20 February 2008

Pope shot Honeydripper withhis preferred package: an ArricamStudio and Lite and Cooke S4 primelenses. “I was very fortunate to hireMatthew Clark, a very good operatorfrom New York who also happens to bea director of photography, and 1st ACLarry Huston, with whom I’d brieflyworked on Man of The Year,” he notes.“Both did a brilliant job.” ThoughSayles rarely uses two cameras, thetight schedule prompted the productionto budget 10 days with a second; forthat work, Pope brought in NewYork–based operator/cinematographerDavid Dunlap. “Dave originally helpedme crew the picture, including recom-mending Tom Percarpio, my excellentgaffer,” says Pope. “Dave has shot a lotof music and worked with John on hisBruce Springsteen music videos. Heloves the blues and R&B and puthimself up for the second camera gig. Iwas very pleased he did; he was theperfect choice.”

Using a Phoenix crane as a ride-on or with a Power Pod, the filmmakerscreated long tracking shots of drillingsoldiers, Sonny’s arrival in town, and abig dolly push into Ty’s face as he waitsat the railroad depot, among otherelaborate moves. The crane was alsoused for a shot of a group leaving agraveside funeral. The shot starts high,looking down on the mourners, thencranes down and follows two for somedialogue and finally arcs around toshow Ty’s daughter eyeing Sonny,who’s picking cotton in the adjacentfield. “That was probably the biggestmove we did,” says Pope. “We luckedout with beautiful light at sunset. Imanaged to get it in and also shoot thecoverage around it before dusk.”

For Pope, who is based inLondon, filming in Alabama was“something completely new, a realpleasure.” So, too, was the opportunityto finally work with Sayles. “John is atrue director and leads from the front.He’s great with actors, and I think hedid a great job in bringing the script,which I loved, off the page and onto thescreen. I was proud to be part of it.”

Daft Punk’s Sci-Fi Visionby Iain Stasukevich

“We’ve always been interestedin technology and the relationshipbetween humans and machines, work-ing the way we do with drummachines, synthesizers and ampli-fiers,” says Thomas Bangalter, one-halfof the French electronic-music duo DaftPunk and director of photography forElectroma, their feature-film debut. “Inmovies, it’s the same.”

Not coincidentally, it was a loveof movies that led a young Bangalterand future bandmate Guy-Manuel deHomem-Christo to become fast friends.The two met in elementary school and bonded over the films of AlfredHitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and BrianDe Palma. Although the duo’s résuméincludes a number of music videos andan animated feature, Electroma wasdesigned to prove their skills as legiti-mate filmmakers.

It was during the filming of themusic videos for Electroma’s firstalbum, Homework, that Bangalter andHomem-Christo began to learn the insand outs of filmmaking. Taking theknowledge they’d gleaned from direc-tors Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry andRoman Coppola, the duo directed thevideo for their track “Fresh.” In 2005,while filming the videos for the Human

After All album, they hatched a plan fora feature-length, live-action movie.

Electroma tells the tale of tworobots (played by Peter Hurteau andMichael Reich) on a journey to becomehuman. Over the course of 74 minutes,the story unfolds like an avant-gardemash-up of Easy Rider (shot by Laszlo Kovacs, ASC) and THX-1138(photographed by Albert Kihn and DavidMyers). No dialogue is spoken; theviewer must glean many of the ambigu-ous plot points through subtle and not-so-subtle visual cues. “We just wantedto make something experimental andweird,” says Homem-Christo. “We feltwe needed to create an open door forinterpretation, so from the beginning, itwas a matter of working more withemotions, images and symbols thanwords.” Bangalter adds, “Because thefilm is so visual, the direction and cine-matography merged. We wanted tofocus on cinematography as a story-telling device, so we had to conveyemotion with textures and imagesinstead of words.”

In the years preceding Elec-troma, Bangalter studied intently tolearn the cinematographer’s craft. Hehad worked closely with the cameradepartments on the group’s videos, buton Electroma, he would take everythingon his shoulders. At one point, hepurchased more than 200 back issues of

After watching his companion self-destruct following a failed attempt to become human,a robot attempts to commit “suicide” by setting himself ablaze in Electroma.

Fram

e gr

abs

cour

tesy

of

Daf

t Art

s an

d V

ice.

02_08 prod slate:00 production slate 12/27/07 12:44 PM Page 20

American Cinematographer at anauction and scoured them for usefultechniques. Meanwhile, Homem-Christofound he felt more comfortable in thebackground, where he could pay moreattention to the framing and acting: “Weworked very much in the same way wedo when we’re working on our music.Thomas is always in front of the speak-ers, tweaking the notes, and I’m alwaysin the studio, trying to get a morecomplete view of what we’re hearing. Itwas the same on the movie; Thomaswas always very close to the cameraand the subject, and I was alwaysbehind him. It was the same close expe-rience we’ve had all these years makingmusic. The only real difference was thatwe had a lot of other people [with us] onthe set, whereas in the studio, it’s justthe two of us.”

Electroma was shot in 11 daysover a two-month period. Bangalter and

Homem-Christo were taken with whatthey call “the crazy California land-scapes” and scouted for exteriors inBarstow, Independence and Mexicali.All interior scenes were shot onstage atHollywood Center Studios. Carrying theirmusic-video crew over to Electroma wasan essential move. “There were peopleworking with us who had an under-standing of both my determination andlack of experience,” says Bangalter. “Ithink it’s good to be practiced andeducated, but if you’re still learning therules, you tend to break them more.”

After carefully testing every filmstock available at the time (2005),Bangalter decided to shoot the entirepicture on Kodak Vision 250D 5246.Although he found this strategy a bitlimiting at the time, he says it alsoprovided him with consistent color andgrain structure across day, night, interiorand exterior scenes. When the time

came to start filming, he outfitted an Arri435 primarily with zoom lenses (a Canon17-35mm, a Minolta 28-70mm and anAngenieux 25-250mm) to facilitatefaster shooting. A set of Zeiss primeswas kept on standby, and these wereused for several shots. (The camerapackage was supplied by Otto Nemenz.)

The first scene of the movie —and the first that was shot — reflectsone of Bangalter’s key influences. Therobot heroes are driving along an emptyCalifornia highway as the camera trackswith them, zooming in and out, panningacross the desert landscape, tilting up tothe sky and down to the road. Thesequence calls to mind the memorablehighway scenes Kovacs crafted for EasyRider. “I admire a lot of cinematogra-phers who worked in the ’70s,” Bangal-ter notes, adding ASC members VilmosZsigmond and Gordon Willis to his list ofinfluences. “A lot of films that came outbetween 1968 and 1984 are filled withgreat images and bold styles. Electromais an homage to how cinematographyhas touched us in all the films we’veever seen.”

In discussing their approach toElectroma, Bangalter and Homem-Christo speak frequently of experimen-tation and risk-taking. Their tacticsinvolved adapting the camera to theenvironment at all times and doing all ofthe effects — and as much of the imagemanipulation as possible — in-camera.

The first example of this strategyis a sequence they refer to as “TheWhite Room,” shot in a set comprising a30'-long black corridor terminating in anoperating room surrounded by a three-sided white cyclorama. In the scene, therobots transform into human beings.Gaffer Simon Thirlaway lit everythingfrom above using a single large chicken-coop rig behind thick, white diffusion.According to Bangalter, this created aflat, even look that didn’t require anyrelighting during the full day of shootingon the set. Bangalter also deliberatelyoverexposed every shot in the sequenceto eliminate depth and detail.

By creating an extremelycontrasty, almost monochromaticimage, the filmmakers were able to

Right: Duringtheir journey tobecome human,the robots make

their way down ablack hallway to

an all-whiteoperating room,

where theyundergo a

surgicaltransformation.

CinematographerThomas

Bangalter says,“Our goal with

the White Roomwas to create a

kind ofRorschach-

inkblot effect thatwould induce the

viewer to be intouch with the

symbolic natureof the scene.”

Below:Reflections were

a challengethroughout the

shoot. Most of thetime, Bangalter

and key grip JoshLinkey were able

to solve theproblem by

positioning thecamera in “dead

spots” in therobots’ helmets

and using a blackor white sheet for

camouflage;when hiding the

camera wasimpossible,

visual-effectsartists at Method

Studios painted it out.

22 February 2008

02_08 prod slate:00 production slate 12/27/07 12:44 PM Page 22

devise clever optical illusions, includingshots in which shapes and bodiesappear out of nowhere and float acrossthe room. To achieve this effect, Bangal-ter pushed the limits of the negative,overexposing by 2 stops in the lab andthen putting the film through a quickdigital grade at FotoKem in Burbankwith colorist Mato Der Avanessian.“The stimuli are in the contrast,” notesBangalter. “We wanted each scene totake you through the emotionallydistinct phases of the story. Our goal

with the White Room was to create akind of Rorschach-inkblot effect thatwould induce the viewer to be in touchwith the symbolic nature of the scene.”

For a sequence later in the film,Bangalter and Homem-Christo sought tocreate images with just two colors, blueand black. In the scene, which was shotday-for-night, the main characters arechased out of town and walk along rail-road tracks that cut across a vast desert.The filmmakers accomplished the lookwith nothing more than a regular Tiffen

day-for-night filter and an ND.9, withBangalter skirting the toe of the nega-tive. He decided against using any kindof key light, lest the details spoil theeffect. “You have the dark-blue sky andthe silhouettes of the robots, which hadto be black so as not to give off anyreflections,” he says. “We had to take itto the extreme, where it’s so dark itstarts to be believable.”

Reflections were a persistenthurdle for much of the shoot. With theexception of one sequence, the maincharacters sport masks that function likecurved, polished mirrors. “We had to bevery tricky about it — the masksreflected everything around them,” saysBangalter.

Most of the time, Bangalter andkey grip Josh Linkey were able to posi-tion the camera in “dead spots” in therobots’ helmets and use a black or whitesheet for camouflage. When hiding thecamera was impossible, visual-effectsartists at Method Studios in SantaMonica painted it out.

www.denz-deniz.com · Tel: +49 89 - 62 98 66 0 · Fax: +49 89 - 62 98 66 20

THE BEST COLOR VIDEO ASSIST

For all fi lm camera types on the globe6.5MHz resolutionDigital image processing and storageDigital frame maskingPAL or NTSCGround glass format adaption 16-35 mm by special zoom lens

VCSC Digital 2000

EXAMPLE:ARRI 35BL I - IV S

For all format options –PLEASE SPEAK WITH US!

WE ACCEPT

Amid thedesolate

expanse of aplaya, one of the

robots studiesthe debris of his

destroyedcompanion.

“The lake bedreflected a lot of

light; it wasreally brightthere,” says

Bangalter. “Weended up having

to use an ND.9and an ND.6 to

bring theexposure downat least 5 stops.

Most of it wasshot at T42⁄3 inplain daylight

without pushingor pulling the

film.”

24

02_08 prod slate:00 production slate 12/27/07 12:44 PM Page 24

One particularly thorny sequenceshows the robots traversing a wide,barren playa; the production had to parkits vehicles and staging areas far awayfrom the actual location. “Being in thedry lake bed was like being in a 360-degree cyclorama,” Bangalter says,adding that this was one reason movielights were rarely used. “That’s why wewere exposing for the environment —for their heads, really.” Bangalter stackedmultiple ND filters in front of the lens toachieve proper exposure while keepingdepth of field as shallow as possible.“The lake bed reflected a lot of light; itwas really bright there. We ended uphaving to use an ND.9 and an ND.6 tobring the exposure down at least 5 stops.Most of it was shot at T42⁄3 in plaindaylight without pushing or pulling thefilm.”

The final shot of Electroma showsa robot on fire walking in slow motionacross the playa at night. The filmmakerschose to encapsulate the action in asingle, lingering setup. The resultant

image lasts four minutes onscreen, butit was captured in about 50 secondswith the camera running at 150 fps.Even at such high speeds, the infernowas so powerful that Bangalter had tostop down to T11. “That shot took a lotof testing to get right,” he says. “Therewere times when what we were tryingto accomplish wasn’t explained specifi-cally in our reference material, so weneeded to do a lot of experimentationbeforehand. We could have used digitaleffects, but the result is much more

satisfying and magical when you do itchemically.”

“Electroma is really slow andmeditative, more like a painting than anactual movie, but shooting it was actu-ally quite the opposite of what you seeon the screen,” notes Homem-Christo.“We worked a lot and slept a little. Deci-sions were being made in the moment,so things sometimes got really hectic.Fortunately, the crew seemed to enjoyworking with us. We learned a lot, andit made for a fantastic experience.” !

25

After using hishelmet’s glassvisor to focus the sun and set himself onfire, the remaining robotwalks across the playa.

02_08 prod slate:00 production slate 12/27/07 12:44 PM Page 25