American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 68

ready to board and provide
background action. The story takes
place in the near future, and nothing
feels radically different, until a
strange motorbike with a passenger
platform pulls up alongside the bus.
Big green panels on the sides of
nearby buildings indicate where
huge video images are going to be
inserted during post.
up,

Director

Alfonso

Cuaron

run-through of the action.
Gaffer John "Biggies" Higgins
squints at the sky through a neutraldensity monocle to calculate the
sun's path for the next half-hour.
Camera operator George Richmond
is handholding an Arricam Lite,
framing the open bus door, while
his brother, Jonathan "Chunky"
Richmond, is riding focus using a

starts a

wireless control. The bus starts its
motor,

and actor Clive Owen

runs

alongside the double-decker and
jumps on. The camera swings over
Owen sits next to

elderly
woman passenger. After the rehears¬
al, Lubezki quietly confers with
as

an

Higgins. They decide to bring up the
dim interior of the dirty vehicle by
setting up some lights to bounce off
beadboard outside the bus. The

lights

are

in position in five minutes
some more tweaking,
is ready to roll film. Just

flat. After
Cuaron

before the first take, Lubezki turns
off the

lights, and the entire scene is
shot without any film lighting.
In the dailies the next day, the
bus scene looks great. The image is
gutsy; you can distinguish the bright

documentaries in
instincts

a

while,

is

a

when I

building, he continues, is "the
kind of accident you get when you
don't light. However, accidents aren't
always good."
Asked about the unused light
on the bus ceiling, Lubezki says,
"Sometimes you panic because

drawn into

going

might decide
the fate of
humankind in
Children of Men.
This page:

younger.

on

do." With

a

Lubezki's

chuckle, he adds,
resume

suggests

After
agreeing to help
a group of
underground
resistance

fighters, Theo
safeguards Kee
(Claire-Hope
Ashitey), a young
woman

otherwise. His recent credits include
Ali (see AC Nov. '01), Lemony
Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate
Events

a

conflict that

I don't know if
the right path. The
more I learn, the less lighting I want
I'm

was

"Maybe I'm getting lazy!"

sunlit

finds himself

movie I couldn't have done

but it

that's it." The fill from the

(Clive Owen)

my

the

vehicle goes past a

sun,

bureaucrat

to

exterior, and the bus interior is dark,

the

so

page:

Theodore Faron

always try to make
image appealing. It took me a
long time to go back to basics and
say, 'No, I don't want this movie to
look conventionally beautiful.' This
are

to

brightens momentarily as the
large, sunlit
facade. Lubezki reviews his decisions
of the day before. "When you're not
using lighting, everyone on the set
needs to be conscious that if you lose

Opposite
English

you're used to doing things in a cer¬
tain way. I'm a feature-film cine¬
matographer, and I haven't done

with

a

dangerous
secret.

{AC Dec. '04) and The

Assassination

of Richard Nixon, and
he earned his third
Academy Award nomination, for
last

year

Terrence Malick's The New World

{AC Jan. '06); he
nominated for
an

previously
Sleepy Hollow (also
was

ASC Award nominee; AC Dec.

'99) and A Little Princess (another
American

Cinematographer 61
American Cinematographer - December 2006

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