The young

superhero
enjoys the
comforting
surroundings of
Kent Farm. This
set, constructed
near the town of

Tamworth in
New South

Wales,

was

built

to accommodate

both interior and
exterior

scenes.

"Tamworth has

a

totally justified
reputation for
its sunsets,"
remarks

Sigel.

"They

are some
of the most

beautiful I've
ever

seen."

Below: Kent

explores the
property's barn,
where

revelations
await him.

the Genesis

Singer's attention that
digital acqui¬
sition a viable option for Superman
Returns. The path to that final deci¬
to

the director considered

sion, however,
rect.

was

somewhat indi¬

"I'd had this notion that because

iconic and
we should shoot in
65mm," Sigel recalls with a smile.
Superman
grandiose,
"When

we

is

did

so

some screen

tests

Brandon Routh, I turned up

for

with

a

well

65mm

camera

35mm

camera.

recent

films done in 65mm hadn't

seemed that

as

as

I remember

Super

possibility of shooting Superman

thinking

Returns in 65mm, but soon realized
that the difficulties outweighed the

a

radically different than
35mm, but it was still worth explor¬
ing. We shots tests with both
cameras, and when we projected the
results, Bryan and I were blown away
by 65mm's sense of scale, sheer clar¬
ity and lack of grain."
Sigel began investigating the

benefits. "There

many factors
impossible, but the

were

that made it

near

clincher

was

when it occurred

that the

reason

to me

65mm had looked

so

good

was because
in 70mm, and I

we'd projected it
knew Superman
Returns would probably never be
projected in 70mm - today there
are more
digital cinemas than work¬
ing 70mm projectors!" says the cine¬
matographer. "Then I remembered
seeing a test Allen Daviau [ASC] had
shot

35mm and with the

proto¬
type Genesis. It involved interior and
on

exterior

footage, and the results were
encouraging. "
Using the only Genesis
camera in existence at the time,
Sigel
shot test footage that remains, to
date, the most comprehensive
35mm-Genesis comparison. "We
spent several weeks shooting every¬
thing we could - interiors, exteri¬

very

it

ors, costumes, sets

situations and

-

in all kinds of

lighting conditions,"
says Sigel. "The more we saw, the
more excited Bryan and I became
about shooting digitally. I was look¬
ing for something a bit different for
32

July 2006



American Cinematographer - July 2006

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2006

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