American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 77

Humanity's Last Hope
Right: Over
dinner in the
"Picasso Hall'
at the

Ministry

of Arts, Theo
asks his old
friend Nigel
(Danny Huston)
to provide him
with transit
papers. Below:
Actors Owen,
Huston (far

right) and Ed
Westwick

(head of table)
absorb

some

guidance from
director
Alfonso Cuaron

(standing and
gesturing),
while Lubezki

(at camera)
awaits his

cue.

a

country road, it was going to be

really awful - I would have had to
put up some horrible, fake-looking
lights," says the cameraman. "When
I read a script that says two lovers
are
holding hands on a beach at
night, as a cinematographer I know

it's

going to look fake. For some
movies, that fake, over-stylized look
is beautiful, but in this movie it
would have

betrayed everything we
pleaded for
another approach to the scene." It is
a
testimony to Lubezkis relation¬
had done before. So I

ship with Cuaron that the director
agreed to change the script, and set
the action at dawn. The cinematog¬
rapher worked with 1st AD Terry
Needham to change the shooting
schedule

so

that the

scene

shot dusk for dawn

could be

over

three

evenings.
The result is
starts

with

in the dark

a

sequence

that

farm, which is lit

fluorescents

and

sodium-

lights, and ends, after a series
of dawn-like transitions, with a day¬
time shot. The gradation from
dawn to daybreak is masterful and,
Lubezki confesses, partly accidental.
"I started shooting the last shot
early to get everyone concentrated,
vapor

and later
best

we

shot it

scene was

the

at

one

dusk. But the
I shot in

time. So I timed the whole

day¬

scene to

get lighter, so that we could end up
in

daytime. You think differently

when you have a DI. It was brilliant,
but a brilliant accident. It's one of

favorite scenes in the movie.
"The wonderful thing about
Terry [Needham] is that he has a lot
of experience as a 1st AD on very
complicated movies, like Full Metal
my

68 December 2006



American Cinematographer - December 2006

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

American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 1
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American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 159
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