From the President

Canadian Cinematographer December 2013 Vol. 5, No. 7

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Joan Hutton csc

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From The

PRE SIDENT

Joan Hutton csc

Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity is a must-see for any cinematographer. The space drama is significant, not only for its ground-breaking high-tech production innovations, but also for the new territory into which the film’s DP, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki ASC, AMC has pushed cinematography and the role of the cinematographer.

Gravity is a hybrid of live action – roughly 30 per cent of the film, with CG comprising the remaining 70 per cent. The conundrum for these filmmakers was to integrate these two disciplines into one seamless movie, all in 3D, that looked and felt like the real deal for the audience. The key for Lubezki lay in the melding of the lighting between the live set and the virtual world of CG.

Lubezki ‘s fingerprints are all over Gravity, starting in previsualization, where he and Cuarón produced an animated movie to act as a template of sorts, while they figured out how to shoot the film. For the live action, Lubezki conceived and constructed a light box, approximately 3 by 7 meters in size, with inward facing LED panels. The cube contained over 1,800,000 lights that could be programmed individually with background scenes from the previs, which worked in concert with an ARRI ALEXA’s weightlessness. The actor was essentially stationary, and as the lighting changed, the camera angle changed around them to simulate movement. A very complicated but ingenious set.

Bulky 3D rigs were not an option because of the confines of the light box, and it was decided that post-convergence was a more practical route. Once the live action was converted into stereo, the 3D image was sent to CG where it became another element in a virtual environment rendered in 3D, with the previs acting as a benchmark. Postproduction is somewhat of a moot point for Gravity since the live action, 3D convergence and CG took place as a continuous and simultaneous workflow. On top of this it was an open edit, meaning that files would move back and forth between the production stages to accommodate creative changes by Cuarón. Sound complicated? Well, it was, but the live action and CG matched to create a final product that is simply astonishing. The use of 3D in Gravity has no semblance of gimmickry. 3D is such an integral part of the movie that it almost becomes a third character, cinematically defining and heightening the sheer terror of infinite space.

The boundaries between cinematography and VFX are becoming increasingly blurred as the use of virtual environments become more common in high-tech productions. However, a movie such as Gravity, with a strong CG element, still needs a person with an eye and the technical dexterity to frame and light each shot for a seamless integration. As Lubezki’s work illustrates, who’s better skilled to do this than the cinematographer?